Take a Seat in the Cockpit on a Skywarrior Flight to the Pacific Northwest
The Douglas A3D/A-3 Skywarrior served with the United States Navy from 1952 to 1991. During the Whale’s time the aircraft was used in the attack, photo reconnaissance, electronic reconnaissance, electronic attack, training, tanking, VIP transport, and several combined roles. The jet was the largest and heaviest ever regularly operated from American aircraft carriers (including the Essex-class). After being withdrawn from service with the Navy, Hughes/Raytheon utilized several Skywarriors as testbeds for the company’s various radars, missile systems, and other electronics. This video, uploaded to YouTube by iusedtogomach, was shot during a flight aboard NRA-3B Skywarrior BuNo 144825, registered as N878RS to Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island on 29 April 2011. Turn up the sound!
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A Jet With a History
The jet in the video, BuNo 144825, was built by Douglas as an A3D-2P photo reconnaissance variant and accepted by the Navy in December 1958. The designation of 825 was changed to RA-3B when the Tri-Service designation changes occurred on 18 September 1962. 825 served with the Naval Air Test Center (NATC) at NAS Patuxent River before being assigned to the Naval Missile Center (NMC)/Pacific Missile Test Center (PMTC) at NAS Point Mugu where the jet continued to be utilized as a testbed- often with the side number 75. For many years (until 1990) the jet wore an outsized radar housing for a nose, earning the unlikely sobriquet of “Snoopy.” After being stricken from Naval Service, Hughes/Raytheon began flying her in similar test roles out of Van Nuys (KVNY) in California. This video of 825 arriving at NAS Whidbey after the flight shot in the video above was uploaded to YouTube by Be44321.
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The Whidbey Whale
While flying with Raytheon/Hughes the jet first wore civil registration number N578HA. The aircraft spent more time at Point Mugu while in service with Raytheon/Hughes. As of 1992 the civil registration was changed to N878RS and the jet began wearing side number 78. 825 wore the N878RS registration until June 2000, when the jet’s airworthiness certificate indicated a revised registration number of NX878RS. The jet made the flight to Whidbey in the videos above wearing N878RS/side number 78 markings. Today, thanks to thousands of volunteer man-hours, the jet is on outdoor display at NAS Whidbey Island wearing VAH-123 “Pros” colors on her port side and VAH-10 “Vikings” colors on her starboard side with the same side number (263).
