{"id":9875734,"date":"2026-08-06T08:02:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T06:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=9875734"},"modified":"2026-08-06T08:03:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T06:03:00","slug":"douglas-a2d-skyshark-turboprop-attack-aircraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/douglas-a2d-skyshark-turboprop-attack-aircraft\/","title":{"rendered":"The Skyshark: Doomed by Its Own Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<p>On paper, it should have worked. Take the superb Douglas Skyraider, replace its thundering piston engine with a modern turboprop of more than 5,000 horsepower, and the U.S. Navy would have a carrier attack aircraft faster and harder-hitting than anything afloat. Instead it produced the Douglas A2D Skyshark: a machine undone by the one component it could not do without.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Skyshark looked like a Skyraider and shared its ancestry, but it was a wholly new aeroplane &mdash; and it never worked properly. The reason was almost entirely its engine.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 24px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px;color:#333\">Quick Facts<\/p><table style=\"width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px\"><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Aircraft<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#333\">Douglas A2D Skyshark<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Role<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#333\">Carrier-based turboprop attack aircraft<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Engine<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#333\">Allison XT40 (two coupled T38s), ~5,100 shp, contra-rotating props<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>First flight<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#333\">May 26, 1950 (test pilot George Jansen)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Built<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#333\">12 (only 8 ever flew)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Cancelled<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#333\">August 1954<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A turboprop bet<\/h2>\r\n<p>In the late 1940s, early jet engines were thirsty and slow to respond &mdash; awkward traits for an aircraft that has to be waved off and go around over a pitching carrier deck. A faction inside the Navy believed the answer was the turboprop: a gas turbine turning a propeller, combining jet-age power with propeller-driven control at low speed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;There was a pretty good-sized group of people who thought turboprop power would be the only answer for carrier aviation, that jets would never do it.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Hal Andrews<\/strong> &mdash; aeronautical engineer, U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Douglas answered with the A2D. Its Allison XT40 engine was really two Allison T38 turboprops geared together to drive a pair of contra-rotating propellers, promising some 5,100 shaft horsepower. Not everyone was convinced. When a Navy officer inspected the mock-up in 1947, he was blunt.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The Navy isn&rsquo;t going to use a big monster like that as a fighter, and it probably isn&rsquo;t much good for attack, either.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Rear Adm. A. B. &ldquo;Abie&rdquo; Metzger<\/strong> &mdash; Bureau of Aeronautics desk officer for the A2D<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1338054946  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:IExE.cae5\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/douglas-a2d-skyshark-front-contra-rotating-props.jpg\" alt=\"The A2D Skyshark and its contra-rotating propellers\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The heart of the problem: the Allison XT40 drove contra-rotating propellers through a single complex gearbox. Photo: U.S. Naval Aviation Museum \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The gearbox that killed<\/h2>\r\n<p>George Jansen took the first XA2D-1 aloft on May 26, 1950 at Edwards Air Force Base. Violent vibration forced him back onto the lakebed after just two minutes. Flight testing resumed, but was plagued by gearbox failures, bearing failures, overheating and throttle problems &mdash; nearly all traceable to that coupled engine and its gearbox.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Nna97bnSvqo\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>The danger became lethal on December 19, 1950. When one of the engine&rsquo;s two power sections failed in flight, it did not disconnect from the gearbox; the surviving section wasted much of its power dragging the dead one, and the propellers would not feather. The aircraft sank uncontrollably, and Navy test pilot Lieutenant Commander Hugh Wood was killed in the crash. Later gearbox failures forced other pilots, including Jansen, to bail out.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=215202642  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:WhQE.cae6\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/douglas-a2d-skyshark-preserved-museum.jpg\" alt=\"A preserved A2D Skyshark\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">One of the handful of surviving Skysharks, preserved at the San Diego Air &amp; Space Museum annex. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Overtaken by the jet<\/h2>\r\n<p>The Navy had once been ambitious enough to order 331 Skysharks. But the engine never became reliable, the aircraft was large and heavy, the small escort carriers it was meant for were being retired, and &mdash; decisively &mdash; the jet had arrived. Douglas&rsquo;s own designer Ed Heinemann was already championing a small, simple jet attack aircraft: the A4D, later the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/a-4-skyhawk\/\">A-4 Skyhawk<\/a>, which first flew in June 1954 and served for decades.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PDdfjyfEuBc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>The Navy terminated the Skyshark in August 1954. Just twelve were built and only eight ever flew. And yet the programme was not entirely wasted: the troublesome XT40 was the ancestor of the reliable Allison turboprops that later powered the C-130 Hercules, the P-3 Orion and the E-2 Hawkeye. The engine that ruined the Skyshark went on, in refined form, to become one of the great success stories of military aviation. The Skyshark itself simply had the misfortune to fly it first.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/afs3SgcQGuI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p style=\"font-style:italic;color:#777;font-size:14px\">Sources: Defense Media Network (Robert F. Dorr), Naval History and Heritage Command, GlobalSecurity, Wikipedia.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/vultee-xp-54-swoose-goose-pusher-fighter\/\">The Swoose Goose: America&rsquo;s Backwards Fighter<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/curtiss-xp-55-ascender-pusher-canard-fighter\/\">Curtiss Built a Fighter That Flew Tail-First<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On paper, it should have worked. Take the superb Douglas Skyraider, replace its thundering piston engine with a modern turboprop of more than 5,000 horsepower, and the U.S. Navy would have a carrier attack aircraft faster and harder-hitting than anything afloat. Instead it produced the Douglas A2D Skyshark: a machine undone by the one component [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":9875492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9875734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Douglas A2D Skyshark: Doomed by Its Own Engine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Douglas A2D Skyshark was a turboprop attack aircraft undone by its troubled Allison XT40 engine and gearbox.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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