Always admired the look of these fighters. When I was in US Navy I worked F-4's and all the F-8's onboard were photo birds by then. Always felt sorry for the poor guy that had to lay on his back under the engine to attach launch cables/gear to catapult.
Lived across the street from NAS Alameda from 1960-1966 and saw Crusaders landing all the time. They would fly over our house and land on the runway. How I miss those days!!!!
It's not just you. I always thought it looked sharkish when I was younger, especially with the mouth and teeth they paint on some of them. It's fitting for a naval fighter to make you think of a shark.
Well this is very old footage. FN Crusaders have been retired from service back in 1999 and have been replaced by Rafales M. I had the opportunity to see 2 of them making a flight demo at French air force base open day (probably circa 1995-96), and it was the most convincing display of the day! The mirages (F1, 2000) were beautiful, but the Cruz were just amazingly agressive!
Long time after your reaction, I fine the video of this great moment you talked about : m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oO4bxeMXASE.html Enjoy !!
WOW, great "ACTION" that vid was. A flyby, approach on final, and taxi to a space on the ramp! It's taking a while to come down from the adrenaline surging through me. Thanks for such a quality "action" post!
I'd bet the kitchen sink that if we'd been flying F8-U3's in Viet Nam instead of F-4s, there would've been zero shot down by any Mig. I'd like to know the name of the moron in the Pentagon who picked a sled over a Ferrarri. Cost people's lives.
@@lindamcentaffer5969 3 F-8s were shot down in dogfights. The F-8 was definitely the superior dogfighter, but the guns were actual garbage. Those Colts would jam under anything more than 2 Gs. Had we equipped the F-8 with M39s, then it probably would've had more gun kills. Also, the Super Crusader had issues with compressor stalls.
This reminds me of the early days that I was a plane captain with VFP 63 and brought in my birds, RF8 As into the fuel pits ( to refuel )at NAS Miramar, circa 1963
It's "F-8E(FN)." Or it was when they bought the planes decades ago. The French redesignated them "F-8P" ("P" for "prolongé") towards the end when they did a minimal upgrade instead of procuring F-18s until Rafale came on line. Long before that, the F-8s used by the Philippine Air Force were already designated as "F-8P." F-8s forever.
@@oltyret There many things that are diff. One is easy to see and that is the nose landing gear. The F-8 crusader has only one wheel and the sister plane the A-7 has 2 wheels on the front landing gear,
@@johnstreet7656 I saw a blue shirt almost get eaten by an A-7. he was taking the tow bar off of one of ours spotted on the fantail, getting ready for launch, and he started to stand up right in front of the intake. luckily one of our chiefs was standing nearby and grabbed him and pulled him to one side. he would have been a goner if it wasn't for the chief.
True, but that aircraft in the video is unsafe for carrier operations. The nose strut needs servicing badly. Hard carrier landing and the nose gear could collapse.
Kung inareglo lang yung mga P-51 Mustang, Hanapyun ng mga air racers. Every year Air Races in Reno, Nevada attracts a lot of civilian flyers. THe favorite plane is still the Mustang. Flying models runs about $2-3 Million. We had 50-60 of those in the 50's.
As much as I appreciate the video... NO music please!!! It is nice but should be left for a short intro only. I came to this video because I wanted to hear real Crusader sounds.
When my Ford Focus bounces around like that, I need new Struts and Shocks- This is an American Built Plane, and I am certain Midas Muffler shops carry standard shocks and struts for F8 Crusaders- In fact, my Sunday Paper has some Coupons, $30.00 off for all Struts and Shocks --I will send the coupons to the French Navy-
They werent given , they were paid for. Politics aside, the French and Americans are allies and if they put aside their (in the grand scheme) petty differences the West would be better off.
Ugly? I was lucky to have over 500 hours in this "ugly" nirvana machine! We were convinced the only kill was a gun kill.. Soooooo acm was every day, with some flights 50 minutes chocks to chocks, burner takeoff to head to head using 8000# of fuel learning all the tricks..We have flown coast to coast never using burner nonstop..so the "ugly" bird had very long legs if you could resist burner fun.. The Thunderbird aviation bird with a -420 engine could go over M1 level flight in military power..It would push the F16 escort into burner to follow. And would run the F15 without tanks dry trying to follow. Not bad for an "ugly" 20 year old bird. "When you're out of F8's you're out of fighters"..
