What You Need to Know: The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a Cold War-era jet-powered light attack aircraft renowned for its service with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, as well as multiple foreign militaries.

The A-4 was meant to be small, yet it was required to pack a punch. In the 1950s, in the coldest days of the Cold War, the United States Navy put out calls to its defense-industrial base to design a ...

Leading Douglas aviation engineer Ed Heinemann wanted to take a different approach when designing a replacement for the Navy’s AD1 Skyraider warplanes in 1952. In a bold proposal, he decided to ...