Never Underestimate an Old Man Who Flew in an F-8

[Oyaji]

Flying, Fighting, and Ejecting From an F-8 Crusader


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZpT-NK3ogs

[RED]

F-8 guys were a mess. I was in the second seat of a F-4J waiting to take off on NAS Oceana, VA behind a F-8 Crusader. The tower gave him clearance to take off and told him to expedite. He rolled out on the runway and started to turn to line up for takeoff and at the same time he lit the afterburner. That took him off the runway and stuck in the mud half way between 32L and 32R!

[Phloating Phlasher]

I remember seeing a competition (staged) at an air show in the U.K. many decades back.
It was a race to 1000' from a standing start at ground Idle between a British R.A.F. "Lightening" & a French Aronavale F8U Crusader. Both lit up burners & started rolling then the F8 just went vertical & was gone!

[Oyaji]

First recollection I have of the F-8 Crusader was while undergoing recruit training in San Diego in 1968. Our recruit company was bused out to Camp Elliot, adjacent to NAS Miramar, for small arms training and I vividly remember the F-8s flying low over CA State Route 163 while doing field carrier landing practice. What an incredible sight that was for a naive, young Navy recruit! Toward the end of the year, I would be assigned to one of the attack squadrons that shared the flight deck with two Crusader squadrons aboard the USS Hancock conducting flight operations in the Gulf of Tonkin.