Also became infamous during the Falklands War under Argentine control, and during the 1973 Yom Kippur War and 1982 Lebanon War (under Israeli control). It's such a neat little plane
The carrier shown in most of the video is USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14), launched in 1943 and retired in 1973. She was an outstanding war fighting vessel that, along with her crews and airmen, served the USA with distinction from WWII into the Vietnam War.
@xfire7 ...in the eye of the beholder as they say. My dad flew the F3 for VF-92 onboard USS Ranger in (I think) 1959. He loved it !!! His was the repowered 'screamin Demon'. New engines were in the works until the F4 came along and the F3 was cancelled. There was a flight of F8 Crusaders coming up the CA coast. Dad was waiting for them and flew full burner right over their heads. He then pulled up into the clouds and disappeared! If it was a clear day they could have caught him !
I actually have this on a DVD called Jets volume one: Thunder Altitude and Attitude. It is all McDonnell products. Also includes the original Phantom, XF-85 Goblin, XP-67 Moonbat and F-101 footage. Not bad for a Dollar Store find!
I was an AT but the Ordnancemen let me load the 20mm cannons. I also was on a Special Weapons Loading Team, which was #1 in the Pacific Fleet. This was on A-4s.
One of my earliest memories was watching a pilot swinging underneath his chute after ejecting from a Cutlass while I was living at NAS Miramar in the early 50s. My Dad did 30 years in the Navy, (45-75) and I did 20 (70-90). I worked on F-4s, A-4s, A-3s, F-14s, and A-6s to name a few. I saw all of those early jets come & go while living at a variety of Air Stations.
The F3H was the worst dog ever. Every where our planes parked they created a giant pool of hydraulic fluid. The couldn't take off from Miramar without a big head wind n The only thing that worked right in the electronics was the radio and tacan
I worked at McDonnell Aircraft in the mid 1950's when the F3H's were being built alongside the F-101's on the assembly line. These aircraft made their first flights and some test flights from the factory at Lambert Field, and the F3H's used most of the runway just to clear Country Day School at the East end of the runway. We had a couple of fatal F3H flights when these aircraft lost power after take-off. One landed in a golf course about a mile from my house and burst into flames a couple hundred feet from N. Florrisant Avenue. The other landed in a neighborhood and destroyed a few homes. Mr. James S. McDonnell was in tears when he announced these crashes over the company PA system. Fortunately, MAC's chief test pilot, Bob Little, was never involved in any crashes. On the last batch of F3H's, they were completed without engines and towed down Natural Bridge Road through St. Louis and loaded on barges at the Mississippi riverfront. The Navy used them as maintenance trainers.
More importantly than these fascinating early jets was the spirit of the age in America at that time. You can feel its power in the narration, the scenes, and that special something that is felt but can't be described. America in a 30 year post-war period of glory that we haven't felt since then. I noticed utter spiritual exhaustion in America in the 1990's and now we're just a soulless golem state. Films and newsreels like this can only give a small and temporary sense but, once the movie is done, the spirit leaves. Today's America is not fit for anything worthy.
When Ed Heinemann was designing the A4D-1 he did his best to keep the aircraft as simple as possible for reasons of cost and reliability. Also ease of maintenance.
This was an interesting time when more than one type of aircraft was being tested at the same time,and put in service if only for a couple years,before traded for a better design or mission role!! I just bought a 1/72 scale combo kit of F9F-8/8B Cougar,with 4 different units,that had deployed between March 1956~Dec 1957,including one that was used for the Shakedown and then first cruise of the new Forrestal-class USS Saratoga(CVA-60),and a quick month "show of force" Nov~Dec 1956,on USS FDR
LOL, announcer fucks up at 3:18, says "...the A4D Skyray approaches...". He is mixing up the F4D Skyray and the A4D Skyhawk. The F4D was called the "Ford" (obviously), and the Skyhawk went on to be one of the greats of the 20th century. Kind of surprising how modern familiarity makes it seem to the viewer's eye, and strange to think it was actually a contemporary with these other ancient looking jets that were long-gone by the 1960s.
