DANNY'S DUO

Air Classics, Jun 2005 by O'Leary, Michael

WHAT'S BETTER THAN OWNING A DOUGLAS SKYRAIDER? HOW ABOUT OWNING TWO!

With the Algerian War raging, the government of France needed a strong and dependable attack aircraft. Looking to America, the French government purchased 100 AD-4 and AD-4N variants of the Douglas Skyraider plus a large quantity of spare parts. The Skyraiders would serve the French well.

One of the machines was AD-4N BuNo 126935 (the N was a night attack variant and carried two radar operators in the fuselage behind the pilot) which had been serving with the Fourth Marine Aircraft Wing at New Orleans, Louisiana, before being pulled out of service for transfer to France. The aircraft arrived at Bordeaux on 11 January 1961 and was transferred to the SFERMA factory where it was given the permanent airframe number of 56. The plane was assigned to EC.3/20 and went to Algeria where it was used against rebel forces. At this time, the plane carried the fuselage code 20.FM.

With the end of the Algerian War of Independence, the plane went into storage at Oran on 19 March 1962. In early 1964, it was made airworthy and operated as a reserve aircraft with GC.3/20 at Oran from February to April 1964. At that point, the Skyraider, along with others, was sent back to France.

Once in France, the plane was overhauled and then assigned to EAA.2/21 at Ivato, Madagascar - another French colony - where it operated until 23 March 1970. The plane was then returned to storage until 22 October 1970 when it went back into service to fight rebels in Chad. The plane flew with EAA. 1/21 at Fort Lamy until 10 May 1974. At this point, it was back to France for storage. On 7 April 1976, this Skyraider was given to the air force of Chad. The AD-4N had accumulated a total of 1295 flying hours.

After its service in Chad, this Skyraider and four others were purchased by a group of French Warbird enthusiasts who traveled to Chad, made the planes airworthy, and then flew them back to France. Unfortunately, the fifth aircraft flew into a sand storm and crashed, killing the pilot and mechanic. Two of the planes were put up for sale and delivered by ship to Long Beach, California, in 1989. At that time Pacific Fighters was based at Chino and John Muzsala recalls, "We went to the port to supervise off-loading and then we had the problem of where to put the aircraft while we worked on them. The planes were towed to Long Beach Airport and we met the owner of a helicopter service based at the field. During the Vietnam War, he had flown Army helos and been shot down twice. Both times he had been protected by Skyraiders until he was rescued. He gave us complete use of his facilities. The planes were in pretty good condition except for being very dirty from being parked in the desert." After a few days of work, the Skyraiders were ready to be A flown to Chino. "I got brother Bill his letter in the Skyraider and we made the flight with no problem."

At that time, former Marine Corps fighter pilot Don Hanna was looking for a Texan but the Muszala brothers turned his attention to the availability of obtaining an AD-4N (Don purchased BuNo 126959/N2088V this aircraft eventually went to Dr. Mike Schloss and is featured in Air Classics May 2004). Richard Bertea, also a former USMC fighter pilot, was a friend of Don's and was already a Warbird owner with a Vought F4U5N Corsair which was maintained by Pacific Fighters. Bertea's wife, Hyla, was looking to get an unusual birthday present for Dick and after meeting with Don and the Muszalas, Bertea became recipient of what was surely a very unique birthday gift!

The two friends visited many airshows with their Skyraiders and both machines were extremely reliable aircraft. Nothing stays the same in aviation and in 1999 Dick put the plane up for sale. He found a ready buyer in Danny Summers of Rexburg, Idaho. At that time Danny already had his award-winning Grumman TBM3E Avenger (see Warbirds International January/February 2005 for the complete history of this combat veteran). "I had always liked the Skyraider and when a chance came to get the AD-4N I grabbed at it," said Danny. Dick flew the plane to Idaho and gave Danny a thorough check out. "I just love that plane - it can out-turn and outclimb a Mustang. It has superb handling qualities. It is a completely different beast than the Avenger and can turn on a dime although the Avenger is a bit easier to handle. Also, the R-3350 is touchier to start than the R-2600 on the TBM."

ENTER THE FAT FACE

The huge Douglas A-IE Skyraider seems to be the epitome of the design big, rugged and capable of fulfilling the mission for which it was designed By 1948, the Skyraider was firmly established within the US Navy when Douglas proposed a new and advanced version - the AD-5. The craft was to be powered by a turbo-compound version of the mighty R-3350 but, at this time, the Navy felt the design life of the Skyraider was coming to an end (little did they know) and did not want to enter production with the new design. However, in December 1948, Douglas advanced a new AD-5 which was fitted with a nonturbo-compound R-3350-26W and offered as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform which would combine the formerly separate "hunter/killer" aircraft into a single machine that had sideby-side seating for the crew.