Look at the A-5 Closely as compared to the Mig-25

[Daryl Hunt]

The A-5 is from the 50s and was revolutionary to say the least. It's one of my favorites. It was fast, had an extreme range, could operate off a carrier and had a very long life span. I remember seeing my first A-5C which was operating as a Recon Bird. Nothing could touch it.



If you look at the basic design, you will see the same shape as the Mig-25 would have later on. And the F-15 would also use the same wing layout.

 

[westwall]

The A-5 is from the 50s and was revolutionary to say the least. It's one of my favorites. It was fast, had an extreme range, could operate off a carrier and had a very long life span. I remember seeing my first A-5C which was operating as a Recon Bird. Nothing could touch it.



If you look at the basic design, you will see the same shape as the Mig-25 would have later on. And the F-15 would also use the same wing layout.

They were definitely a great aircraft. Far better as a recon bird than attack, but she was beautiful, and FAST!

 

[Daryl Hunt]

The A-5 is from the 50s and was revolutionary to say the least. It's one of my favorites. It was fast, had an extreme range, could operate off a carrier and had a very long life span. I remember seeing my first A-5C which was operating as a Recon Bird. Nothing could touch it.



If you look at the basic design, you will see the same shape as the Mig-25 would have later on. And the F-15 would also use the same wing layout.

They were definitely a great aircraft. Far better as a recon bird than attack, but she was beautiful, and FAST!

It was never designed as an conventional Attack Bird. It lacked the hardpoints. It just had two and that was for external fuel tanks. It's payload was orginaly meant for an internal nuke to crap it out the rear at mach speeds at high altitude. It was never used or even practiced in that role. It was actually better at that role than even the B-58 or at least as good and far cheaper to operate. They did find a use for it though when the push for the ICMBs and Sub based Nukes went so heavy and that was to replace the nukes and internal fuel tanks with electronics and use it as the RA-5C. Then instead of allowing to do the 40K flights, they took it down onto the decks where it was vulnerable just like every other bird. At 40 and 50K and Mach 2, there really wasn't anything that could touch it in Vietnam. But at 10K, it had to slow down to prevent overheating and it became suseptable to AA, Mig-21s and SAMs. But with the F-15 and the Mig-31 flying on, the ghost of the A-5C still haunts the skies.

 

[Borillar]

I remember that our Airwing had a RA-5C embarked with us on our 1976-77 Med Cruise on the USS America. They also used a RF-8U Crusader for recon.

 

[Daryl Hunt]

I remember that our Airwing had a RA-5C embarked with us on our 1976-77 Med Cruise on the USS America. They also used a RF-8U Crusader for recon.

Its funny. The best of today's recon birds all go back to the middle and early 50s. The U-2 under a different name and the WB-57. Both are still used. The WB is a converted RB-57B model and there are 4 of them.