"The Chance-Vought F-8 Crusader was the U.S. Navy's premier single-engine jet air superiority fighter from 1957 to 1976. The aircraft had a unique design feature, a variable-incidence wing, which could be raised to increase the angle of attack, which enabled the sleek Crusader to get additional life for takeoff and use a lower airspeed for carrier landings. The later F-14 Tomcat design incorporated variable geometry "swing wing" capability to achieve the same purposes.
It was the last U.S. aircraft to rely on its internally mounted guns as its primary weapons, although it could carry two AIM-9 Sidewinder guided missiles mounted in cheek pylons and used those with good effect in the Vietnam War.
The F-8 began breaking speed records as soon as it was ready for production. Commander Robert W. Windsor established a national speed record on August 21st, 1956, by reaching 1,015.428 mph over a 15-kilometer course with a standard F-8. This made the Crusader the first operational jet aircraft to fly faster than 1,000 mph. Then on July 16, 1957, future "Mercury Seven" astronaut and U.S. Senator, Marine Corps Major John H. Glenn, Jr., flew an RF-8 photo reconnaissance version of the F8 in a record transcontinental flight, from Los Alamitos, California to Floyd Bennett Field, New York, in 3 hours, 22 minutes, and 50.05 seconds…"
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Armand
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