A-3 Skywarrior in Action

Two major (actors combined to bring about the development of the A-3 Sky-warrior. The first was the advent of the jet engine and the second was the technology of nuclear weapons. With the development of the Atomic bomb and its tremendous destructive power, it was oln i ous to the military that nuclear weapons were here lo stay. The Army Air Force had the Boeing B-29 Superfortress to deliver a nuclear pay load from land bases, and the U.S. Navy also warned the capability to deliver such a load from its carrier based force. With the service introduction of the P2V-3C Neptune, the Navy acquired the capability they had sought, but with one severe limitation. The Lockheed Neplune could take off from a carrier deck with the help of JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off). This was demonstrated during March of 1949. The problem was that such a mission would be a one-way trip from the carrier, since the Neplune lacked the capability of landing back aboard and had lo reach a land base. The P2V-3C did; however, provide a temporary answer to the nuclear delivery needs of the Nav \ In February of 1951, the North American AJ-I Savage was introduced to the licet and became the first operational nuclear carrier based bomber. It was fully carrier qualified and could launch and recover from the decks o! the carriers on a round-trip basis. The Savage was. al lhal time, the largest aircraft lo he operalionally assigned to the earners and was quite a handful for the deck crews to manage. The AJ-I was a prop-jel combination powered In two Pratt & Whitney 2. ICM) hp K-2800-48 radial engines and two 4.600 Ibsl Allison I-33A-I0 tur­bojet engines, giving it a top speed of 450 mph. For the Navy's nuclear needs, the AJ-I superseded the P2V-3C: however. the Navy wanted an all-jet allack bomber and the higher operational speeds tint a could provide.

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