Blue Angels considered the F-8 as replacement for their F11 Tigers, but the team never transitioned to the Crusader. Here’s why.
F-8 Crusader for Blue Angels
Difficulty of flying the F-8 in Blue Angels tight formation
In September 1952 the Navy issued specifications for a new carrier-based fighter with the capability to exceed the speed of sound in routine level flight. Chance-Vought won the bid with its F8U Crusader design (later re-designated the F-8). The F-8 retained 20mm cannon as its primary armament at a time when radar guided missiles were becoming the norm, hence the nickname “Last of the Gunfighters.”
The F-8 made history almost immediately. Commander Robert W. Windsor established a national speed record on Aug. 21, 1956, reaching 1,015.428 mph over a 15-kilometer course. In so doing, the F-8 became the first operationally equipped jet aircraft to fly faster that 1,000 mph. On Jul. 16, 1957 future astronaut Major John H. Glenn, Jr., flew a photo reconnaissance version of the aircraft in a record transcontinental flight, taking off from Los Alamitos, California, and reaching Floyd Bennett Field, New York, in 3 hours, 22 minutes, and 50.05 seconds.
A superbly performing aircraft, the F-8 was credited with 18 downed enemy aircraft over Vietnam. The RF-8G photo-reconnaissance variants were the last US Navy F-8s retired in 1987.
Blue Angels considered the F-8 as replacement for their Grumman F11 Tigers, but the team never transitioned to the Crusader. Here’s why.
F-8 Crusader for Blue Angels
At some point the Crusader was even considered as replacement for Blue Angels Grumman F11F Tigers. But, as explained by Nicholas A. Veronico in his book The Blue Angels a Fly-By History, at that time (it was 1968) the Vietnam War was on and available aircraft types for the Blue Angels to transition to were limited. The team needed a new airplane, but had not decided on what type. Then Team Leader Bill Wheat had considered the Vought F-8 Crusader, but the company was going out of the aircraft business just as the F11F production line was shutting down.
Both aircraft were going to be hard to support in the near future. There were no F-8s available because of the conflict in Vietnam, and all of the McDonnell Douglas A-4s were required to meet the fleet’s commitments. At the end the F-4 Phantom was chosen to replace the F11F with the Blue Angels.
But how would the F-8 been for the Blue Angels?
According to VFP62.com, there were discussions of F-8 fighter pilots on the F-8 for Blue Angels.
According to their assessment there were several concerns.
Difficulty of flying the F-8 in Blue Angels tight formation
The first concern was for inverted flight. Aileron rolls limited to just one at a time, and loop on takeoff were mentioned as the first limitations. Other pilots mentioned that the F-8’s variable incidence wing caused inherent problems of section takeoffs. “It was too hard to go through the wing-up/wing-down routine in real close formation and look good.”
Blue Angels considered the F-8 as replacement for their Grumman F11 Tigers, but the team never transitioned to the Crusader. Here’s why.
The difficulty of flying F-8s in tight formation such as the Blues fly was another concern that F-8 pilots had. One pilot commented, “One finds out his own wing tip is almost touching the UHT of the other aircraft. You simply cannot get these machines that close. We had to fly farther out—it looked pretty good but is much harder to maintain exact position. Just place two F-8 models together and this reality is easily seen.”
Moreover, the F-8 had a hard-lighting afterburner and might cause a section takeoff to look uncoordinated with one aircraft or another changing lead position.
However, many F-8 pilots believed that these issues could be worked out, as they were for the various aircraft used by the team. For instance, the flight control system of the A-4 was completely redesigned for their use.
One pilot put it in good terms: “Good airshow planes need three things: noise, smoke, and danger (imminent chance of an accident). F-8 had all in spades. I like the current F-18s but they don’t look very dangerous.”
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