Falling in love with the F-8 Crusader...

[Shin_kazama 1]

I disagree, to an extent.

 

Heading for the deck is an easy way to avoid SAMs but you are living on borrowed time the longer you stay there. Low level AAA is ferocius in some area and it WILL shoot you down. Believe me, anything under 2000 ft in certain areas is going to attract a lot of 14.5 and 23mm fire. If you go down there you better climb as quickly as possible after breaking lock.

 

Knowing where and how far away a SAM site is away from you is key for survival. If you know where they are coming from you can actually have quite some time to manuver before they arrive. If you can get them at 12 o clock, dive hard and when they are close, pull up hard and roll the aircraft.

 

SAMs can't make that manuver!

 

 

yeah okay..

 

it works pretty well for me...

 

AAA sites are quite pesky i know.

but get my wing man to pop him out too makes the zoo guns confused.

 

the zoo never gets my wingman, even how dumb he gets on the a2a role.

 

so when my wingie is near and the zoo is on him,

 

i take the oppurtunity to pop him out.

 

then the next zoo..

 

and the next...

 

then head to our air targets climbing towards the sun and bring all hell down on the migs.

 

thats where my wingman goes dumb.

[Shin_kazama 1]

Yeah you can turn and beam the sams, but why, half the fun of a mission is running the gauntlet of AAA and Flak. I find the pop ups and rolling dives are the best when dealing with SAMs. Personally I like to take my crusader (thud, or recon viggie) as low as I can get it. I cruise at med to high alt until I get about 15 mi out from town. I usually just break when the sites around the DMZ take a few pot shots at me, but once I get up to the 20th parallel its balls to the wall and my belly scrapping the dirt all of the way. I pop up to about 5k when I get within range I level off. Then I either dive on the target (with rockets or bombs), or stay level and take my photos, then its back to the reeds till I get back to sea or over Laos. No sam can touch me, no mig can keep up, and I laugh in the face of flak burst.

 

 

nice!!

[Shin_kazama 1]

everything aside..

 

i just love the crud...

 

if only upgraded cruds were in service in the Philippine air force,

i would sign up any day!!!

 

imagine a crud with a raptor engine, and an an/apg-65 radar,

carbon fiber airframe, amraam capability, night capability,

 

it could be the best fighter my poor country could afford.

[ezlead 42]

Google: F-8 Crusader. Then go to Gunfighters site. Then scroll down to crusader photos and click:

you will her sound of F-8 going by in burner with oil cooler door open. You can hear the air molecules screaming in pain.

I am flying F-8 in WOV right now and it's THE GUNFIGHTER!!!

A little trivia for you: If you high "G" rolled an F-8 it would sometimes swap ends on you. You would end up going backwards with the fire coming out the front end. Solution to problem was to shut down and relight or immediately go to burner.

For you engineering types: most aircraft have dihedral(upsweep) of wings .When you bank, nose of aircraft wants to go opposite direction of bank. Hence Rudders are used to bring guns to bear.

F-8 had anhedral(downsweep) of wings. When you would bank,nose of aircraft will go to direction of bank,bringing guns to bear.Hence Great Gunfighter. Also would cause aircraft to swap ends if done to drastically.

[xrearl 27]

I'am OLD enough that the F-8 was STILL flying,when I was a kid.We went to a air show at MCAS El Toro.the flight line was full of F-8. The other type of jets I don't recall.But I think it was a reconnaissance Cougar

[Shin_kazama 1]

Yep too many G's and she jammed up.

if only 2 vulcan cannon was placed there, that would have been fun!

 

sigh, i wish they made a crud with a vulcan in reality.

[Shin_kazama 1]

A little trivia for you: If you high "G" rolled an F-8 it would sometimes swap ends on you. You would end up going backwards with the fire coming out the front end. Solution to problem was to shut down and relight or immediately go to burner.

 

huh?

 

that true?

 

whoa.

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

It was probably political. Around the time that the Hornet would've been a logical buy, the Eurofighter came up. After a couple of years of wrangling, France went its own way with the Rafale. Now, had they known it would be another 20 years before they entered service it's quite likely France might have bought or leased some Hornets, but as they believed at the time it would be more like 10 years they likely decided that upgrading the F-8s would be sufficient.

