Superheat's Notes: F8U/F-8 Crusader

First some clarification on F-8 engines: from a modeling standpoint there are two types - we'll call them early and late - distinguishable by their afterburner sections.  The early engines—the P4, P12, P16 and P22—all had an afterburner tube that was like a corrugated pipe. Their flame holder was a five-spoke design and the AB petals had a pattern that I call the "waffle iron" pattern.  This engine configuration applies to the F8U-1/F-8A, F8U-1E/F-8B/F-8L, F8U-1P/RF-8A/RF-8G*, and F8U-2/F-8C/F-8K.   The later engines—P20, P20A, and P420—are characterized by an AB petal that I refer to as the "wave pattern", a four-spoke flame holder, and an AB tube comprised of overlapping rings. This engine configuration applies to the F8U-2N/F-8D/F-8H, F8U-2NE/F-8E/F-8J, F-8E(FN)/F-8P ......AND the RF-8G after 1978. A note about the P420 engine.  It came about because the F-8J, which weighed 1500 pounds more than the E and therefore...

There were changes over time to the landing gear, in part due to the increased gross weight, including the wheel hubs. The original nose landing gear (here, from an E): All rebuild F-8s (F-8H/J/K/L and RF-8G) got new nose gear struts that were about two inches longer than the original and incorporated the cable deflector horns on the wheel forks that had made their first appearance on the A-7 nose strut.  Main Landing Gear: The A-7 design was based (loosely) on the F-8 so there are certain similarities and a definite family resemblance, but there is little commonality between the two, though the main gear is one commonality, at least in part, and in the reverse direction: from A-7 to F-8. In the rebuild program of the late 60's, the H (ex D) and J (ex E) got A-7 main struts. In spite of what is stated in more than a couple sources, no other version got them at that time, though the RF-8G did get them in the late 70's from the retired H and J...

 21 September 2024: Added three-view of F8U-1/2 nose   The F-8A through F-8D had a narrow radome (strictly speaking, the A's nose was only a radome at the very tip for a range-finder radar); the F-8E had a wider, round radome. The A/D radome cross-section is on the left; the E's is on the right:  The upper set of pictures is the early radome, the lower is the later one.  This is a three-view of the early nose created using the best information I could find among various Vought drawings. The numbers are fuselage stations in inches. Note that the cross section is just aft of the inlet so the shape of the interface of the nose cone with the fuselage will be slightly different, a bit smaller in both height and width. The F8U-1 (F-8A) also had a small window on the left side of the nose for a gun camera. The round (wider) radome required a different interface with the forward fuselage (note that the pitot of the E radome has moved from the side of the fusela...

1. Academy F-8E, F-8E(FN), F-8J. The three listed types have been released, and this is definitely the best 1/72nd F-8, but it is far from perfect, having a lot of warts, most of which it inherited from its illegitimate parent, the Hasegawa 1/48th kit, but some are all its own. Some “genetic” errors include the bogus angled radar screen in the cockpit, the bogus bumps on the upper wing at the wing fold, the flat plank representation of the ACM exhaust fairing on the right fuselage, and the rudder which is not right at the lower forward edge, there should be more of a cut out for the rudder post. A couple errors that are pure Academy are the front windscreen, which has a center section that is about twice as wide as it should be, and the radome cross section, which is egg-shaped , little end up, where it should be an ellipse, long dimension up (It, like all other E kits, is also wrong in profile, being symmetrical when it shouldn‘t be). The latter is not all that no...

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