"Right now we have 14 A-3 airframes on bail from the Navy. My latest list from AMARC shows about 31 A-3 airframes of various types still in storage. Indeed, they are still pretty much intact; we have occasionally been in contact with AMARC regarding spares for our fleet. We will be cutting the number of A-3s back soon, by either striking (scrapping) or by transferring airframes to museums, etc."

"We presently have 6 active flyers, and the rest are stored at Van Nuys, Mojave, and Tucson. We normally fly out of Van Nuys, but sometimes operational requirements compel us to fly out of Pt. Mugu, Mojave, or Tucson. One example of this would be if we have an early morning or late night mission, we sometimes will stage to Mojave so we aren't blasting everyone in Van Nuys awake at 0300 in the morning. We anticipate operating A-3s for another 7 to 10 years, depending on how the spare parts hold out."

Another correspondent kindly helped with this information:

"All civil-registered A-3s (which means all flying ones) are flown from Van Nuys, CA by Raytheon Flight Test Operations. Some do make visits to Mugu, about 50 miles west, during test programs. Raytheon's A-3 force travels widely - I saw one at Holloman AFB, NM, a few years ago, and I have seen photos of another on approach to Nellis AFB."

142256 has history, stacks of it! She was built as a YA3D-2P (the first RA-3B to be constructed) and served with the Pacific fleet, then the PMTC at Point Magu. She was then bailed to the Douglas Aircraft Company, then Westinghouse, then Hughes, then to Raytheon who currently own her. She is the most tested Whale and if you look carefully you can see that her fuselage has been modified to carry what might be some sort of sideways looking array radar (my speculation). She is now based at Van Nuys, being stripped for parts.