#1742
North American A-5 Vigilante
🇺🇸 United States ·first flew 1958· carrier-capable attack aircraft
%2C_in_July_1960.jpg)
4 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. RA-5C Vigilante RVAH-7 1979: Service Depicted: Dennis James, PH2, US Navy/ Cleve Turner ATC US Navy (ret)· Public domain
- 2. A-5 Vigilante ECN-231: NASA Dryden Flight Research Center· Public domain
- 3. North American A3J-1 Vigilante during trials aboard USS Saratoga (CVA-60), in July 1960: USN· Public domain
- 4. RA-5C Vigilante overhead aerial view: Service Depicted: Navy· Public domain
what is it?
The North American A-5 Vigilante is an American carrier-based supersonic bomber and reconnaissance aircraft designed and built by North American Aviation (NAA) for the United States Navy. Before the 1962 unification of Navy and Air Force designations, it was designated A3J. Development of the A-5 had started in 1954 as a private venture by NAA, who sought to produce a capable supersonic long-distance bomber as a successor to the abortive North American XA2J Super Savage. It was a large and complex aircraft that incorporated several innovative features, such as being the first bomber to feature a digital computer, while its ability to attain speeds of up to Mach 2 while carrying a nuclear strike payload was also relatively ambitious for the era.
How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · retractable tricycle gear · 16.2 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 68 years ago, in 1958.
- Top speed is 16.4× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Faster than sound: up to Mach 1.7 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
- Wingspan of 16.2 m: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 5 African elephants (~6 t each).
- Can fly 1.8× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).
jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1958-08-31
- introduced
- 1961
- retired
- 1979
- status
- retired
- number built
- 158
- role
- carrier-capable attack aircraft
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- makers
- North American Aviation
- engines
- 2× General Electric J79-GE-8 / General Electric J79
- crew
- 2
- length
- 23.3 m
- wingspan
- 16.2 m
- height
- 5.9 m
- max take-off weight
- 28.6 t
- top speed
- 2,128 km/h
- range
- —
- ceiling
- 15,880 m
- wings
- monoplane
- landing gear
- retractable tricycle gear
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q858769, Wikipedia: North American A-5 Vigilante (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.