During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Navy and Air Force used the piston-engine Douglas A-1 Skyraider for close air support and rescue escorts. It could carry over 8,000 pounds of ordnance and stay over battlefields for hours; 266 Skyraiders were lost in combat.
Developed in the 1940s as a carrier-based attack aircraft for the Navy, the Skyraider left U.S. service in 1973. Foreign forces continued flying it into the 1980s, and surviving planes are preserved by museums and private owners; several still fly at airshows.