This is taken aboard USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) probably just before she was modified and given an angled flight deck and an enclosed hurricane bow as part of the SCB-125 program.
my cousin flew Skyraiders off the Bennington. (CV-19) His first cruise had Furys and Demons on board. I've got all his Kodachrome slides from two years of cruises in the Pacific 1959 and 1960.
@kblackav8or For a 50 year old design, they still are used by a few military's in the world. Argentina still flys them, even using them effectively in the Falklands war. They even have a carrier that they fly out of. The A-4 has really proven itself, as a good simple solid design will always have appeal for someone.
The Demon got the bulk of the attention here but the Skyray with the P&W J-57 was a hotter ship. The F-7U having performance and handling issues, was not long with the fleet. In fact, after only a few short years, the A-4D Skyhawk, AKA Scooter, would be the only aircraft here still flying with the Navy. I last worked on the aircraft in 1991 while attached to VFC-13 at NAS Miramar.
@TurbineDogSevenFour It was swaid that Westinghouse toasters produced more heat than their jet engines. The good thing about the F-3 was that it taught lessons that led to the F-4.phantom.
The Phantom did have some F3H components along with others from the F-101, plus similar hydraulic & flight control systems. Some ended up in Memphis as "A" school trainers and I worked with them when I attended in 1970. I had always heard that the last batch of them was flown right to Davis-Mothan for scrapping.
The old engines really left a lot to be desired. A modern engine would would make any of these airplanes much more impressive then they ever were in their day. The Skyhawk is the only one that appears to really have adequate power. It could still be a useful plane.
In 1962 I was almost killed when a Demon landed (at about 160 kts) on the angle deck and lost the entire starboard landing gear. the wheel separated from the strut, with the latter cartwheeling over the angle deck into the ocean. The plane successfully boltered, the wheel and tire bounced 2 or 3 times, then hauled ass, in a straight line, right for me and a group of about 40 guys standing in the middle of the deck, all the way forward. I yelled a warning, and everybody scattered. Saw ejection.
I never realized how truly massive the Demon was, I thought it would be around the same size as the F11F Tiger but it's actually about the same size as the Super Hornet...
Of these four, only the F4D Skyray and the A4 Skyhawks were successful…with the A4 having the most successful and longstanding career…the other two, the Cutlass and the Demon, had almost catastrophic histories…
The F3H-1, the first version of the Demon, almost sunk McDonnell Aircraft. They were woefully under powered and a promised new engine from Westinghouse never materialized. The Navy permanently grounded them and they were towed from Lambert Field, right through St. Louis to the Mississippi River so they could be barged to Memphis, TN to be used as ground maintenance trainers. After this debacle, Westinghouse got out of the jet engine business.
Ellef.... you remember the "Finger Room"? I was in AMH School 69/70... years later a kid that worked for me said the finger was stolen but still talked about.... this was in the 80'S! LOLOL
@MrBanjo The Demon could have, but by the time the plane was fully operational, McDonnell Douglas had already begun plans on the F4H-1 (F-4). Which borrowed a lot from the Demon's design but also improved things drastically.
@jonesy97 I will build one in 1/72 scale in the near future. in natural metal finish I think. I love the "cab forward" cockpit. Pilots in the Cutlass had great visibility at least.
On May 25, 1982 a couple of these old aircraft armed with old bombs sank a modern Type 42 destroyer and knocked out a Type 22 frigate during the Malvinas War. So maybe we're talking about a good aircraft!
@ninjarider1 There was really no reason or need or want to keep the Demon in service once the F-4B became operational in 61-62. It could do all the things the F4H-1 (F-4) could do all things the F3H could do much faster, with a better radar, and at a longer range. Plus the F-4B could carry dedicated A/G ordinance. The design of McDonnell Douglas F3H and F4H can be looked at the way the Convair F-102 and F-106 were designed. One was a place holder until the company could update the design.
Cool video! At 5:47 it looks like a F-117. A-4 was an old fav to me. Loved them as a BA almost as much as the Phantom both for opposite sides of the performance scale.
