Hobby Master Archive

The first 4 of 48 Skyhawks arrived in Israel by ship on December 19, 1967 and were assigned to the 109th Valley Squadron. These aircraft didn’t have the electronics dorsal spine hump. On January 1, 1968 the first flight of the IDF A-4H Ayit (eagle) took place using A-4H BuNo. 155244 #03. This was followed by the first A-4H operational sortie on February 15, 1968. From March 1969 to August 1970 Israel was part of the “War of Attrition” with Egypt and occasionally other neighboring countries. On May 15, 1970 while flying #03 A-4H Col. Dotan (Mr. Skyhawk) destroyed two Syrian Mig-17’s over Lebanon using Zuni rockets and 20 mm cannons. On October 18, 1973 #03 was shot down by an Egyptian SAM and the pilot, Jacob Kubik was successfully recovered. Eventually Israel would be the largest export customer for the Skyhawk with 278 of several variants.