Douglas RA-3B 144843 United States Army

These are 1/72 scale decals for Douglas RA-3B Skywarrior 144843, operated by the United States Army at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in support of MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile captive carry testing.

The sight of a Navy-designed carrier bomber wearing U.S. Army markings over the New Mexico desert is one of the more extraordinary images in postwar American aviation history. By the time this aircraft entered Army service, the Skywarrior's days as a carrier-based strike platform were long behind it — but its large airframe, long range, and load-carrying capacity made it an ideal platform for the demanding work of missile systems integration and captive carry testing.

Captive carry testing involves flying a missile — or a representative instrumented round — attached to the aircraft without actually launching it, allowing engineers to evaluate the missile's environmental performance, seeker head behavior, electronics, and integration with the launch platform under real flight conditions before committing to live fire trials. For the MIM-104 Patriot — the U.S. Army's advanced long-range surface-to-air missile system developed through the 1970s and destined to become one of the most important air defense weapons of the Cold War and beyond — this kind of rigorous airborne testing was essential to validating the system before operational deployment.

An extraordinarily rare and historically significant subject — a Navy Whale in Army colors, doing some of the most important weapons development work of the late Cold War era. Please allow some time for decal printing and shipping.