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Posted: 2/25/2015 11:47:29 PM EDT
"The Last of the Gunfighters" 
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Posted: 2/25/2015 11:50:16 PM EDT
[#1]
You still have F-5's.
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Posted: 2/25/2015 11:53:43 PM EDT
[#2]
Used to work on F100s. 4 guns mounted right under the avionics bay. Still using vaccumn tube radio and radar, IFF back in those days. Those cannons vibrated the tubes so much, nothing worked for very long.
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Posted: 2/25/2015 11:55:12 PM EDT
[#3]
The history channels dogfights series had some awesome interviews with pilots who flew those things during Vietnam.
Also if interest, have a look at the Vought super crusader. Don't have any pictures handy, that thing was a monster. |
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Posted: 2/25/2015 11:55:12 PM EDT
[#4]
I always liked the look of the Crusader. Bad ass plane.
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Posted: 2/25/2015 11:55:26 PM EDT
[#5]
oops, first double tap
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Posted: 2/25/2015 11:59:57 PM EDT
[#6]
Great book for those interested in the small deck fighters and ops:
 |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:04:16 AM EDT
[#7]
The pivoting wing was an interesting feature of those planes.
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:06:47 AM EDT
[#8]
 Quote HistoryQuoted:
The pivoting wing was an interesting feature of those planes. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:09:37 AM EDT
[#9]
Cool aircraft. I've read somewhere that something like 80% of those airframes were involved in an accident at some point in their service life. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:14:03 AM EDT
[#10]
My brother loved the crusader. He died when he was ten. He was buried with a model of a crusader in his hand.
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:21:39 AM EDT
[#11]
Unfortunately,the feeding mechanism of the Colt Mk 12 cannons wasn't very good and they were exceptionally prone to jamming. Something like 20% of their kills were by guns vs Sidewinders and pilots reported that there would have been more kills,had the cannons fed more reliably.
I always thought it was too bad the French didn't give the F-8 the chance to fly over former Yugoslavia. An Etendard got a gun kill on a helicopter,it would have been cool had the F-8 got one last punch in. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:25:30 AM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Used to work on F100s. 4 guns mounted right under the avionics bay. Still using vaccumn tube radio and radar, IFF back in those days. Those cannons vibrated the tubes so much, nothing worked for very long. Last of the vacuum tubes ? I wonder when they were phased out. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:30:40 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Used to work on F100s. 4 guns mounted right under the avionics bay. Still using vaccumn tube radio and radar, IFF back in those days. Those cannons vibrated the tubes so much, nothing worked for very long. My dad was an F-100 crew chief, Ladd AFB, Ak, back in the late 50's, early 60's. I wish I could find the photographs. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:33:38 AM EDT
[#14]
Massive amount of F8's parked at DMAFB back in the 1970's...! |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:36:01 AM EDT
[#15]
Do you guys remember that episode of Dogfights that featured this aircraft?
Some beautiful bastard turned and burned with some Mig....and he hadn't strapped in properly. And, if I remember correctly, he was also out of ammo. When asked why he did it, his answer was some version of, "Because fuck him, that's why". Loved it. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:36:11 AM EDT
[#16]
Old Urban legend still exists in the naval aviation community of a couple of jets (either Tomcats or Hornets, can't remember) pull up to the hold short behind a pair of Crusaders. This is on a Sunday cross country. Supposedly one of the Crusader pilots pops the canopy, leans out over the side and pukes his guts out. He closes the canopy and off they went. Good weekend partying it would seem. Different times.....
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:40:42 AM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Used to work on F100s. 4 guns mounted right under the avionics bay. Still using vaccumn tube radio and radar, IFF back in those days. Those cannons vibrated the tubes so much, nothing worked for very long. F-100s! 
Damn, you're old. 
I retired at 20 years this past October. Worked on F-15s, 16s, and 22s. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 2:44:57 AM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
My brother loved the crusader. He died when he was ten. He was buried with a model of a crusader in his hand. That choked me up, and that doesn't happen often. 
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Posted: 2/26/2015 2:54:03 AM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Last of the vacuum tubes ? I wonder when they were phased out. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Used to work on F100s. 4 guns mounted right under the avionics bay. Still using vaccumn tube radio and radar, IFF back in those days. Those cannons vibrated the tubes so much, nothing worked for very long. Last of the vacuum tubes ? I wonder when they were phased out. NOPE. I got pieces of avionics gear with vacuum tubes on it in 2003. 
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Posted: 2/26/2015 3:02:07 AM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
NOPE. I got pieces of avionics gear with vacuum tubes on it in 2003. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Used to work on F100s. 4 guns mounted right under the avionics bay. Still using vaccumn tube radio and radar, IFF back in those days. Those cannons vibrated the tubes so much, nothing worked for very long. Last of the vacuum tubes ? I wonder when they were phased out. NOPE. I got pieces of avionics gear with vacuum tubes on it in 2003. C-130s? I was changing out N-1 compass amps with vacuum tubes in them in 2009.
