Warbird Information Exchange

The Skyhawk will be is scheduled to be on display at Udvar-Hazey on Oct 27.

It will be there specifically for the Skyhawk Association and Marine Aviation Association Annual meeting. But since it is at the museum it will be open to the public.

Rick, question here - the Israeli air force has a number of A-4s for sale. Of course you could never buy one and ship it directly to the US as the aircraft were a part of a "lend-lease" deal. my question is this - if someone living in say, South Africa or Europe bought a plane or two then sat on the plane for a a year or two - could they sell the plane to someone in the US legally? It seems like at some point the "title" has to become clear - or am I just dreaming?

Pointlessly wondering,

Tom P.

Didn't a number of ex-Israeli A-4s come back to the US recently for use by a commercial organisation?

I thought these guys out at Willie flew ex-Israeli A-4s:

http://www.atsifightertraining.com/

Thanks Randy, those are the ones I was thinking of.

Tom, unfortunately I don't think it matters how long you sit on the aircraft. I believe that a lot of the Israeli A-4s were bought outright from Douglas. They weren't given from US stocks. But,...there were a whole bunch of aircraft loaded on a carrier and rushed over as replacements during one of their wars. DoD would probably use this to get involved in any importation.

The ATSI A-4s required a special release by the State Dept. to reenter the country.

They were able to get the release because they were involved in a deal that was State Dept. sanctioned. It involved fighter lead in training for the United Arab Emirates.

The irony of the whole aircraft importation thing is that it is very difficult to import former American aircraft but it's not so difficult to import foreign aircraft.

!

The Collings Foundation TA-4J Skyhawk is a great looking airplane. I saw it at "Thunder Over Michigan" in early August this year. It flew in a Navy "Legacy" flight with a Corsair.

I was supposed to see it at Wings Over Pittsburgh, but I went on the Saturday and it wasn't there yet... it evidently arrived on Sunday! I was very dissappointed!

(especially since I originally went to the show to see the F-4! )

The A-4 is now at Landmark Aviation at Dulles. It will be included in the Dulles Days festivities on Saturday.