Vought F-8 Crusader

TBH I think it was a bit more complicated than what I wrote. Vought developped a 2-seat Crusader for the Navy but very late in Crusader production history (1957 -1964 : in 1963). The Navy was not sure it wanted two seat Crusaders and waited too long - until its budget got a massive cut by Congress for FY64, and now the USN had no money left for a TF-8A order.
 
Archibald said:
The Navy was not sure it wanted two seat Crusaders and waited too long - until its budget got a massive cut by Congress for FY64, and now the USN had no money left for a TF-8A order.
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The USN should've had a two-seater (AKA the Twosader) right from the beginning.
 
Yeah that's weird. I wanted to say that most naval jets had 2-seat variants early in their development cycle, but in fact that might be wrong. TF9 Panther, yes, but not sure about others. D'oh, I realize that while USAF always got two-seat, -B and -D variants of their combat jets, the USN reasoning is different except perhaps the F-18.
 
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yahya said:
Interesting. The F-4 and A-4 were the carrier-based workhorses throughout the Vietnam War. I wonder if the F-8 (not RF-8) retained such a capability till the last hours of that conflict. Anybody knows?
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It did, that said by the time of Rolling Thunder there were far fewer Essex class carriers operating. So, more sorties for the F-4/A-6 off of the big decks while some of the Essex got A-7's. The Oriskany was the last Essex and operated F-8's and A-7's when it retired in '76.

FWIW there is a story during Rolling Thunder that a Mig-17 driver ejected at the sight of an F-8 merging with him, and some debate as to whether the Crusader driver should have been credited with a kill.
 
Interesting. Do you happen to know the exact version of the Crusader that scared the Fresco driver and forced him to eject? Just wondering whether it was an upgraded variant, or the older one.
 
yahya said:
Interesting. Do you happen to know the exact version of the Crusader that scared the Fresco driver and forced him to eject? Just wondering whether it was an upgraded variant, or the older one.
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The last two Essex carriers still around for Rolling Thunder were Hancock and Oriskany. Both were flying J model Crusaders.
 
The J variant was a pretty nice upgrade in terms of avionics compared to the early ones. The series was reportedly fitted with the ASA-63A Sidewinder Expanded Acquisition Mode (SEAM) rig for launching AIM-9C (radar) missiles. I wonder if that was indeed their real feat in Nam.

Anyway, the upgraded avionics suite could explain the advantage even over the more maneuverable Fresco.
 
yahya said:
The series was reportedly fitted with the ASA-63A Sidewinder Expanded Acquisition Mode (SEAM) rig for launching AIM-9C (radar) missiles.
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Is there anywhere on this board that goes into great technical detail about how the SEAM box worked?
 
Anybody know which early F8U was used as the barrier shot aircraft at the Naval Air Engineering Laboratory, on Mustin Field, part of the Philadelphia Naval Yard?

Could it be XF8U-1 138901 - cancelled but produced and became an engineless static test airframe
 

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[email protected] said:
Anybody know which early F8U was used as the barrier shot aircraft at the Naval Air Engineering Laboratory, on Mustin Field, part of the Philadelphia Naval Yard?

Could it be XF8U-1 138901 - cancelled but produced and became an engineless static test airframe
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I hope that that XF-8A airframe ended up in a museum.
 

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