French Use of the F-8E(FN)

We know that the F-8E served from 1965 to 1999 in the Aéronavale, and they were purchased to replace worn out Sud-Est Aquilons. (License-built Havilland Sea Venom fighters.) Dassault had proposed a navalized Mirage III, but it was ill-suited for the small French aircraft carriers. France turned to an open competition for faster replacement. The competition for a state-of-the-art fighter for French Naval Aviation eventually narrowed to the F-4 and the F-8. The Phantom II turned out to be over-sized for the small carriers, and a two-seat Crusader was chosen.

There were subtle changes to the F-8 design to work on the smaller French aircraft carriers whereas the design was originally pegged for the roomier American fleet. Unfortunately Congress cancelled the ‘Twosader’ (aka the two-seat Crusader), and the French Navy changed its order to 42 single-seaters. These Crusaders would have an entirely new wing, a special auto throttle for carrier approaches, a stall warning, wiring for the Matra R530, and the new J57-P-20A engine. The French also opted for retractable in-flight refueling probes to give the necessary endurance to the F-8. A small number of the original F-8E(FN) evolved into the F-8P. In the late 1990s, the F-8P were themselves replaced by the Rafale M.

French Crusaders incorporated boundary layer air and double droop wing leading edges for even better low speed handling. The ‘double droop’ extended the original design by basically splitting the droop into two sections along the entire wing. Flap travel increased from 20º to 40º. The operation of the double droop mechanisms increased wing camber which in turn led to landing speeds below 115 knots. Although the approach speeds were down around the 120 knot range at max trap weight, the pilot couldn’t see over the nose and wave-off capability was less than optimal. The French F-8E had a larger unit horizontal tail area than its American counterparts, which also helped its stability at lower speeds.

The redesigned wing was rushed into use by the Americans as the F-8J, but pilots in the USN struggled to cope with the changes. To add to a pilot’s worries, the F-8J could be flown below the minimum speed required to operate the RAT (ram air turbine). F-8Js operating off a RAT could lose all electrical power as it slowed down below the required air speed.

The F-8(FN) had the 21-inch diameter radar scanner, which required the circular nose cone. The pitot tube was mounted on the center of the 21-inch diameter nose cone. The AN/ASS-15 IR sensor was mounted just aft of the nose cone seam and at the base of the center windshield panel. The windshields were equipped with rain repellent dispenser nozzles in the center and aft portions of the front windshield panel. The pilot enjoyed a front panel protected from glare by a special coating, and from bullets by a 25MM thick section of bulletproof glass. The pilot could safely eject in a Martin-Baker Mk-F5A seat.

Each Crusader was equipped with four 20MM Colt-Browning Mk12 cannon mounted in gun bays on each fuselage side. Each cannon fired at a rate comparable to 1000 rounds per minute through streamlined gun blast ports, extending from the sides of the air intake ducts. The rounds traveled with a velocity of over 1000M per second. Each cannon weighed in at 46KG and were each supplied with 144 rounds fed from a removable ammunition box. The ammunition boxes were stowed in the upper fuselage above the gun bay. The cannon had removable blast fittings made from cast stainless steel to resist the aggressive corrosive effects of the gunpowder.

Originally the F-8 was equipped with only Sidewinder missiles for air combat. Unique to the F-8 were Y-rails specially adapted for it to be able to carry four Sidewinders without using underwing pylons. The Sidewinder came in two versions, the IR-guided AIM-9B and the semi-active radar homing AIM-9C. By the time the F-8E(FN) was to enter service the AIM-9C was no longer a realistic option. The electrical system was reworked from the base design so that the Aéronavale could employ Matra R530 missiles, which existed in both infrared and semi-active radar homing versions. (Standard armament was one of each R530 missile version or four AIM-9B; each R530 rail replaced an entire Y-rail assembly meaning no more than a total of one pair of R530 was possible to carry.) To accommodate the R530 in its radar-homing version, a Magnavox AN/APQ-104 radar was fitted, together with a modified AN/AWG-4 fire control system. Radar performance was estimated to be 60-65NM for navigational purposes, but only up to 25NM in combat.

The Sidewinder infrared-homing missile was still compatible with the F-8E(FN), but it was very rarely carried. In 1973, the Matra R550 Magic short range infrared-homing air-to-air missile was added to the Crusader’s armament suite, a more fitting replacement of the AIM-9. (This made it possible to carry four R550 at a time rather than a pair of R530.) In 1988, Aéronavale opted to replace the original R550 Magic with the all-aspect Magic 2. Also in 1988, it was decided that the Matra R530 would be withdrawn from service due to its abysmal 65% failure rate! The Super 530 was never adopted, since the APQ-104 radar was not compatible.

Numerous upgrades kept the F-8E(FN) potent and the final derivative was labeled the F-8E(FN)P, or more simply the F-8P. New F-8J wings were installed on French Crusaders in 1969, and from 1979 onward their Pratt & Whitney J57-P-20A turbojets were fitted with new afterburners.

The F-8E(FN) was to be replaced in the 1990s by a naval derivative of the EAP. After it withdrew from the European study group which eventually give birth to the EF-2000 Typhoon, France decided to continue alone and launched the Rafale program. Unfortunately the Rafale M would not be available before 1996, and the French Navy had to choose between leasing American F/A-18s and thoroughly upgrading the Crusaders. In December 1989 the Navy committed itself to the Rafale M but also had 17 Crusaders renovated, with one plane rolling out every 18 months. The F-8E(FN) became the F-8P and received the following upgrades:

-Airframe reinforced and strengthened
-Replacement of the entire electric circuit
-Thorough overhaul of the radar and flight controls
-Installation of an ILS (Instrument Landing System)
-Installation of a Mode 4 IFF
-New INS (Inertial Navigation System) gyroscopic navigation system of the Mirage F1
-New radar altimeter and VOR to improve instrumental navigation
-New SHERLOC RWR added to the tail fin
-New zero-zero capable Martin-Baker Mk.7 (0/0) seat instead of the old Mk.F5A-F (0/120)

These were not really modernizations and the service record of the F-8P was atrocious. It took nearly 70 hours of maintenance for each hour of flight time! The Crusader proved to live as the sole naval fighter in French service for 35 years. Although pegged by Aéronavale as an interceptor, it never once fired on another aircraft in anger. The closest it got to shooting at anything was when a pair intercepted a flight of Yemeni Fishbeds (by mistake no less), a task it easily could have handled.

I’m surprised looking at the F-8’s rich history in French service that a few things never happened. The J75 could have been replaced by the M53 early in its career. And the Mk12 cannon were never replaced regardless of its record of jams and stoppages being common, especially following hard dog-fighting maneuvers. GIAT had license to build their own versions of the Hispano-Suiza 20MM. Or perhaps they could have replaced the quad arrangement with a pair of DEFA 550 series cannons, which were the standard in French service at the time. Israel replaced the Mk12s for DEFA twin 30s in their A-4Es, later offering other A-4E users the same option. Maybe they simply didn’t expect the F-8E(FN) to have to soldier on as long as they did?