Douglas A4D-1 (A-4A) Skyhawk armed with torpedoes

[Pioneer]

G'day gents

I've just been surfing the net looking for the gutted A4D-1 (A-4A) Skyhawk which was used by the USN for recruiting purposes, when I came across this picture of a Douglas A4D-1 (A-4A) BuNo 137818, which looks like its dropping an air-to-surface launched lightweight torpedo! Can anyone shed more light on this? Is it a torpedo? Did the USN conduct trials of the Skyhawk conducting ASW support missions? Does anyone have any more pictures of these trials or Skyhawks armed with torpedoes??

Regards
Pioneer

 

[Jemiba]

Two more photos found on http://a4skyhawk.org/, one of them qute probably taken seconds after yours.
(http://a4skyhawk.org/content/buno-137818-china-lake-torpedo-1 and http://a4skyhawk.org/content/137820-naval-aircraft-torpedo-unit-naval-aviation-news-140)

 

[Tailspin Turtle]

I'm pretty sure that this was not development and qualification of the Skyhawk's ability to drop torpedoes but development and qualification of high-speed/altitude carry and drop of the torpedo itself. The A4D-1s were not in great demand after the subsequent variants became available but were useful for test scenarios like this. (Note that 137818 was the seventh A4D-1 produced and a Douglas flight test article so it was probably not suited to even a training role.)

A torpedo attack on a surface ship would have been inadvisable relative to the use of other weapons (because of the speed of the torpedo relative to the ship, a successful attack requires the simultaneous drop of a spread of torpedoes so the ship can't avoid them all). I vaguely remember discussion about the use of the A4D as a pouncer in an ASW application (some ASW carriers deployed with a detachment of Sidewinder-armed A-4s for fighter cover) but the torpedo is not listed as an ordnance option on early A4D SACs.

 

[Pioneer]

Thank you very much for your prompt reply + pics gents!!

Regards
Pioneer

 

[kcran567]

Good pics