Luckily for them, they managed to press on until the Rafales came around.

 

It was exactly the case:

The Aéronavale was eager to buy some F-18 to replace the ageing F8, but political circles (and Dassault) decided that the navy was to wait to the Rafale. If the navy had bought some F-18, the Rafale program would have lost one of its goal and might have been cancelled. That was what was feared.

 

Therefore, the "Royale" keeped her F-8 until 2000 and most pilots cried when they had to be scrapped.

[Bulldog 0]

Isn't it something to be killed quickly while flying in roles that actually lessen your chances of exposure to enemy fire?

 

Yup. I'm a bit better at seeing those SAMs now, but the guys who actually flew those missions had in my opinion BIG kahunas.

[Shin_kazama 1]

As the French Aeronavale flew the F8 E (FN) up to the year 2000, and kept a limited number in top condition, we regularly had it in the airshow circuit over here, including the one at RNlAS Valkenburg (before an a....le closed it down and gave away our Orions in the process) a couple of miles down the road from where we live, as well on numerous yearly RNlAF Open Days.

It never failed to impress immensely with its booming J 57, especially when the AB was lighted.....

It was always flown to the limits and it compared VERY well with a number of much more modern jets.

Equiped with modern all-aspect missiles (Matra Magic's) it was a formidable proposition.

An F8 with a P&W F100 engine or even a later J79 would have been a very interesting case.....

We miss it over here and I'm glad to be able to fly it in SFP1 now and then. apart form having two 1:72 models right in front of me !!

 

Aju,

 

Derk

 

pw 100 with thrust vector plus ferrite coating, plus apg 77 radar, amraam compatibility, would be nice.

[Kirsten 0]

Sounds nice enough but there is also something like airframe life !

The chances for upgrading were missed in the seventies and early eighties ......

Aju,

 

Derk

[Rambler 1-1 9]

The Crusader was allways my plane of choice. I like the way you can just haul it around and get out of any situation, which is usually what I have to do after I run into a gaggle of MiG-21F-13s. Those four guns sure come in handy when I'm making my "slash" kills, but why only 144 rounds, eh? At least my F-8E for SFP1 carries 6 'winders. Somebody should make a skin for the F-8 so it looks like the one from "Area 88" (see here

).

[Rambler 1-1 9]

Nevermind, I found the F-8 skin. Is there a campagin for area 88?

sorry for the double post....

[+Gocad 26]

Those four guns sure come in handy when I'm making my "slash" kills, but why only 144 rounds, eh? .

 

It might have something to do with that the WOV F-8 is based on the RL design...

[keith 0]

Beautiful bird...

[Sixgun 0]

Glad to see there are so many F-8 fans out there.

 

Like Metal, I too am a devotee of the Crusader...have bought and devoured anything in print about the plane.

You better believe I was wearing out the joysticks on USNF-97 (man will they ever make a sim like that again? this one's close though).

 

One of my favorite things to do is take a copy of Gator Gillchrist's book Feet Wet (or Crusader!) to the NMNA in P-cola and sit in their F-8 pit reading 'till the place gets busy. Then I go to the Cubi Point O-club.

 

Hey Metal, I got an F-8 instrument panel and 2 stick grips...one NOS with all the buttons and wires, and one a NOS shell.

Been planning on mocking up my own Crusader Pit in the man-cave here.

 

Got a 'sader hook point here on my desk waiting too, going to make it a base for a section of 48th scale Checkmates coming into the break!

[The_Editor 2]

Some great books about the Crusader:

 

Over the Beach: The Air War in Vietnam by Zalin Grant

 

MIG Master: The Story of the F-8 Crusader by Barrett Tillman

 

F-8 Crusader Units of the Vietnam War (Osprey Combat Aircraft) by Peter B. Mersky

 

RF-8 Crusader Units Over Cuba and Vietnam (Osprey Combat Aircraft) by Peter B. Mersky

[SandyC 2]

Page 2 of this thread: Charlielima - love the picture of the Skyray. It made me nearly weep with nostalgia. Thanks for posting it.

[Rambler 1-1 9]

hmm you guys really fell in love with this 60's old timer, huh?

