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Author: Peter Mersky Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1782006524 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 254
Book Description
Known to its pilots as the 'last of the gunfighters' due to its quartet of Colt-Browning Mk 12 20 mm cannon, the F-8 Crusader was numerically the most populous fighter in the US Navy at the start of America's involvement in the Vietnam conflict in 1964 – some 482 F-8C/D/Es equipped 17 frontline units. It enjoyed great success against North Vietnamese Mig-17s and Mig-21s during the Rolling Thunder campaign of 1965-68, officially downing 18 jets, which represented 53 per cent of all Mig claims lodged by Navy squadrons during this period.
Author: Peter Mersky Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1782006524 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 254
Book Description
Known to its pilots as the 'last of the gunfighters' due to its quartet of Colt-Browning Mk 12 20 mm cannon, the F-8 Crusader was numerically the most populous fighter in the US Navy at the start of America's involvement in the Vietnam conflict in 1964 – some 482 F-8C/D/Es equipped 17 frontline units. It enjoyed great success against North Vietnamese Mig-17s and Mig-21s during the Rolling Thunder campaign of 1965-68, officially downing 18 jets, which represented 53 per cent of all Mig claims lodged by Navy squadrons during this period.
Author: Bill Spidle Publisher: ISBN: 9781580072427 Category : Crusader (Jet fighter plane) Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Wins, but losses -- Navy day fighter program -- First flights -- F8U-1: the crusade begins -- Fleet introduction/record flights -- F8U-1T: a crusader built for two -- F8U-2: improving the breed -- F8U-3: a super crusader -- Modernization -- Paper airplanes -- A date with NASA -- Epilogue
Book Description
KEYNOTE: * A highly-illustrated study of the 30-year career of the US Navy's first supersonic aircraft, the Vought F-8 Crusader When it built the Crusader, the US Navy's first supersonic aircraft, Vought repeated the success it had had with the legendary WWII fighter, the F4U Corsair. 1250 examples were built. This fighter with its unusual variable incidence wing, made its maiden flight in March 1955 and equipped more than seventy Navy and Marine Corps squadrons during its thirty year career. Used in combat as early as the autumn of 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, the Crusader distinguished itself during the first part of the Vietnam War in which it scored eighteen confirmed kills, more than half of the US Navy's total of kills for the whole of the conflict, earning it the unofficial title of 'MiGMaster'. Replaced gradually by more effective fighters like the F-4 Phantom II and the F-14 Tomcat, the Crusader, nicknamed the 'Last Gunfighter', finished its career in the United States in the Reserve units or specializing in photographic reconnaissance at the end of the eighties. France, the only export client except for the Philippines, had Crusaders specially designed to operate from its small aircraft carriers, and the Aeronavale's last 'Crouze', and thereby the last F-8 in the world, was withdrawn from service in October 1999. Illustrated throughout
Author: Peter Mersky Publisher: Osprey Publishing ISBN: 9781782008101 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
This book covers the actions fought between two of the best known fighters of the Vietnam War, in action over the North during the early years of the conflict. Revered by Naval Aviators as the "last of the gunfighters" due to its quartet of Colt-Browning Mk 12 20 mm cannon (its great naval rival, the F-4 Phantom II, was exclusively armed with missiles), the F-8 Crusader enjoyed great success against VPAF MiG-17s during the Rolling Thunder campaign of 1966-68. The fighter was credited with 18 kills, 14 of which were MiG-17s. Things did not go all the Crusader's way, however, as VPAF pilots used the MiG-17's unequalled low-speed manoeuvrability, small size and powerful cannon armament to take the fight to their gun- and missile-equipped foes. The North Vietnamese pilots claimed ten F-8s and one unarmed photo-recce RF-8 shot down, although only four of these successes could be matched with known US Navy losses. Nevertheless, the duels fought between these two aircraft were some of the hardest of the war, as the Crusader pilots did their level best to defend vulnerable carrier-based attack aircraft striking at targets deep in North Vietnam.
