The A-7 is a straightforward, shoulder-wing aircraft with swept flight surfaces, provision for inflight refueling, and narrow-track tricycle landing gear.
The A-7 is armed with a single M61A1 Vulcan 20-mm cannon, routinely carries two AIM-7L Sidewinder missiles on forward fuselage hardpoints, and can handle up to 15,000 ob of air-to-surface missiles, bombs, cluster bombs, rockets, or gun pods on six underwing ordnance stations.
The A-7D was adopted by the USAF in the late 1960s, its first A-7D flying on 26 September 1968. Late in the Southeast Asian conflict, the A-7D went into combat in October 1972. Four hundred and fifty-nine A-7Ds were delivered, powered by a 14,250-lb thrust Allison TF41-A-1 turbofan engine based upon the Roll-Royce Spey.
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