Osprey's examination of the A-1 Skyraider Units' participation in the Vietnam War (1955-1975). Designed and built as a carrier-based attack aircraft in 1944, the A-1 reached frontline units too late to see combat in World War II (1939-1945). With the advent of jets in the late 1940s, the Skyraider was seen as a dated throwback to the golden age of piston-engined naval aviation. Despite its days seemingly numbered, the A-1 proved to be a huge success in the Korean War. Remaining in production through to 1957, some 3,180 Skyraiders had been built by the time the last one left the Douglas...

The Douglas AD Skyraider is considered the most effective naval aircraft of the Korean War, overshadowed in fame by the new jet fighters that captured the public imagination. Too late for combat in World War II, the AD had replaced Dauntless, Helldiver, and Avenger dive- and torpedo-bombers from that conflict on carrier decks during the late 1940s and was on hand to react to the surprise North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950.

This book tells the story of the carrier-based U.S. Navy squadrons and the three land-based U.S. Marine Corps AD units that flew combat missions...