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Posted: 2/26/2015 3:07:39 AM EDT
[#21]
A family member flew F-8's off the Oriskany, and down a MiG-17. He chased another for close a 1/2 hour and took off part of his vertical stab flying under high wires.
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Posted: 2/26/2015 5:26:10 AM EDT
[#22]
Somewhere around the late 50's or early 60's my dad moved to Grand Prairie just south and west of the old Vought plant. He told me that he and his dad were driving home and an F-8 had just taken off from the Vought runway or possibly DNAS, and it was smoking badly. It went down, and the whole town came out to help find the plane and pilot. He told me that some towns folk and emergency crews found small pieces of the plane, and somebody found the pilots helmet with a huge gash in it, but never found his body to the best of his knowledge. Of course we talked about this maybe twenty years ago, so I may be off on the details. What brought it up was when I came home with a Revell model of the F-8 Crusader, it visibly shook him when I showed it to him.
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Posted: 2/26/2015 5:42:41 AM EDT
[#23]
The F-8 was a real old school yank it & crank it fighter.
There was a time one pilot took off with his wings in the upright (folded) position... .... and made it back to a safe landing. Innovative & creative fighter for it's time. I Loved the scene in"13 Days" when the recon F-8s are flying very low & very fast over Cuba to photo the Russian missle site construction in the Cuban Missle crisis. BIgger_Hammer |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 6:04:20 AM EDT
[#24]
http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/F8U.html
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/chance_crusader.php http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc306200/ Sadly it seems there were multiple crashes of F-8s out DNAS in the 60's. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 6:09:59 AM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted: That choked me up, and that doesn't happen often. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: My brother loved the crusader. He died when he was ten. He was buried with a model of a crusader in his hand. That choked me up, and that doesn't happen often. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 6:21:58 AM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/F8U.html http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/chance_crusader.php http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc306200/ Sadly it seems there were multiple crashes of F-8s out DNAS in the 60's. Yeah, they were very unforgiving. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 6:59:37 AM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I always liked the look of the Crusader. Bad ass plane. It looks like a rocket sled with wings stuck on as an afterthought. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 7:04:12 AM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
C-130s? I was changing out N-1 compass amps with vacuum tubes in them in 2009. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Used to work on F100s. 4 guns mounted right under the avionics bay. Still using vaccumn tube radio and radar, IFF back in those days. Those cannons vibrated the tubes so much, nothing worked for very long. Last of the vacuum tubes ? I wonder when they were phased out. NOPE. I got pieces of avionics gear with vacuum tubes on it in 2003. C-130s? I was changing out N-1 compass amps with vacuum tubes in them in 2009. Are we counting nixie tubes? |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 7:10:30 AM EDT
[#29]
Awesome airplane.
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Posted: 2/26/2015 7:14:11 AM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Do you guys remember that episode of Dogfights that featured this aircraft? Some beautiful bastard turned and burned with some Mig....and he hadn't strapped in properly. And, if I remember correctly, he was also out of ammo. When asked why he did it, his answer was some version of, "Because fuck him, that's why". Loved it. This episode? http://youtu.be/XfFvMSdjAbo 
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Posted: 2/26/2015 8:43:52 AM EDT
[#31]
It would appear that the F14 is also a gun fighter as well........
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Posted: 2/26/2015 8:45:30 AM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Are we counting nixie tubes? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Used to work on F100s. 4 guns mounted right under the avionics bay. Still using vaccumn tube radio and radar, IFF back in those days. Those cannons vibrated the tubes so much, nothing worked for very long. Last of the vacuum tubes ? I wonder when they were phased out. NOPE. I got pieces of avionics gear with vacuum tubes on it in 2003. C-130s? I was changing out N-1 compass amps with vacuum tubes in them in 2009. Are we counting nixie tubes? Nope, not CRTs either, real no shit vacuum tubes. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 9:54:31 AM EDT
[#33]
Tag for later.
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Posted: 2/26/2015 10:58:22 AM EDT
[#34]
Quote HistoryQuote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Do you guys remember that episode of Dogfights that featured this aircraft? Some beautiful bastard turned and burned with some Mig....and he hadn't strapped in properly. And, if I remember correctly, he was also out of ammo. When asked why he did it, his answer was some version of, "Because fuck him, that's why". Loved it. This episode? http://youtu.be/XfFvMSdjAbo  http://youtu.be/XfFvMSdjAboI know CAPT. Schaffert. Awesome guy. Was the guest speaker at one of my Navy Birthday Balls, sat with him the following year. He brought a slide show of gun camera footage from his Vietnam missions, including the day he went 1 v 6 referenced above. He was about as non-PC as you could get - made for a great evening. Wife is absolutely beautiful, even now, and what makes it better is that he met her while she was serving as a major in the Hungarian secret police. (Yes, wrong side of the iron curtain there when they met... that's another great story.) |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:15:46 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
My brother loved the crusader. He died when he was ten. He was buried with a model of a crusader in his hand. Oh man, I've no words. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:19:37 PM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Cool aircraft. I've read somewhere that something like 80% of those airframes were involved in an accident at some point in their service life. And not a single fuck was given that day. 
