Roll Inverted and Pull

The Crusader (F8U-1) joined the fleet in`58. First ones were day fighters, soon joined by F8U-1E, same plane with a good(for that time)radar, maybe 20 mile search, 10 mile lock on. Then, the F8U-2..in my opinion, the best of all of them. Slightly better radar, ventral fins for stability, upgraded J57 engine, better afterburner
, best turning Crusader ever. I deployed aboard Lexington for Far East cruise with this one. Next was F8U-2N, followed by F8U-2NE. Bigger radar, more power still, but heaver machine. I had a 2NE to mach 1.87, a few guys claimed 2.0 mach, but can`t verify this. I also had the 2NE up to 62,000 feet(with a full pressure suit) going after a U2, but couldn`t get close, he was way up there.At high supersonic speeds the center of pressure moves aft, and the Crusader got squirley, it ran out of tail. Note that all of the "new" jets have a twin tail except the Lawn Dart (F16), and they have big old ventral fins. There wasn`t any US fighter that could beat it in a fight, 1`ve fought F4D`s, F100`s F101`s and surprisingly I waxed a couple of 104`s. Those boys were from the Phoenix guard. I caught them about 50 miles west of the west coast, out turned them and out ran them. (They both had wing tanks). A F102 could out turn me, but with that big delta wing, he lost all of his energy after one turn.The Crusader was probably the most dangerous plane to bring aboard ship, although the F7U was real bad also. We lost two Crusaders on the Lex cruise, and night landings...forget that! When the sun went down we went to the ward room and watched movies...let the Demon Drivers do that! (F3H). Chance Vought ran all of the surviving Crusaders back through the factory, rewinged and modernized all of them. They gave them new designations, F8K, F8G, etc. I was out by this time and don`t know much about the later mods. The three years that Iflew them were the best years of my life. It was about like giving a kid a new Corvette, a gas credit card and telling him that he could disobey any and all traffic laws...as my old LSO use to say..."Boys, these are the good old days"....BTW.. technology caught up with it in the 70`s. A friend, who flew, by now the "old" Crusaders in the Dallas reserves was to fight an F14. They started 100 miles apart...at 90 miles the Tomcat splashed him with a missle, but they both continued the fight. as they passed abeam, they both started a turn. The Tomcat had it`s wing in "Automatic" mode. My friend said that after one turn the F14 was behind him and he couldn`t shake him...must have been "Mavrick" flying the F14. Go to www. cloudnet.com/~djohnson/if you want more info.