Cavanaugh Flight Museum has announced that their A-1H Skyraider 39606 has returned to the air after six years of work, which saw the installation of a newly rebuilt Anderson Aeromotive engine.
This particularly historical Skyraider was originally built in 1955 and flown in the U.S. Navy off of the USS Ranger, Oriskany, and Intrepid. It was delivered to the South Vietnam Air Force in 1970 and then transferred to Thailand. It was one of the last Skyraiders to be flown out of Vietnam by Roger Youngblood in 1975 with the fall of Saigon. Our Skyraider was returned to the USA in 1980 and restored to flight by Fighter Rebuilders in Chino, CA in 1989. It’s also one a few A-1Hs left in existence and now painted in its original scheme as Wiley Coyote, flown by Dan Wiley. Lots of hard work and long hours by our staff mechanics Duane Oester and Jonathan Christof got this Skyraider in top shape for test flights.
The museum states that the plan is to take both of their Skyraiders (the second being AD-5W B/N 135152) to airshows across the country for display on the ground and in the air. The museum’s Addison, Texas facility closed in 2024 after 31 years. All aircraft, educational displays and memorabilia were moved to the North Texas Regional Airport. This location is currently not open to the public.
Click below to check out recently released photos and video of the Skyraider in action.
(via Cavanaugh Flight Museum Additional Information via cavflight.org Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
