F-8 Radome Comparisons

 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 fuselage as shown above and on the left below to the tip of the radome and the vents aft of the radome are different in number and location):



The later round radome was also not symmetrical from top to bottom when viewed from the side:


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