Image:A4 lands on melbourne.jpg

A Royal Australian Navy Douglas A-4G Skyhawk lands on the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (R21) in 1980. This Skyhawk was originally delivered to the U.S. Navy as A-4F BuNo 155063. It served in Vietnam on the USS Ranger (CVA-61) with attack squadron VA-155 Silver Foxes from 26 October 1968 to 17 May 1969 (Attack Carrier Air Wing Two (CVW-2)/NE-416), and on the USS Hancock (CVA-19) with VA-212 Rampant Raiders from 02 August 1969 to 15 April 1970 (CVW-21/NP-4XX).
155063 was then delivered to the Royal Australian Navy in August 1971 as A-4G N13-155063, No. 876. It was unloaded from HMAS Sydney onto RAN lighter AWL 304 at Jervis Bay on 11 August 1971, then transported by road to the RAN base Nowra. It served with RAN fighter squadron VF-805 starting on 13 May 1974. "876" was deployed on board HMAS Melbourne for the "Spithead Deployment" from 28 April to 04 October 1977. There, it took part in exercise "Highwood" from 5 to 20 July 1977 in the North Sea. Other exercises included "Tasmanex '79", "Kangaroo 3", and "Sandgroper '80" (25 August - 5 September 1980) off the Western Austrailian coast. "876" was withdrawn from RAN service on 30 June 1983 and stored for sale.
In July 1984 it was delivered to the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) as NZ6217, designated A-4K. It received the "Kahu"-upgrade and was retired by the RNZAF in 2001/2002. [1]

self-made

1980

Nick Thorne

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