@xfire7 It's just you :) The Demon was evolved into the F-4 Phantom, one of the best 3rd Generation Jets ever made. The Demon had missiles, cannons, and had a very good record with the Navy. It gave a poor first impression because of the Wright jet engine fiasco of the early 1950s. But the F-3 performed brilliantly during the Bay of Pigs stand off.
Bill H our demons(VF-151)n 62-63 had guns removed&plugged holes..just sparrow IIIs&sidewinders..a good stable platform to launch from...they scored well at Pt.Magu too.. AQF2. GS
@xfire7 Not just you mate - to me it looks wrong too. Whereas that Skyray and the A4 look "right". Pity the skyray had a poor engine, but it was a pioneer aircraft aerodynamically.
It was also an ugly performer. I remember reading, about 50 years ago, about aircraft engineers starting to use computers to design planes in the late 50s. They decided to run all the plans for a plane, currently in service, through their computers, to see what would happen. For some arcane reason, they ran the plans for the Demon through the computer. Guess what? The computer said that the plane would not fly. That's the fact, Jack.
lol and thanks for your service! I just finished reading about the Cutlass. 78 planes lost out of 1000. wow! but it some said that it was more of the equipment to blame than the plane: bad engines, forward landing gear that was too high and weak, immature hydraulic control system etc... but that the plane had potential: good maneuverability and very stable as an attack platform. is that true? Would you say the same of the Demon?
this is so similar to A4... the only real advantage must had been the AA radar, which allowed for BVR engagement... but back in the 50/60 BVR was not even close to be reliable, so at the end of the day even A4 with AIM-9B were a better choice if directed by ground/naval radar, and skyhawks also were cheaper, way more reliable and have better Air to ground capabilities
Goah thats a small carrier; it would appear that the Demon has a very good slow speed handling characteristic. There was a Cutlass.. phew! lucky none crashed in this short clip ;)
Yeah but the Phantom was a HUGE success and the Demon was a total slug. Westinghouse engines left a LOT to be desired. It wasn't that clean of aircraft and the F-8 was by FAR a superior bird. He who says the Demon with later engines was better than the Mig Master is gullible, there was about 400 kts difference!.
Honestly, I don't know WHAT the guys who designed fighters at McDonnell were thinking before they made the Phantom. The FH, F2H, and F3H were all absolutely gutless.
Ben Peltola I disagree with your comment about the FH Phantom 1 and the F2H Banshee being gutless. The FH Phantom 1 was the first jet aircraft ever flown by the Navy, and in 1946 it was the first jet in history to take-off from and land on an aircraft carrier. That was only a year after WW2 ended - pretty early in jet technology. Only 62 FH-1 Phantom 1's were built, but they served as a functional prototype for the highly successful F2H Banshee. My uncle flew Banshee's in the Korean War and he had nothing but praise to say about the aircraft. He liked the reliability of two engines on his low level missions where a stray rifle bullet from the ground had the potential to inflict a rotor burst. He never called the F2H Banshee gutless.
Is it just me or does the F3 look a bit like the A4? On the touch and go landing part with the F3 I actually thought they had moved on to testing the A4 when It was approaching head on.
McDonnell aircraft was counting on the Westinghouse J-40 when it designedthe Demon. That engine turned out to be a huge failues. And the engine that was substituted, the J-71 lacked the power required. If they could have gotten a Pratt and Whitney J-57 into it, the aircraft could have been a success. Ugly? Looks like a single engine F-4 Phantom to me.
Maggot King When it landed, the starboard main gear broke off the plane, with the strut tumbling over the edge of the angle deck, and the 400 pound tire and wheel bouncing a couple of times and then hauling ass straight down the flight deck, at about 180 mph, straight for me and about 50 other sailors. I was the only guy to see the accident and see that 4 foot diameter tire coming towards us. I gave the alarm and everybody scattered. Not a single one of those shits thanked me for saving their lives. The Demon boltered successfully, and I got to see the pilot eject about an hour later.
