VINTAGE FLYING MACHINES
FLYING MUSEUM
AD-5W Skyraider
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VFM’s Skyraider rolled off the Douglas production line in El Segundo, California, in 1955, and was officially accepted by the U.S. Navy on June 30 of that year. As an AD-5W, it served as an airborne early warning platform, featuring a large, ventral radome housing a rotating search radar—essentially the precursor to today’s Grumman E-2 Hawkeye in function, though not in sophistication.
The Navy struck the Skyraider from the register on June 17, 1971, and transferred it the
next day to the newly formed U.S. Marine Corps Aviation Museum at MCAS Quantico.
This Skyraider was the last Skyraider in US Navy service. Lacking a direct connection to
Marine Corps service, the museum later passed the aircraft to legendary warbird
collector Doug Champlin in 1974. Champlin registered it as N62466, and over the
following years, the aircraft passed through several private owners.
Initially displayed in its NAS Pensacola scheme, the Skyraider has since been repainted
in U.S. Marine Corps markings, which it wears to this day.
In 1962, the military’s unified aircraft designation system redesignated the AD-5W as the EA-1E. By 1964, this particular Skyraider was serving with VAW-11 aboard the USS Kearsarge, likely still equipped with its radar system. By 1969, however, the aircraft had been modified—the radar suite removed—and reassigned to the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute at NAS Pensacola. While assigned to Pensacola it was used for airsickness tests on aviation candidates.