I flew the first Navy acceptance flights of that blue Angels A-4. On the first flight, I snap-rolled to level flight at 5,000 feet at 500 knots and the engine abruptly flamed out. In over 4,000 hours in combat and training, I had never had an A-4 flame out; the J-65 and J-52 were both extremely reliable.
After rolling upright with the engine windmilling, I rapidly (too rapidly) went through three relight attempts unsuccessfully. I was fortunate to be overhead the little airfield in a flameout approach and probably could have landed successfully, despite the NATOPS prohibition, when the engine caught and I had power again. The Douglas engineers redesigned the main fuel tank fuel pipe to eliminate air bubble entrapment, and all was well thereafter.
The Blues’ A-4 was a fast, sleek and maneuverable bird— perfect air show plane.
TC
My father built A-4s at the Douglas plant in Long Beach. He had a bumper sticker in the 70s that read “A-4s Forever.”