Wow, interesting story there! Glad to hear you or none of the other sailors weren't hurt. I met a sailor here a few years ago and he claimed the Cutlass was the biggest piece of junk the Navy ever bought, mainly due to the fact it was so hopelessly underpowered and the nose gear would sometimes collapse into the cockpit killing the pilot.
My whole squadron got to see LT. "Filthy Phil" Benz (we also had a LT. (j.g.) "Chicken-shit" Callahan in the squadron) take off, in an A-4 Skyhawk, right in front of our hanger, at Lemoore Naval Air Station, California, right after morning muster. He rotated right in front of us, rose about 30 feet, retracted his wheels, and FLAMED OUT. His gear doors had closed, and he quickly activated the gear handle, to lower it. The main gear came down quickly, and locked, but the nose wheel had to rotate forward, against wind pressure, and was much slower coming down. We were all going, "Lock, you mother, lock." Another second or two, and it would have locked, but it wasn't there when the wheel contacted the runway. The strut was jammed straight up through the nose of the plane, coming out the top of the nose. He skidded off the runway, kicking up a cloud of dirt, and quickly came to a stop. The canopy opened, "Filthy Phil" climbed out, and hit the ground running. No fire and no injuries. The A-4, in the photo to the right, is an A-4E, in which the nose gear moves forward to retract. We were flying A-4Bs, w/o radar, and the gear retracted to the rear.
The little A-4 Skyhawk, Ed Heineman's hot-rod, became one of the Navy's best aircraft.
Also became infamous during the Falklands War under Argentine control, and during the 1973 Yom Kippur War and 1982 Lebanon War (under Israeli control).
It's such a neat little plane
The carrier shown in most of the video is USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14), launched in 1943 and retired in 1973. She was an outstanding war fighting vessel that, along with her crews and airmen, served the USA with distinction from WWII into the Vietnam War.
It's amazing to think that the Skyhawk is still in use with some air forces these days.
@derekkudcs2816bro just had a sonder moment
@xfire7 ...in the eye of the beholder as they say. My dad flew the F3 for VF-92 onboard USS Ranger in (I think) 1959. He loved it !!! His was the repowered 'screamin Demon'. New engines were in the works until the F4 came along and the F3 was cancelled. There was a flight of F8 Crusaders coming up the CA coast. Dad was waiting for them and flew full burner right over their heads. He then pulled up into the clouds and disappeared! If it was a clear day they could have caught him !
I actually have this on a DVD called Jets volume one: Thunder Altitude and Attitude. It is all McDonnell products. Also includes the original Phantom, XF-85 Goblin, XP-67 Moonbat and F-101 footage. Not bad for a Dollar Store find!
I know this was 11 years ago but, Nice!
We had the A-4 in Jax at AO-A school in 69, it was an easy bird to load!
I was an AT but the Ordnancemen let me load the 20mm cannons. I also was on a Special Weapons Loading Team, which was #1 in the Pacific Fleet. This was on A-4s.
One of my earliest memories was watching a pilot swinging underneath his chute after ejecting from a Cutlass while I was living at NAS Miramar in the early 50s. My Dad did 30 years in the Navy, (45-75) and I did 20 (70-90). I worked on F-4s, A-4s, A-3s, F-14s, and A-6s to name a few. I saw all of those early jets come & go while living at a variety of Air Stations.
wow impressive find. The pilots who flew both the Demon and Cutlass had serious balls as both machines were underpowered and serious handling defects.
The F3H was the worst dog ever. Every where our planes parked they created a giant pool of hydraulic fluid. The couldn't take off from Miramar without a big head wind n The only thing that worked right in the electronics was the radio and tacan
those guys really earned their money... Pioneers...
Hats off to all !
I worked at McDonnell Aircraft in the mid 1950's when the F3H's were being built alongside the F-101's on the assembly line. These aircraft made their first flights and some test flights from the factory at Lambert Field, and the F3H's used most of the runway just to clear Country Day School at the East end of the runway. We had a couple of fatal F3H flights when these aircraft lost power after take-off. One landed in a golf course about a mile from my house and burst into flames a couple hundred feet from N. Florrisant Avenue. The other landed in a neighborhood and destroyed a few homes. Mr. James S. McDonnell was in tears when he announced these crashes over the company PA system. Fortunately, MAC's chief test pilot, Bob Little, was never involved in any crashes. On the last batch of F3H's, they were completed without engines and towed down Natural Bridge Road through St. Louis and loaded on barges at the Mississippi riverfront. The Navy used them as maintenance trainers.