Author: Paul T. Gillcrist Publisher: Schiffer Pub Limited ISBN: 9780887407666 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 283
Book Description
Once known as the "Last of the Gunfighters", the Vought F-8 Crusader has since become a legend in the histories of the U.S. and French navies, as well as a scourge in the skies over North Vietnam in the late 1960s! CRUSADER! is a vital oral history of one of the most controversial fighter planes in carrier aviation. A key to the authenticity of this story are the author's personal interviews with sixteen of the seventeen living Crusader pilots who became MiG killers in the Vietnam air war. His analysis of their aerial engagements over North Vietnam from 1965 to 1973 contains some startling surprises, as well as a validation of many of the tactical lessons learned from World War II and Korea. CRUSADER! also contains personal accounts by F-8 speed record holders such as U.S. Marine Corps Major (now Senator) John Glenn and Captains Bob Dose and "Duke" Windsor. Other aviation records held by the Crusader, (not so enviable) are told, in anecdotal form, for the first time by the author, an F-8 driver and participant in some of them! Colorful, and sometimes humorous, accounts of events involving the F-8 and "Crusader Drivers" abound in this chronicle of carrier aviation covering the three decades when this remarkable airplane was an important element of the U.S. Navy's carrier strike forces. Rear Admiral Paul T. Gillcrist commanded a fleet Crusader squadron, then a carrier air wing and finally, as a flag officer, became wing commander for all Pacific Fleet fighter squadrons. During his fleet squadron command he completed three carrier deployments to the Tonkin Gulf and flew 167 combat missions in the Crusader for which he was awarded seventeen combat decorations. The author of FEET WET, Reflections of a Carrier Pilot (1990) and TOMCAT, The Grumman F-14 Story (1994), Admiral Gillcrist is well qualified to write the story of the Crusader!
Author: Craig C. Hannah Publisher: Texas A&M University Press ISBN: 9781585441464 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 188
Book Description
Annotation. "Tactical bombing", Gen. Jimmy Doolittle reportedly observed, "is breaking the milk bottle. Strategic bombing is killing the cow". Most nations have historically chosen between building tactical and strategic air forces; rarely has a state given equal weight to both. The advantages of tactical air power are obvious today as small wars and petty tyrants bedevil us, but in a Cold War world split between continental superpowers, strategic bombing took precedence, with calamitous consequences. In the 1960s, the U.S. Air Force lacked the equipment and properly trained pilots to assure air superiority because the Tactical Air Command (TAC) had become little more than a handmaiden to the Strategic Air Command (SAC). TAC focused primarily on the interdiction of enemy bombers and virtually ignored its other responsibilities. Its aircraft were designed to shoot at large, lumbering bombers and not to engage in dog fights with highly maneuverable MiGs. Hannah shows how a tactical air force that won a victory in World War II deteriorated into a second-rate force flying aging aircraft during the early years of the Cold War, recovered briefly over Korea, then slid into obsolescence during the 1950s. His explanation of why America's fighter aircraft did not work in Vietnam is instructive and unsettling. Hannah explains how TAC struggled through the war in Vietnam to emerge in the 1970s as the best tactical air force in the world. He side-steps politics and inter-service rivalries to focus on the nuts and bolts of tactical air power. The result is a factual, informative account of how an air force first loses its way then finds its mission again.
Author: Eileen A. Bjorkman Publisher: U of Nebraska Press ISBN: 1640123636 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 280
Book Description
On November 18, 1965, U.S. Navy pilot Willie Sharp ejected from his F-8 fighter after being hit while positioned over a target in North Vietnam. With a cloud layer beneath him, he did not know if he was over land--where he would most certainly be captured or killed by the North Vietnamese--or over the Gulf of Tonkin. As he ejected, both navy and air force aircraft were already heading toward him to help. What followed was a dramatic rescue made by pilots and other airmen with little or no training or experience in combat search-and-rescue. Told by former military flight test engineer Eileen A. Bjorkman, this story includes nail-biting descriptions of air combat, flight, and rescue. Bjorkman places Sharp's story in the larger context of the U.S. military's bedrock credo--No Man Left Behind--and calls attention to the more than eighty thousand Americans still missing from conflicts since World War I. She also explores the devastating aftershocks of the Vietnam War as Sharp struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. Woven into this gripping tale is the fascinating history of combat search-and-rescue missions that officially began in World War II. Combining the cockiness and camaraderie of Top Gun with the heroics of Sully, Unforgotten in the Gulf of Tonkin is a riveting tale of combat rescue and an unforgettable story about the U.S. military's commitment to leave no man behind.
Author: Peter Mersky
Author: Peter Mersky
Author: Bill Spidle
Author: Gerard Paloque
Author: Jim Sullivan
Author: Peter Mersky
Author: Paul T. Gillcrist
Author: Craig C. Hannah
Author: Eileen A. Bjorkman
Author: William Henry Rankin
Author: Lou Drendel