BOMBER'S NEW MISSION.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

GO SEE IT A retired U.S. Navy A-4C Skyhawk has joined the Oregon Air and Space Museum collection at the Eugene Airport. Museum hours: Noon to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday Address: 90377 Boeing Drive Admission: $5 for adults, less for seniors, children and tours Phone: [phone]

The newest addition to the Oregon Air and Space Museum at the Eugene Airport needs some work, but it will be a labor of love for the aviation enthusiasts who run the museum.

The volunteers on Thursday received a retired U.S. Navy A-4C Skyhawk, delivered from the U.S. Naval History Museum in Pensacola, Fla.

"It's quite an event for us," said museum curator Dave Galbraith, as he watched the wings being lowered by a crane from the tractor-trailer that hauled the plane across the country. "It's a significant airplane."

Museum visitors can see the plane starting today.

The Skyhawk, originally built by Douglas Aircraft Co. of El Segundo, Calif., was a Vietnam War era attack bomber designed to fly off aircraft carriers.

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. John McCain - now Sen. McCain - was piloting a Skyhawk when he was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967.

The A-4's nimble flying ability kept the planes in use by the Navy and Marines well after their manufacture ceased in the mid 1970s.

The planes often were used in air combat training, where their agility allowed them to serve as stand-ins for Soviet MIGs.

The U.S. Navy has loaned the museum the airplane for as "long as we take care of it," said museum president Bill Van Orman.

"Anytime you get a military airplane, it's never given to you; it's a on permanent loan," he said.

It cost the museum $4,000 to have the plane taken apart in Pensacola and $7,000 to have it shipped to Eugene. Volunteers, many of them military veterans, had been eagerly awaiting the plane's arrival.

Oldham Crane Service donated the services of the crane that lifted the plane's fuselage and wings off the trailer.

After being stored outside in Florida for many years, the Skyhawk needs paint and some new parts, Galbraith said.

Volunteers will restore the plane to display condition during the next several months, he said.

The museum would welcome anyone who can paint metal or is handy around a machine shop. "If they are talented or not talented, come out and help us," Galbraith said.

The A-4C joins a museum collection that includes an A-6 Intruder, an F-86 Sabrejet, a MIG -17, replicas of WWI and WWII fighter planes, and ultralight aircraft.

Galbraith's extensive model airplane collection also is on display. He said that gives the museum the "world's largest display of model airplanes in a museum, built by one person."