St Augustine, FL, Green A-4, 1989

[Tartan99]

Hi

Back in September 1989, I remember seeing an all green A-4 with no discernible markings at the Northrop Grumman facility in St Augustine, FL. Despite lots of research, I'm still none the wiser. A very long shot, but can anyone provide any further info please?

TIA

[Hendon Chipmunk]

All green sounds like New Zealand?

Malaysian Skyhawks were prepared at St Augustine, could it be one of those that was not delivered? https://skyhawk.org/article/douglas-a4- ... story#mala

[Nighthawk237]

The first Malaysians went through Upper Heyford in very late '84, if I recall , and I thought they had all been delivered by '86. The colour scheme was not dark green either. That doesn't mean that one couldn't have been delivered very late and been painted differently for a while but at a guess I would say unlikely.

P.

[Hendon Chipmunk]

Yes, I can't think of any operator other than RNZAF that had all green Skyhawks, but if it was green camo or even primer, I was speculating that it could have been one of the 88 bought by Malaysia but NOT delivered (40/88 delivered according to that link I found).

[Tartan99]

Thanks, I'll dig out a photo and try and upload it to see if that helps.

[Tartan99]

Sadly, the photo in question is no longer around, so I can't add it. Thanks to Hendon Chipmunk for the Skyhawk site link, very useful. In terms of the colour scheme of the one that I saw. It was overall olive green with no markings at all. Closer to a New Zealand scheme than Malaysia. It may have been a non-delivered earlier conversion that perhaps didn't go so well, or a GI or test airframe. Not to worry. I'm not sure why this one stuck in my head more than any other unidentified aircraft in the past 40 years!

Thanks again for the really helpful info and your time.

[Hendon Chipmunk]

You're very welcome, I enjoyed finding that Skyhawk site too!

One last candidate for you - As of 29 August 1989, Bu No 149656 was a (very) dark green Navy Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) A-4E:

https://skyhawk.org/sites/default/files ... no-14[url]9647-150600/149656o.jpg[/url]
https://www.airhistory.net/photo/131448/149656

Painting of Navy Fighter Weapons School aircraft was done at St. Augustine and by 1 March 1990, 149656 was retired to the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola, Florida in a different colour scheme:
https://skyhawk.org/article-unit/nfws

[Tartan99]

Hendon Chipmunk, that dark green does look to be the colour from memory. It was definitely Sep 89 and the aircraft was completely unmarked. I can only guess it was likely to be a USMC A-4 from the info you have uncovered.