Issues

The  RA-5C was generally considered a successful airplane, but did have some design features that makes its operation sometimes problematic.

• The aircraft took up a lot of deck space and was difficult to maneuver on deck.  For example, the nose wheel was well behind the pilot's cockpit and was difficult to judge exactly where it was with respect to the deck edge, a critical observation!  Often, the taxi director would bring the nose wheel right up t o the deck edge, which resulted in the pilot being suspended over the ocean.

•  The addition of the recce gear and additional fuel resulted in an increase in gross weight of roughly 10,000 pounds, but the landing gear was not upgraded.  Thus, hard landings, particularly aboard ship, could lead to major damage to the aircraft:  

The aircraft used an advanced control system:

• • •  instead of ailerons, spoiler/ deflector pairs were used to roll the aircraft.

    • All moving tail surfaces

    • Blown leading edge droops in addition to conventional flaps

    •  Electric flight controls

The advanced flight control system worked well at speed: good control authority around all three axes, no adverse yaw, etc..  It was less responsive in the approach phase, leading to a relatively high bolter and missed approach rate.