Ed Rasimus wrote:

As I understand it, when jet aircraft were flown from aircraft
carriers, procedures and equipment used with piston aircraft proved
inadequate, and the United States adopted a set of devices developed
by the British, including the angled deck, the optical glide path,
and the angle of attack indicator. By the time the Douglas Skyhawk
was built, the angle of attack (AOA) indicator was used with a head
up display.

I think you'll find AOA information available in some format or other
all the way back to the early '50s in USAF aircraft.

The A-4 had no HUD, at least not until the Marines' A-4M version.
There was an Indexer on the glareshield, though.