Scooter

Yes the F8U-3 was a fantastic plane the Navy never bought. They bought the Phantom instead. Ames at Moffett had one of the 3s that flew once in a while. It was like a 150% 2.

The 3 could fly rings around the Phantom. Just look up the specs on the Crusader 3. It had a rate of climb better than the F4 and a service ceiling higher too. You can find stories about 3s jumping Pax river Phantoms, and waxing them every time. Pax river finally had to insist that the guys flying reseach 3s cut it out. It made the Navy decision to buy the Phantoms look bad.

The reason that the Navy bought the Phantom over the Crusader 3 was it had a radar intercept back seater.

Since when did the Navy bought the XF8U-3 Corsair? I know that they bought it but they didn’t use it in combat but it was a plane with the competition of the F-4. but heres the weird thing. NASA pilots at NAS Patuxent River routinely intercepted and defeated U.S. Navy Phantom IIs in mock dogfights, until complaints from the Navy put an end to the harassment. Hmmm looks like they should’ve picked the F8U-3 instead of the Phantom II. :highly_amused: 😀

bager

The fact that the F4 could be loaded up like garbage truck was not necessarily a good thing. The idea of making a figher into a all things for all people is a really bad idea. Im sure most Navy figher pilots would agree. The F8U was looked upon as a “real” fighter because it was NOT loaded down with bomb racks all the way across the bottom of the wing. And of course Crusaders had guns too. Later in Nam after pilots screamed that they could have made a kill if they had guns, they hung on a gun pod. So———–then they had a gun but another piece of crap hanging out in the wind messing with performance.

Fighters should be fighters, and bombers should be bombers!!!!

To look at it the F-4 was a fighter bomber but it had the rare ability to due Air Superiority while carring bombs but later it used the AIM-7 sparrow missiles to defeat the MiG’s. The F-8 was ONLY a Air Superiority fighter which didn’t carry any single bombs.The F-4 was more maneuverable than the F-8. But anyway I don’t like to get into arguments. So don’t argue back. Although the F-4 was a good Vietnam War Fighter Bomber.

No, Shuttleworth is very much run within itself with a few visitors at each display.

Ok thanks, why wasn’t a A-4 Skyhawk there? Mostly the A-4 performs this year or was it a different country?