I'm curious to know why they didn't put a J57 in it.
I like how out of all of the planes tested, the A-4 was the only one to see the light of the 21st Century…
Still my favorite aircraft to this day
More importantly than these fascinating early jets was the spirit of the age in America at that time. You can feel its power in the narration, the scenes, and that special something that is felt but can't be described. America in a 30 year post-war period of glory that we haven't felt since then. I noticed utter spiritual exhaustion in America in the 1990's and now we're just a soulless golem state. Films and newsreels like this can only give a small and temporary sense but, once the movie is done, the spirit leaves. Today's America is not fit for anything worthy.
One of the best old navy jet vids that I've seen.
When Ed Heinemann was designing the A4D-1 he did his best to keep the aircraft as simple as possible for reasons of cost and reliability. Also ease of maintenance.
This was an interesting time when more than one type of aircraft was being tested at the same time,and put in service if only for a couple years,before traded for a better design or mission role!! I just bought a 1/72 scale combo kit of F9F-8/8B Cougar,with 4 different units,that had deployed between March 1956~Dec 1957,including one that was used for the Shakedown and then first cruise of the new Forrestal-class USS Saratoga(CVA-60),and a quick month "show of force" Nov~Dec 1956,on USS FDR
The F-4’s older brother. Shame the Demon never got a more powerful engine and a chance to see combat in vietnam. Still a great plane none the less
Thanks for this our RNZAF operated the A-4 Skyhawks🇳🇿👍✈️
LOL, announcer fucks up at 3:18, says "...the A4D Skyray approaches...". He is mixing up the F4D Skyray and the A4D Skyhawk. The F4D was called the "Ford" (obviously), and the Skyhawk went on to be one of the greats of the 20th century. Kind of surprising how modern familiarity makes it seem to the viewer's eye, and strange to think it was actually a contemporary with these other ancient looking jets that were long-gone by the 1960s.
This is taken aboard USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) probably just before she was modified and given an angled flight deck and an enclosed hurricane bow as part of the SCB-125 program.
That Cutlass was one bizzare aircraft. Still, it's great to see all this classic aviation video. The A-4 would go on to win the big contract.
Now to get things into perspective, the 55 Chevy was one year old at this time.
@MrBanjo Ed Heinneman was one of those rare geniuses, a contemporary of Kelly Johnson. Between them they created some extraordinary aircraft.
That's cool, all 4 types of planes were tested 🎉
my cousin flew Skyraiders off the Bennington. (CV-19) His first cruise had Furys and Demons on board. I've got all his Kodachrome slides from two years of cruises in the Pacific 1959 and 1960.
@kblackav8or For a 50 year old design, they still are used by a few military's in the world. Argentina still flys them, even using them effectively in the Falklands war. They even have a carrier that they fly out of. The A-4 has really proven itself, as a good simple solid design will always have appeal for someone.
The Demon got the bulk of the attention here but the Skyray with the P&W J-57 was a hotter ship. The F-7U having performance and handling issues, was not long with the fleet. In fact, after only a few short years, the A-4D Skyhawk, AKA Scooter, would be the only aircraft here still flying with the Navy. I last worked on the aircraft in 1991 while attached to VFC-13 at NAS Miramar.
@TurbineDogSevenFour It was swaid that Westinghouse toasters produced more heat than their jet engines. The good thing about the F-3 was that it taught lessons that led to the F-4.phantom.
The Phantom did have some F3H components along with others from the F-101, plus similar hydraulic & flight control systems. Some ended up in Memphis as "A" school trainers and I worked with them when I attended in 1970. I had always heard that the last batch of them was flown right to Davis-Mothan for scrapping.
The old engines really left a lot to be desired. A modern engine would would make any of these airplanes much more impressive then they ever were in their day. The Skyhawk is the only one that appears to really have adequate power. It could still be a useful plane.
