The takepoff roll with a full bomb load + fuel was long, that little engine did not have much thrust.
You can see from the discoloration around the 20mm muzzle (wing root) that his cannons got a lot of use.
We had one Marine Scooter drop napalm in front of us so low that the burst of flame enveloped his whole plane. When he emerged from the fireball, he had flames in the little bits of vacuum behind his wings and stab. He pulled up, did a little snap roll and all of us cheered like we were attending the world's best airshow.
A buddy of mine, LtCol VanEs flew his Scooter in direct support of the attacks on Hue City's Citadel in '68. That's his Skyhawk in all those famous photos. Took unbelievable precision and courage to fly that low to get the hits in that critical objective.
Brazil has a carrier flying A4’s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_aircraft_carrier_S%C3%A3o_Paulo_(A12)
Fist time I watched an A-4 do a run while approaching from the air in a helo, it scared the shiite out of me how low he pulled out. Thought for sure he had target fixation and was going in.
Do recall and F-4 pilot telling us how much easier they were to line up for a bomb run. Said the A-4 tended to move all over while the F-4 sat there in the groove.
The takepoff roll with a full bomb load + fuel was long, that little engine did not have much thrust.
You can see from the discoloration around the 20mm muzzle (wing root) that his cannons got a lot of use.