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:19:40 PM EDT
[#37]
F100 was real easy to work on for avionics. The "hood" raised up in the front and everything was right in front of you. Easy access from a stand, except for the intercom boxes. They were in the pilots footwell.
Back in the 60's at Luke AFB pilots were training for rotation to Viet Nam. The Barry Goldwater range was only a few minutes from Luke, and each group of 4 F100s had a limited schedule to be on and off the range. If you missed your time, you missed your training that day. We sat in a dark blue van at the departure end of the runway. The van was full of spare avionics equipment. It was called the "red ball truck." No A/C in Phoenix during the summer in a dark blue truck sniffing jet exhaust all day is no fun. Loss of radio, intercom or IFF was a "red X" and the flight would be terminated and no training that day. We had a UHF (ARC-27) radio in the truck to communicate with the flight leader. If an aircraft had a failure we would be contacted on the UHF and given a time limit to repair the failure. We trained like we were in a combat situtation...some GIs need a fighter like "right now." Usually the time limit was 2 or 3 minutes to trouble shoot and repair. I remember one day the intercom went out on one of the planes. Usually that meant the flight was over since the box was in the pilots foot well. We found a really skinny guy that could sit almost face to face with the pilot with his legs straight up, leaning backwards could reach into the footwell and change to box. We did everything we could to keep those planes flying in support of the ground troops. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:23:48 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Old Urban legend still exists in the naval aviation community of a couple of jets (either Tomcats or Hornets, can't remember) pull up to the hold short behind a pair of Crusaders. This is on a Sunday cross country. Supposedly one of the Crusader pilots pops the canopy, leans out over the side and pukes his guts out. He closes the canopy and off they went. Good weekend partying it would seem. Different times..... Reminds me of Craig Boddington pissing into a cup inflight and then trying to toss it out of the cockpit. The wind blew it right back into his face. His wingman saw it and he knew it too. On the ground he told his wingman to shut up about it. He did, until he released his book after Boddington's death. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:32:08 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Cool aircraft. I've read somewhere that something like 80% of those airframes were involved in an accident at some point in their service life. And not a single fuck was given that day. http://i.imgur.com/pYsITgJ.jpg Holy Shyt....How is that bird still flying? |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 12:36:19 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Holy Shyt....How is that bird still flying? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Cool aircraft. I've read somewhere that something like 80% of those airframes were involved in an accident at some point in their service life. And not a single fuck was given that day. http://i.imgur.com/pYsITgJ.jpg Holy Shyt....How is that bird still flying? Vought awesomeness. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 1:08:15 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
That choked me up, and that doesn't happen often. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
My brother loved the crusader. He died when he was ten. He was buried with a model of a crusader in his hand. That choked me up, and that doesn't happen often. yeah....*gulp* |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 1:13:45 PM EDT
[#42]
My Dad was the Maintenance Chief of VFP-63 from '61 to '63. I can remember my Dad having to go to crash sites. I also remember seeing a couple of crashes myself.