I thought that there was a similarity on first sight. Thanks for confirming it!
The Screamin' Demon as we called it is the cousin of the F4 Phantom! - (which replaced it in the fleet). -JDT0710
In 1962 I was almost killed when a Demon landed (at about 160 kts) on the angle deck and lost the entire starboard landing gear. the wheel separated from the strut, with the latter cartwheeling over the angle deck into the ocean. The plane successfully boltered, the wheel and tire bounced 2 or 3 times, then hauled ass, in a straight line, right for me and a group of about 40 guys standing in the middle of the deck, all the way forward. I yelled a warning, and everybody scattered. Saw ejection.
I never realized how truly massive the Demon was, I thought it would be around the same size as the F11F Tiger but it's actually about the same size as the Super Hornet...
Seriously? That's big
@@bt_the_yank6234 dimensions wise it was essentially a Phantom with 1 less engine and 1 less seat.
Of these four, only the F4D Skyray and the A4 Skyhawks were successful…with the A4 having the most successful and longstanding career…the other two, the Cutlass and the Demon, had almost catastrophic histories…
Such a classic era 💜.
The F3H-1, the first version of the Demon, almost sunk McDonnell Aircraft. They were woefully under powered and a promised new engine from Westinghouse never materialized. The Navy permanently grounded them and they were towed from Lambert Field, right through St. Louis to the Mississippi River so they could be barged to Memphis, TN to be used as ground maintenance trainers. After this debacle, Westinghouse got out of the jet engine business.
beautiful plane! Thanks for the upload!
Demon is such a sweet looking jet.
The Cutlass was one of the strangest looking aircraft ever in the inventory. Did it ever see active service? If so, what years?
jonesy97 it was a terrible aircraft n had huge amount of accidents
👌nice the older jets are cool.
Ellef.... you remember the "Finger Room"? I was in AMH School 69/70... years later a kid that worked for me said the finger was stolen but still talked about.... this was in the 80'S! LOLOL
....Then came The Phantom.....Awesome Planes.!
@MrBanjo
The Demon could have, but by the time the plane was fully operational, McDonnell Douglas had already begun plans on the F4H-1 (F-4). Which borrowed a lot from the Demon's design but also improved things drastically.
There is a reason for the resemblance. The original starting point for the Phantom was the Demon. The Phantom was to be a 2 engined "Super Demon".
finally a video that isnt about "sky demons"
@jonesy97 I will build one in 1/72 scale in the near future. in natural metal finish I think. I love the "cab forward" cockpit. Pilots in the Cutlass had great visibility at least.
Yes it did through the early to mid fifties. But techinical problems ended it. A pity as it was a jet well ahead of its time in design etc.
On May 25, 1982 a couple of these old aircraft armed with old bombs sank a modern Type 42 destroyer and knocked out a Type 22 frigate during the Malvinas War. So maybe we're talking about a good aircraft!
Wow! wave offs are dicey without an angled flight deck!
@ninjarider1
There was really no reason or need or want to keep the Demon in service once the F-4B became operational in 61-62. It could do all the things the F4H-1 (F-4) could do all things the F3H could do much faster, with a better radar, and at a longer range. Plus the F-4B could carry dedicated A/G ordinance.
The design of McDonnell Douglas F3H and F4H can be looked at the way the Convair F-102 and F-106 were designed. One was a place holder until the company could update the design.
@jonesy97 The Cutlass saw service from the mid-fifties until the early sixties when they were replaced by the F-8 Crusader.
Actually the Cutlass served with the fleet for a few years. Blue Angels had a couple of them too!
That demon definitely has some Phantom like lines!
Cool video! At 5:47 it looks like a F-117. A-4 was an old fav to me. Loved them as a BA almost as much as the Phantom both for opposite sides of the performance scale.
The Cutlass climb rate sure was marginal. Underpowered deathtrap.
@crotchboots For a film pushing that pane, in the end the real winner was the A-4, which is still serving in some countries!
