Comments

There is no doubt that all of the airplanes selected in this list, for one reason or another, were worthy of being included. For twenty years in the Navy, I flew in the A-6 Intruder and, to this day, I don't understand why its unique and ground-breaking capabilities are not often recognized. It became operational in the early '60s and incorporated the most leading-edge technologies of its time. Originally designated the A-6A, it got even better and more effective with later models such as the A-6E TRAM. Recognition of it has probably been hampered by its looks. With its bulbous nose, wide body (needed to accommodate side-by-seating by its crew (pilot and bombardier-navigator) and non-afterburning engines, it was not seen to be glamorous. Yet, it performed missions unheard of by any aircraft before or since (with perhaps the exception of night-vision equipped pilots of some modern aircraft). Before its retirement in 1996, the A-6 was never approved for foreign-military sales. I think there is a reason for this: it was too good. From the beginning of its operational status, the Navy understood that this airplane was designed to fly at the extremely low altitudes needed to evade enemy air search and surface-to-air-missile/AAA radars and the training was designed to teach this skill. Tactics for flying this airplane, with its unique capabilities, were honed in the early years of the Vietnam conflict. By the time that I arrived in combat over North Vietnam in 1972, many lessons had been learned, and first-timers, like myself, had many seasoned veterans as mentors. Over North Vietnam at night, until the very end of the air war, fundamentally, in December of 1972, when B-52s were finally ordered to strike Hanoi and Haiphong, the only U.S. military aircraft striking targets deep within North Vietnam at night were A-6s. The Air Force's F-111, with a similar mission, was introduced late in the war, but its pilots and weapons officers were still learning and they suffered early losses impacting the ground learning how to fly the new system. A typical night mission for the A-6 was begun crossing the beach at 500 feet. If pressed by a SAM or AAA-site, descent to 200 feet was not uncommon. I defy any airplane in the world, now and going back to the Wright brothers, to have done this, night after night, hundreds of times. True, we had our losses. As one of my mentors once said, "We kill our weak ones." But our successful missions, flying at these altitudes, outnumbered our losses by huge margins. Plus, the A-6 had many other workhorse attributes. Great fuel capacity versus consumption. Speed at sea-level approaching the speed of sound. Product of the Grumman "Ironworks." The A-6 absorbed damage and lived to return. During my Vietnam deployment, one of our airplanes got a little bit too low near Haiphong and flew through the tops of trees on a karst ridge and, with a single hydraulic failure and big gouges out of its engine intakes and the equivalent of a tree stuffed into its wing, recovered back aboard. The A-6 and its crews served this country for 36 years, or so, in a way that no other aircraft did. It deserves mention.