"If I could have stick time in any U.S. military aircraft, the one I'd want the stick time in is the A-4 Skyhawk."
And what a sensitive stick it is, in both roll and pitch. The max roll rate was 720 degrees per second. That is right, one complete aileron roll in half a second. You could make your own head spin.
I'm not a big guy and both of my shoulder nearly touched the canopy rail in the A-4.
Two highlights of my life were getting to meet Ed Heinemann, which was like being in the presence of a god to me, and getting to plant my butt in the seat of an A-4 on display in a museum. I don't know why I should have been, but I was amazed at how cramped the cockpit was. "Cramped" may be the wrong word, because that implies "uncomfortable." Better to say that, in sitting in one, the A-4 struck me more as a machine you strap on and wear, rather than something you 'go for a ride in'.
