My brother flew the carrier based F8 Crusader (the first plane in the above pics) on 168 combat missions over Vietnam..
The F8 drivers were one of the safest, most talented bunch of aviators in existence.. Their success in combat was the origin of the close in aerial combat training, that was portrayed in the movie Top Gun.
The F-8 was a gun ship with 4 20mm cannons, where as it's replacement, the heavier, less manuverable, F-4 had none, which proved to be a mistake..
A number of the pilots killed were during normal aircraft ops portion e.g. Herb Hunter on the plaque below, as opposed to the in-country combat environment. The F-8 was the first level flight supersonic, carrier launched aircraft. The early technology along with the short deck carriers of the era, could be unforgiving ...
On the 27 Charlie class carriers, you had to touchdown within a 20' wide by 60' long window on the deck for a successful carrier landing.. Ramp strikes on approach was the killer.
![[Linked Image]](http://home.4x4wire.com/deddleman/102-0232_img.jpg)
This link
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/f-8.htm has more interesting reading about the attributes of the F8 and F4.
The Korean War gave the US Navy keen appreciation of the requirements for new fighter aircraft. Out of this experience came two of finest American fighter aircraft developed in midcentury: the F8U-1 (F-8) Crusader and the all-missile McDonnell F4H-1 (F-4) Phantom II. Both were designed to address shortfalls in previous designs revealed in Korea. The F-8 and F-4 represented two approaches to fighter design -- the "old" era of close-in dogfighting and the anticipated "new" era of beyond visual range (BVR) missiles. Indeed, the F8U Crusader was the only US Navy and Marine Corps post-Korea fighter that was an air superiority fighter in the tradition of the Grumman F6F Hellcat of the Second World War.
