Vought F-8 Crusader : 1955 - 1999

A highly-illustrated study of the 30-year career of the US Navy's first supersonic aircraft, the Vought F-8 Crusader Repeating its earlier success with the legendary World War II fighter, the F4U Corsair, Vought built 1,250 examples of the Crusader, the US Navy's first supersonic aircraft.

This fighter, with its unusual variable incidence wing, made its maiden flight in March 1955 and equipped more than 70 Navy and Marine Corps squadrons during its 30-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 18 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 specialising 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from its small aircraft carriers, and the Aeronavale's last 'Crouze', and thereby the last F-8 in the world, was withdrawn from service in October 1999.