Crusader chronicles

Flight Journal, Jun 2002 by Tegler, Jan

Some wild rides while flying "The Gun fighter"

In the 1960s, Navy fighter pilots were divided into one of two distinct camps: Crusader drivers and Phantom fliers. The aircraft were contemporaries that had been designed in the early 1950s. The F-8 Crusader was Chance Vought's answer to the Navy's requirement for a supersonic air superiority fighter. The F-4 Phantom evolved as a long-range, high-altitude interceptor. Different philosophies of design and purpose governed the development of each aircraft, but it was clear by the end of the 1950s that these two weapons were competing to become the carrier-- borne fighter of choice for the U.S. Navy and the Marines. Ultimately, the Phantom was chosen by the Navy and Marines (it was also adopted by the USAF) and went on to enjoy an illustrious, nearly 40-year-long career. Most Crusaders were withdrawn from active units by the mid1970s (reserve units flew them until the late 1980s).

Official opinion seemed to favor the F-4, but unofficial debates in officers' clubs and ready rooms raged for many years. Both communities had adherents, of course, and they still do. Crusader pilots had good reason to make a strong case for their aircraft ....

* It had a gun. The F-8 was also known as "The Gunfighter." In an era when the prevailing philosophy of both Navy and Air Force brass seemed to be "The dogfight is dead. Why risk an aircraft in ACM [air combat maneuvering]? Modern engagements will be fought with missiles.", the F-8 sported a 20mm cannon. The F-4 had no gin. Even before hostilities began in Vietnam, it was clear that reports of the death of close-in dogfighting were premature. The Crusader drivers had the right equipment for the job, and they knew it. A poster soon appeared with the question, "The Gunfighter-last of a breed?"

* The way it flew. Ask any F-8 pilot to rate the flying qualities of his aircraft, and you'll hear generally glowing comments. "The flight characteristics were wonderful; very light on the controls, no buffet or noise to amount to anything, and the visibility was terrific," said many Crusader pilots. It was a giant leap in performance over the Navy jets that preceded it. At the same time, it was widely acknowledged that the Crusader was not an airplane for novices. It could be difficult to land ashore or bring aboard ship, and if pushed too hard, it could depart with nasty spin characteristics. Overall, it was an honest airplane, however, and F-8 pilots would pit it against anything in the air. Even more persuasive is the consensus of opinion of pilots who flew both the Crusader and the Phantom. An informal pilots' survey gives the edge to the F-8. "It was a pilot's airplane," commented many.

* Have you heard? The F-8 was a record setter. In 1956, it became the first American aircraft to exceed 1,00(inph. In 1957, a well-known Marine major named John Glenn set a coast-to-coast speed record, flooring an F-8 from Los Alamitos, California, to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes at an average speed of 725.55niph.

The F-8 influenced the course of world events. In 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, RF-8As of VPF-62 and VMCJ-2 overflew Cuba and brought back conclusive evidence of Russian missile emplacements.

The F-8 was a superior killer. It posted the highest kill ratio of any fighter during the war in Vietnam, earning it another nickname: "The MiG Master." The F-8 was still flying from aircraft carriers as recently as fall 1999. The French Navy formally retired its last F-8E(FN) in December 1999.

As the 21st century dawns, the sun has finally set ou the Crusader. But even in the early 1960s, another widely seen poster perfectly captured the sentiments of the "Gunfighter" community; it read: "When you're out of F-8s, you're out of fighters." Here are a couple of stories from pilots who flew and fought in the Crusader and survived.

Backfiring! August 1966, "Whiskey" Range area, off the North/South Carolina coast

"Hey, Beaver! You're either in backwards, or you're screwed up!"

The words rang in 1st

Lt. Bob Beavis's ears as he sailed by a fellow Marine Crusader driver. His brain processed the piece of information he'd just been given, but it didn't quite register-- perhaps because his brain was busy interpreting so many other pieces of information at that moment. Something was definitely not right. He could see the other pilot's face-- and his airplane-clearly. There it is; there it goes. Odd, however, that it should be retreating away from him tail-first. Normally, when an airplane went by you in the opposite direction, the nose was the first thing you saw, followed milliseconds later by the tail. Not this time, though. Strange; the thought occurred to "Beaver" that the other guy must be going in the wrong direction. This was followed immediately by another thought, "Or maybe I'm the one heading the wrong way!

"I was flying an F-8D in the summer of 1966 with 'Trip Trey' (VMF-333), making a gunnery run on another one of our airplanes that was towing a banner. I had about thirty to thirty-five hours in the airplane by then. It was late morning, and I was sitting up on a high perch at maybe thirty-seven thousand feet. My turn in the sequence came up, and I put my nose down and started my run. I came in fast and a little acute, almost ninety degrees to the towplane. I was bending my nose around toward the banner, really winding the airplane up. The F-8 is a long tube, so the coupling is kind of funny. It's also got a big elevator that could really take a bite of air. It reacted to G in strange ways sometimes, especially when you really loaded it up.