The Viggie. What a machine. This may be the best-looking jet ever to launch off the boat. North American Aviation was rolling out some legends in the late 50s and 60s, and the A-5 was one of them. The XB-70 and X-15 were produced by NAA during this time as well.
A-5 material is as rare as it gets in our experience; more than F-117, SR-71, or even B-58. To our knowledge, the only Vigilantes out there are on display at museums. These panels are the third “piece” of Vigilante we’ve ever come across; the others were a cockpit and an ejection seat.
NAA began developing a supersonic bomber in 1954 (to replace the failed Super Savage) prior to any formal DOD request. The Navy saw the value in this jet as well, and a contract for its production was awarded in 1956. The Navy began operating the type in 1961 - then known as the A3J. After the unification of aircraft designations by the USAF and USN in 1962, the aircraft became known as the A-5. Although originally designed to be a supersonic carrier-based bomber, due to changes in US nuclear strategy, many of the built aircraft were converted to reconnaissance-attack aircraft (the RA-5C) and an additional 69 were newly built as RA-5Cs. Like the B-58, the Viggie had a relatively short lifespan and was retired in 1979, but not before seeing extensive service in Vietnam. A total of 167 A-5/RA-5Cs were built.
Our RA-5C tags were cut from side/belly panels near the tail of the jet. These panels were one of many radical items sourced during our last trip out West a few weeks ago. The exterior skin of the panels was aluminum and the interior a hi-temp alloy, due to their proximity to the engines. These tags are offered in 6 variants - we elected to cut them to our attack shape to pay homage to this aircraft’s original design and mission set, and because the RA-5C is one of the few converted reconnaissance ships that retained its weapons system, which could have been used in its reconnaissance configuration.
The variants: White, Grey, Silver (inner skin), Hi-temp (inner skin), NAVY (cut from the NAVY stencil on the side of the aircraft), and Hi-temp White. A detailed description of each variant is covered in a video posted to our Facebook page. Most of these tags are White, and we used the same etching technique on the Hi-temp and Hi-temp White tags as we did our most recent F-117 and F-100 titanium tags, which resulted in a slick purple/blue etch on a gold background. The jewels of the bunch are the Hi-Temp White, which may be the best-looking thing we’ve produced this year; they’re also the most limited with <20 available. The Hi-temp White are also double layer thick and easily the heaviest of all the variants. The NAVY and Grey tags are also very limited.
There are also 3 combos/sets available:
- Viggie Combo: Includes a NAVY tag and a Hi-temp tag.
- Solids Set: Includes a Grey, White, Silver, and a Hi-temp tag.
- Full Set: Includes 1 of each tag.
These tags come on a stunner of a card by BVR. The original artwork for this card is available for sale in the JET SHOP.
Despite this being a 500 tag run, we expect a lot of movement on these tomorrow with multiple variants selling out. ONLY 1 HI-TEMP WHITE PER CUSTOMER.