The North American A-5 Vigilante was a carrier-borne strategic bomber of the Cold War. It was in service with the US Navy between 1961 and 1979, flying missions over Vietnam for a few years. However, during its 19-year-long career, it flew more sorties as a long-range reconnaissance aircraft than as a bomber. It had originally been designated A3J Vigilante. Later, the Department of Defense would change its name.
The bomber prototype YA3J-1 first flew on August 31, 1958. It was flown by North American Aviation's test pilot Dick Wenzel. It was powered by two General Electric YJ79-GE-2 turbojet engines. The roll out of the aircraft had taken place on May 16, 1958. After more than three years of flight tests and trials on carrier, the aircraft finally entered into service with the US Navy on June 25, 1961, as the A3J-1, which would be redesignated A-5A in 1962. This was the first version of the bomber. Nevertheless, it would perform the role of a reconnaissance aircraft, as the RA-5C, during most of its career.
During the Vietnam War, A-5 Vigilante reconnaissance planes took off from American aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin on intelligence-gathering missions to locate with pin-point precision the most heavily guarded areas of North Vietnam. The information they collected was stored in a memory bank aboard the carriers. This information was very useful during combat missions carried out by ground-ground aircraft. These missions were so important to the US Navy that they were usually escorted by McDonnell F-4 Phantom II fighters.
As a long-range aircraft, the North American A-5 Vigilante carried plenty of internal fuel, flying in afterburner acceleration speed throughout a mission usually at Mach 1.1 or 1.3. The first four operational A3J-1 aircraft were assigned to Squadron VAH-3. However, the first squadron to be equipped with the RA-5C version was the RVAH-5, which was exclusively created to operate these reconnaissance planes. During the war in Southeast Asia, eighteen aircraft were lost to enemy SAMs as they flew over North Vietnam. The RA-5C first flew on June 30, 1962; it was equipped with a Side-Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR) and a photographic equipment.
Below, the first version of the bomber, the A-5A (A3J-1). You can see it had a flat belly, in comparison with the reconnaissance variant, which had a ventral canoe that protruded from it.
Technical Description
The North American A-5 Vigilante was a two-seat, twin-engine, supersonic monoplane. It was designed for either carrier-based or land-based operations. The fuselage of the aircraft was of conventional semi-monocoque, all-mental construction. The main materials used were aluminum and steel, as well as some titanium for the engine bay. The aircraft had swept wing, which was mounted on shoulder of fuselage. The wing skins were aluminum-lithium alloy, which was stronger than conventional aluminum alloys. The tail assembly horizontal stabilizers were movable and acted as elevators. The A-5B version of aircraft was powered by two General Electric J79-GE-8 turbojet engines, which generated 16,500 pounds of thrust.
The bomber had a two-seat cockpit, in which the pilot and the systems operator sat in tandem. The flight controls and direction and altitude indicators were located in front of the pilot, while the navigation and bombing indicators were installed in the systems operator's panel, right behind the pilot's seat. The cockpit was pressurized, with two-independent oxygen supply installed. The aircraft was fitted with a fully retractable, tricycle landing gear, which was electrically-controlled and hydraulically-actuated. To land on flight deck, the plane had an arrestor hook.
Specifications
Type: strategic nuclear bomber
Length: 23.32 m (76 feet, 6 inches)
Wing Span: 16.15 m (53 feet)
Wing Area: 70 m2 (754 square feet)
Height: 5.91 m (19 feet, 5 inches)
Power Plant: two General Electric J79-GE-8 turbojet engines.
Maximum Speed: Mach 2.1 (2,230 km/h or 1,356 mph) at 12,000 m (39,370 feet)
Range: 4,800 km (2,983 miles)
Armament: capacity for 3,600 kg of bomb-load; two hardpoints for two conventional Mk-84 bombs; one B28 free-fall nuclear bomb.
Crew: two
Below, the A-5B flying over the western part of the United States in the mid 1960s.
A color picture of the Vigilante in flight in the 1970s.
Below, the A-5 Vigilante on the flight deck of USS Independence (CVA-62).
This picture shows the bomb-load capacity of the aircraft.