One guy lost his engine and was trying to glide in and didn't make it to the field. Probably would have made if the hills to the east weren't there. Not much to see on that one. I saw the pilot's chute open out over the hills and then some flames and smoke that shot up in the air. Then BOOM. The other one was some kind of hydraulic failure. I was standing behind hangar watching planes do touch and gos and landings. An F-8 about 50 feet above the runway just pitched up suddenly and the pilot got out as the plane stated to settle to the runway tail first. When the tail hit the runway the plane just kind of disintegrated into a fireball as it slammed down on the runway. I seem to remember the pilot got hurt pretty bad. His chute opened and he took about half a swing and hit the ground. I remember this big poof of dust when he hit. He didn't get up. The F8 could be really unforgiving at slow speeds with the wing up. The F-8 was an awesome plane to look at and be around as a little kid. When I went into the Service it wasn't hard to pick Naval Aviation. My Dad was a little disappointed I became an AX instead of an AM. There were also a hydraulics nightmare according to my Dad. I know he talked later on about improvements that he had suggested that were incorporated into the aircraft. We had some pretty interesting people around the dinner table at times. I still have some of the plaques and letters he got from his work on the F-8. The F8 could be really unforgiving at slow speeds with the wing up. The F-8 was an awesome plane to look at and be around as a little kid. When I went into the Service it wasn't hard to pick Naval Aviation. My Dad was a little disappointed I became an AX instead of an AM.  The Super Crusader was going to have been an awesome aircraft. Navy decided not to buy it and and just buy more Phantoms.  |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 1:21:47 PM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Holy Shyt....How is that bird still flying? Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Quoted: Cool aircraft. I've read somewhere that something like 80% of those airframes were involved in an accident at some point in their service life. And not a single fuck was given that day. http://i.imgur.com/pYsITgJ.jpg Holy Shyt....How is that bird still flying? The angle of attack when the wing was up was the only reason the plane could get off the ground without a really, really long runway. The times I saw F-8s land with the wing down and locked usually ended with the plane in the weeds at the end of the runway or very close to it. The lack of that extra bit of wing wasn't really much of a problem flying straight and level. I'm sure making it back around the field was REAL exciting. Miramar in the early 60's was a very cool place to live. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 1:27:30 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Cool aircraft. I've read somewhere that something like 80% of those airframes were involved in an accident at some point in their service life. And not a single fuck was given that day. http://i.imgur.com/pYsITgJ.jpg This was in Vietnam, I think Da Nang. It took off with 2 - 1000lb bombs, droppped them in the South China Sea and landed. Pilot did a very poor pre-flight. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 1:41:48 PM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted: F100 was real easy to work on for avionics. The "hood" raised up in the front and everything was right in front of you. Easy access from a stand, except for the intercom boxes. They were in the pilots footwell. Back in the 60's at Luke AFB pilots were training for rotation to Viet Nam. The Barry Goldwater range was only a few minutes from Luke, and each group of 4 F100s had a limited schedule to be on and off the range. If you missed your time, you missed your training that day. We sat in a dark blue van at the departure end of the runway. The van was full of spare avionics equipment. It was called the "red ball truck." No A/C in Phoenix during the summer in a dark blue truck sniffing jet exhaust all day is no fun. Loss of radio, intercom or IFF was a "red X" and the flight would be terminated and no training that day. We had a UHF (ARC-27) radio in the truck to communicate with the flight leader. If an aircraft had a failure we would be contacted on the UHF and given a time limit to repair the failure. We trained like we were in a combat situtation...some GIs need a fighter like "right now." Usually the time limit was 2 or 3 minutes to trouble shoot and repair. I remember one day the intercom went out on one of the planes. Usually that meant the flight was over since the box was in the pilots foot well. We found a really skinny guy that could sit almost face to face with the pilot with his legs straight up, leaning backwards could reach into the footwell and change to box. We did everything we could to keep those planes flying in support of the ground troops. I don't get why the F-100 didn't see more air-to-air combat in VN. Seems it would have had no trouble tangling with the MiG-17s and -19s in a dogfight, much more so than the lumbering F-105s and F-4s. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 1:50:06 PM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This was in Vietnam, I think Da Nang. It took off with 2 - 1000lb bombs, droppped them in the South China Sea and landed. Pilot did a very poor pre-flight. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Quoted: Cool aircraft. I've read somewhere that something like 80% of those airframes were involved in an accident at some point in their service life. And not a single fuck was given that day. http://i.imgur.com/pYsITgJ.jpg This was in Vietnam, I think Da Nang. It took off with 2 - 1000lb bombs, droppped them in the South China Sea and landed. Pilot did a very poor pre-flight. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 2:06:11 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I always liked the look of thought the Crusader looked like Bad ass plane. FIFY |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 2:39:57 PM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This was in Vietnam, I think Da Nang. It took off with 2 - 1000lb bombs, droppped them in the South China Sea and landed. Pilot did a very poor pre-flight. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Quoted: Cool aircraft. I've read somewhere that something like 80% of those airframes were involved in an accident at some point in their service life. And not a single fuck was given that day. http://i.imgur.com/pYsITgJ.jpg This was in Vietnam, I think Da Nang. It took off with 2 - 1000lb bombs, droppped them in the South China Sea and landed. Pilot did a very poor pre-flight. Part of the director's job prior to taxi is to do a check that would include a wings spread command. Several people had their head up and locked. Ultimately the pilot is responsible but he had help on that one. I'm sure he looked back at his wings before applying power and releasing the brakes on everything he flew, including his Cessna, after that one. |
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Posted: 2/26/2015 5:46:05 PM EDT
[#49]
Here is the tail of Night Infamy and Folded Wings. Flying the F-8 with folded wings, it happens. I like the " So, the world's day land speed record for the Crusader..."
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Posted: 2/26/2015 7:31:37 PM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Here is the tail of Night Infamy and Folded Wings. Flying the F-8 with folded wings, it happens. I like the " So, the world's day land speed record for the Crusader..." Marines always have had a way with words.  |
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