@xfire7
It's just you :)
The Demon was evolved into the F-4 Phantom, one of the best 3rd Generation Jets ever made.
The Demon had missiles, cannons, and had a very good record with the Navy. It gave a poor first impression because of the Wright jet engine fiasco of the early 1950s. But the F-3 performed brilliantly during the Bay of Pigs stand off.
Bill H our demons(VF-151)n 62-63 had guns removed&plugged holes..just sparrow IIIs&sidewinders..a good stable platform to launch from...they scored well at Pt.Magu too.. AQF2. GS
@xfire7 Not just you mate - to me it looks wrong too. Whereas that Skyray and the A4 look "right". Pity the skyray had a poor engine, but it was a pioneer aircraft aerodynamically.
It was also an ugly performer. I remember reading, about 50 years ago, about aircraft engineers starting to use computers to design planes in the late 50s. They decided to run all the plans for a plane, currently in service, through their computers, to see what would happen. For some arcane reason, they ran the plans for the Demon through the computer. Guess what? The computer said that the plane would not fly. That's the fact, Jack.
landing those underpowered jet's on an un-angled deck must have given a very high pucker factor to the pilot & crews.
Pucker factor 5
@Craigers22763 Thanks for the info! I'd probably have to go visit a Naval Air Station somewhere to see a static one on display. Remarkably strange!
That A-4 sexy beast!
lol and thanks for your service! I just finished reading about the Cutlass. 78 planes lost out of 1000. wow! but it some said that it was more of the equipment to blame than the plane: bad engines, forward landing gear that was too high and weak, immature hydraulic control system etc... but that the plane had potential: good maneuverability and very stable as an attack platform. is that true? Would you say the same of the Demon?
this is so similar to A4... the only real advantage must had been the AA radar, which allowed for BVR engagement... but back in the 50/60 BVR was not even close to be reliable, so at the end of the day even A4 with AIM-9B were a better choice if directed by ground/naval radar, and skyhawks also were cheaper, way more reliable and have better Air to ground capabilities
Where can i find this Videos ? Some place to order ?
best regards
It was a radical design. The six foot tall nose landing gear strut was weird though.
Goah thats a small carrier; it would appear that the Demon has a very good slow speed handling characteristic. There was a Cutlass.. phew! lucky none crashed in this short clip ;)
Most fighters land on a carrier at about 130 knots. The Demon landed at 160 knots. That's a HUGE difference.
The Father of the legendary Phantom
Yeah but the Phantom was a HUGE success and the Demon was a total slug. Westinghouse engines left a LOT to be desired. It wasn't that clean of aircraft and the F-8 was by FAR a superior bird. He who says the Demon with later engines was better than the Mig Master is gullible, there was about 400 kts difference!.
Honestly, I don't know WHAT the guys who designed fighters at McDonnell were thinking before they made the Phantom. The FH, F2H, and F3H were all absolutely gutless.
I think Forerunner would be a better term.
uhm uhm it was XF-88 Voodoo, the shape was continuing in Demon and Phantom 2.
Ben Peltola I disagree with your comment about the FH Phantom 1 and the F2H Banshee being gutless. The FH Phantom 1 was the first jet aircraft ever flown by the Navy, and in 1946 it was the first jet in history to take-off from and land on an aircraft carrier. That was only a year after WW2 ended - pretty early in jet technology. Only 62 FH-1 Phantom 1's were built, but they served as a functional prototype for the highly successful F2H Banshee. My uncle flew Banshee's in the Korean War and he had nothing but praise to say about the aircraft. He liked the reliability of two engines on his low level missions where a stray rifle bullet from the ground had the potential to inflict a rotor burst. He never called the F2H Banshee gutless.
Wonder how the Cutlass would have done with a proper powerplant
A guess the wobbly old cutlass didn't make the cut?
WOW, That does put it into perspective!
comment is a year old, but deserves correction: The Argie's no longer fly A-4's and their carrier retired years ago.
Ah, Heinemann's Hot Rod!
Is it just me or does the F3 look a bit like the A4? On the touch and go landing part with the F3 I actually thought they had moved on to testing the A4 when It was approaching head on.
