September 1, 1958
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
The final proposals from Grumman, McDonnell and Vought sat on the desk of Sir Philip McBride, KCMG. They were all solid, well thought out offers for three very different aircraft. It would take some time and a great deal of technical knowledge to select the best option of the three remaining fighters. While he would give the proposals their due consideration, the real nuts and bolts considerations would be done by professionals within his Ministry.
On the top of the stack was the proposal from Grumman. They were offering a modified version of their F11F Tiger. In the proposal, they had dubbed the aircraft the F11F-2. It would differ from the baseline F11F-1 in having an extended fuselage, wing root fillets, an AN/APS-67 radar to give the aircraft a limited all weather capability and a J79-GE-3 engine. Additionally, they proposed to equip the aircraft with a Boundary Layer Control system to enable it to operate off the Melbourne. The aircraft would be capable of carrying up to four AAM-N-7 Sidewinder I infrared homing missiles. There would also be four underwing hardpoints from which bombs and unguided rockets or drop tanks could be hung. The aircraft would be capable of flying at mach 2.04 which made it, by far, the slowest of the three proposed aircraft. It was also the shortest ranged of the three, with only a 250nm combat radius with four sidewinders and full internal fuel. With two 150 US gallon drop tanks and two sidewinders, it was capable of extending it's combat radius to 420nm. Though it did have a combat range of 784nm with four sidewinders or 1,146nm with two sidewinders and two drop tanks. The Super Tiger was however the cheapest of the three proposals with an estimated cost of $925,000 USD each for a production run of 140 aircraft. The cost per flight hour was also the lowest of any of the proposals at just $1,179 US dollars per flight hour including maintenance costs.
The next proposal was from McDonnell for their F4H fighter bomber. Of the three aircraft, it promised to carry the heaviest warload. It was designed to carry up to eight air-to-air missiles, four AAM-N-6 Sparrow III semi-active radar homing missiles and four AAM-N-7 Sidewinder infrared homing missiles. The fighter also promised to be as capable a bomber as it was a fighter, being able to carry over 6,000 pounds of bombs on strike missions. With its twin J79-GE-8 engines, McDonnell believed that the F4H-1 would be capable of speeds up to mach 2.23. The design also promised the lowest pilot workload of the three designs with the F4H having a second crewman to operate the fighter's weapons systems and radar, leaving the pilot free to fly and fight the plane. The addition of the second crewman promised to make the design the most "future proof" of the three designs.
On internal fuel and with eight air-to-air missiles, it was projected to have a 404nm combat radius and a combat range of 1,122nm. With the addition of a 600 US gallon external fuel tank it was projected to have a combat radius of 495nm and a combat range of 1,301nm. If only four Sparrow III missiles were carried, the combat radius was extended to 410nm on internal fuel and 756nm if a 600 US gallon drop tank was carried along with two wing mounted 370 US gallon drop tanks. In that configuration, the combat range was increased to 1,803nm. Unlike the F11F proposal from Grumman, the F4H would not be able to operate from the deck of Melbourne under any conditions and would require the purchase of a new aircraft carrier for the Royal Australian Navy. When combined with the proposed purchase price and operating cost of the aircraft and the cost for a replacement aircraft carrier, the proposed aircraft from McDonnell was by far the most expensive. With a purchase price of $1,743,000 US dollars each for a production run of 140 aircraft it was far and away the most costly proposal. It also had the highest cost per flight hour at $1,347 US dollars per flight hour, including maintenance costs. Compared to the F11F, the F4H would cost the government some $114 million US dollars more to purchase and some $8 million US dollars more per year to operate based on 350 flying hours per year, per aircraft.
The final aircraft that was proposed was the Vought F8U-3E Crusader III, referred to as the Super Crusader by the US Navy and Vought. In terms of performance, the Crusader III was head and shoulders above the other two offered aircraft. With a demonstrated top speed of mach 2.39 and a promised top speed of mach 2.6 once a new windscreen was fitted replacing the acrylic one, it was easily the fastest of the three fighters. In terms of maneuverability, it showed it's heritage as being the "last of the gunfighters." In their fly off in California, the United States Navy was finding out that the Crusader III could fly literal rings around the F4H. It also boasted a combat radius of 539nm on internal fuel while armed with three AAM-N-6 Sparrow III missiles and four AAM-N-7 Sidewinder I missiles. If armed with only the three Sparrow missiles, that was increased to 562nm. It also laid claim to a combat range of 1,652 and 1,755nm respectively. With the addition of two wing mounted 327 US gallon drop tanks, the Crusader III's already impressive range climbed to 645nm with a full load of seven air-to-air missiles. With only the Sparrows carried, it would increase to 674nm. With the drop tanks carried, the Crusader laid claim to a combat range of 1,982nm while carrying seven air-to-air missiles. If only the three Sparrow missiles were carried, that would increase to 2,106nm. That was enough range to escort a strike all the way to Jakarta from Broom and almost halfway back, which would drastically decrease the need for air-to-air refueling assets.
In the ground attack role, the Vought design would include a semisubmerged hardpoint between the main landing gear that would be capable of carrying a 2,000 bomb along with two underwing hardpoints also capable of carrying a 2,000 pound bomb each or up to four 500 pound bombs on a custom ejector rack. The F4H was the more capable attack aircraft by several hundred pounds and was able to carry a large variety of ordinance as the fuselage hardpoint on the Crusader III would only be able to carry a single bomb. But for any expected engagement, the Crusader and F4H would be very evenly matched.
In the negative side of the column was the drastically higher pilot workload when compared the the Super Tiger and the F4H. Being responsible to both fly and fight the aircraft and monitor the radar and maintain lock on to the targeted aircraft there were serious concerns raised about the ability of the pilot to maintain situational awareness and conduct a successful intercept of enemy bombers and fighters. Like the F4H-1, the Crusader III would also be totally unable to operate from the Melbourne, once again necessitating the acquisition of a new carrier to enable the FAA to operate the new fighter. And this was despite the aircraft's significantly lower operating weight and the presence of a boundary layer control system compared to the F4H.
In the end, the decision would likely come down to a combination of price and performance, with a greater emphasis placed on cost. And it was here that the Crusader III shone. With a purchase price of only $1,447,000 US dollars, the hot new fighter from Vought was some twenty-seven percent cheaper than the competing design from McDonnell. Purchasing the Crusader III would save the government over $41 million US dollars. Conversely, an additional twenty-eight aircraft could be purchased for the same price as 140 F4Hs. Operating costs too were lower, with the Crusader III costing only $1,223 US dollars per flight hour including maintenance costs. That worked out to a savings of roughly $6 million US dollars a year for 140 aircraft flying 350 hours each every year when compared to the F4H. Compared to the F11F, it was only about $50 US dollars more per hour and worked out to an extra $2 million US dollars a year. Finding an extra two million dollars a year was much easier than finding an extra eight million in the opinion of Sir Phillip.
From a pure cost standpoint, Sir Phillip far preferred the F11F-2 Super Tiger over the other two options. But when balanced against the significantly higher capabilities of the Crusader III and F4H, he knew the decision would come down to one of those aircraft barring Parliament balking at purchasing a new carrier. Writing down his thoughts on all three aircraft in a memo for the Air Force and Fleet Air Arm to review, he placed the proposals in his outbox and moved on to the next item on his agenda.
