1952 Douglas AD-4 Skyraider

Bu No 126965 is an AD-4NA built in 1952. While with the US Navy, it served aboard the USS Kearsarge with VA-115 in 1953 off the coast of Korea. The cease-fire was called before it saw combat action; however, the aircraft of VA-115 conducted DMZ patrols for the duration of the cruise. When it returned stateside it was stationed with FASRON 8 at Alameda before transitioning to FAETULANT in Norfolk, VA from November 1954 until August 1955. She ultimately entered storage at Litchfield Park in August 1957. She was stricken from the Navy list in July 1958, and left storage for France in March 1960. While with the French l’Armee de l’Air, our Skyraider was based at Chateaudun but served in Algeria in 1962, Djibouti in 1968, Madagascar in 1971, and Chad in 1976. It was sent to storage with Sogerma in September 1979 where it remained until 1983. The Musee de l’Air at Le Buurget acquired the aircraft in 1984, and sold it to a private owner in Belgium in 1985. This aircraft was purchased by Heritage Flight Museum in February of 2004 and very arduously flown, towed, cargoed, towed again, and flown again back to Bellingham from Belgium! Because of HFM’s USAF background, and because the Skyraider was used with great success by the Navy and the Air Force, we chose to ‘dress’ our Skyraider in typical USAF colors thus the reason we refer to it by it’s USAF designation of A-1.