Aaron Young maybe a morbidly obese A-4
The F3H is a F-35 with single tail.
Nice clip - that carrier deck looks tiny!
We had both a F-3 Demon and A-4 at AMH A School in 69 - 70, The A-4 was sweet in it's simplicity, the Demon well not so much.
If it was A school at NAS Memphis, I remember working/training on those in '71.
この時代の米海軍機が好きです。😍
The A-4 Skyhawk would've blown all these aircraft out of the water, hands down.
The new F-35 looks like a 21st century version of the F-3 Demon.
Nosewheel on the white line and everything.
Screamin Demon and Gutless Cutlass.... what POS, the F4D short lived was a trend setter and the A-4 was worth it's weight in gold.
A4 also known as "ALL THE ROCKETS!!!!!!!!!!!"
Both McDonnell and Douglas before they merged made some great aircraft.
some sad aircraft luckily they didnt meet any Mig 17's in combat....until the F8U showed up
McDonnell aircraft was counting on the Westinghouse J-40 when it designedthe Demon. That engine turned out to be a huge failues. And the engine that was substituted, the J-71 lacked the power required. If they could have gotten a Pratt and Whitney J-57 into it, the aircraft could have been a success.
Ugly? Looks like a single engine F-4 Phantom to me.
Coming in 1.99
Cutlass, AKA Gutless, Ensign Eliminator...
I saw an F-7U Cutless at the Everett Washington Air Museum, was quite ugly IMHO.
The F-3H-2N looks a bit like the new F-35.
Very old carrier..
too bad they couldnt have used a J-47 in the Cutless.....it could have developed?
Henneman Hot Rod !
Again I think the F 3 looks like a 1950's version of the F 35 with its fat looking fuselage and stuby nose cone.
The Demon was a giant piece of crap that could barely fly. I was in VA-56, on the Ticonderoga, and was almost killed by a Demon, in October, 1962.
+theoriginalbadbob what was wrong with the air craft? how did it almost kill you?
Maggot King When it landed, the starboard main gear broke off the plane, with the strut tumbling over the edge of the angle deck, and the 400 pound tire and wheel bouncing a couple of times and then hauling ass straight down the flight deck, at about 180 mph, straight for me and about 50 other sailors. I was the only guy to see the accident and see that 4 foot diameter tire coming towards us. I gave the alarm and everybody scattered. Not a single one of those shits thanked me for saving their lives. The Demon boltered successfully, and I got to see the pilot eject about an hour later.
damn
Wow, interesting story there! Glad to hear you or none of the other sailors weren't hurt. I met a sailor here a few years ago and he claimed the Cutlass was the biggest piece of junk the Navy ever bought, mainly due to the fact it was so hopelessly underpowered and the nose gear would sometimes collapse into the cockpit killing the pilot.
My whole squadron got to see LT. "Filthy Phil" Benz (we also had a LT. (j.g.) "Chicken-shit" Callahan in the squadron) take off, in an A-4 Skyhawk, right in front of our hanger, at Lemoore Naval Air Station, California, right after morning muster. He rotated right in front of us, rose about 30 feet, retracted his wheels, and FLAMED OUT. His gear doors had closed, and he quickly activated the gear handle, to lower it. The main gear came down quickly, and locked, but the nose wheel had to rotate forward, against wind pressure, and was much slower coming down. We were all going, "Lock, you mother, lock." Another second or two, and it would have locked, but it wasn't there when the wheel contacted the runway. The strut was jammed straight up through the nose of the plane, coming out the top of the nose. He skidded off the runway, kicking up a cloud of dirt, and quickly came to a stop. The canopy opened, "Filthy Phil" climbed out, and hit the ground running. No fire and no injuries. The A-4, in the photo to the right, is an A-4E, in which the nose gear moves forward to retract. We were flying A-4Bs, w/o radar, and the gear retracted to the rear.
It's too bad the Demon kind of sucked as a fighter. It was a good looking jet.
Screaming demon!
Thos aircraft engines are rather poor on fuel usage.
Proto phantom
too bad it didnt have a j-57.