 

yeah seeing an f-8 reminds me of area 88. too bad he was shot down in it( his(shin's) mechanic had noticed a problem with his engines and still let him takeoff)

and he ended up with an f-5, dunno what you guys think of the f-5, but i am not too sure cuz my (philippines') air forces' fronltiners are f-5's

 

I was really bummed out when I discovered that Shin's F-8 was replaced by the F-5. Nothing against it, but it's kinda... I dunno... boring. I think the F-8 looks WAY nicer.

[Shin_kazama 1]

I was really bummed out when I discovered that Shin's F-8 was replaced by the F-5. Nothing against it, but it's kinda... I dunno... boring. I think the F-8 looks WAY nicer.

 

 

to them, i say bakero!

 

 

why?

a dandy f-2 with half as much missile and guns?

 

no deal.

 

i'd go with an F-8.

[+NGHENGO 14]

Well you could model the F-8U-3 Super Crusader that lost to the F-4. It was a political infighting thing in the Navy that caused the F-4 to be chosen mostly the Missle only attitude and the ATG bomber capbility built in this way the Navy made the penny pinchers who hobbled the TFX program happy.

To damn bad the F-4 was picked The F-8U-3 kicked it's ass all over in everything except carrying bombs and having guns.

 

The F-8U-3 Super Crusader

One Pratt & Whitney J75-P-5A/6 turbojet, 16,500 lb.s.t. dry,

29,500 lb.s.t. with afterburning.

 

Maximum speed 1457 mph (Mach 2.21) at 50,000 feet, 800 mph (actually brushed Mach 3 in flight testing)

(Mach 1.05) at sea level. Cruising speed 575 mph. Stalling

speed 154 mph. Initial climb rate 32,500 feet.

 

Combat ceiling 51,500 feet, service ceiling 60,000 feet. Combat

range 645 miles.

 

Maximum range 2044 miles. Maximum fuel 2036 US

gallons.

 

Weights: 21,862 pounds empty, 32,318 pounds combat, 37,856

pounds gross, 38,772 pounds maximum takeoff.

 

Dimensions: wingspan 38 feet 11 inches, length 58 feet 8 inches,

height 16 feet 4 inches, wing area 450 square feet.

 

Projected armament was to have been four 20-mm cannon plus three

air-to-air missiles carried in slots cut into each lower side of

the fuselage and on the fuselage belly just behind the forward

landing gear.

[+NGHENGO 14]

Sorry my little son Claudio is around........

 

BTW the XF-8U Crusadeer III was the real fleet air superiority fighter.......in dogfight too!!!

 

It was capable of terrific performances....and the few (5?) that saw real service spent their life engaging the navy Phantoms in Dissimilar Air Combat Training......The ever coming out winner!!!!!!

 

Unfortunately he met the first multirole figher on his road....the Phantom.

 

Maybe in future.........

[Kirsten 0]

For the REAL F8 lovers, try this: www.pozefilm.de/classicjet.html

Click on "Crusader" and you see a fantastic two ship demo by French Navy F8's at an International Air Tattoo at Fairford UK, the last Crusaders on this earth being flown with characteristic bravado and showing the performance of this Golden Oldie .............

 

Enjoy,

 

Derk

[Rambler 1-1 9]

Sorry my little son Claudio is around........

 

BTW the XF-8U Crusadeer III was the real fleet air superiority fighter.......in dogfight too!!!

 

It was capable of terrific performances....and the few (5?) that saw real service spent their life engaging the navy Phantoms in Dissimilar Air Combat Training......The ever coming out winner!!!!!!

 

Unfortunately he met the first multirole figher on his road....the Phantom.

 

Maybe in future.........

 

the XF-8U looks like a great plane, but....

 

 

...isn't it kinda ugly?

 

(*braces for impact*)

[+Dave 2,322]

For the REAL F8 lovers, try this: www.pozefilm.de/classicjet.html

Click on "Crusader" and you see a fantastic two ship demo by French Navy F8's at an International Air Tattoo at Fairford UK, the last Crusaders on this earth being flown with characteristic bravado and showing the performance of this Golden Oldie .............

 

Enjoy,

 

Derk

 

That is a good find Derk thanks....