Paul,
You’re so correct… the French did fly the F-8E(N) Crusader from the early ‘70s through 1999. They made their final Crusader “trap” and “Cat Shot” on the aircraft carrier Foch in November of 1999 and decommissioned their last squadron of Crusaders in December of that year. Many of us were there.
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F-8E(N) Taking a Gulp at Happy Hour from a Super Étendard TankerMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!! You need to
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Last F-8 Crusader Trap November 27 1999Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!! You need to
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Last F-8 Crusader Cat Shot November 27 1999We had a gathering of 150 US Navy and Marine Corps F-8 Crusader pilots and their wives at Landivisiau Naval Airbase, near Brest France where we met with 100 French F-8 Crusader pilots and their wives for the decommissioning ceremonies.
The French pilots beat up the airfield with their F-8 Crusaders doing two air shows a day for three days. The last day and last flight of the F-8 Crusader they did a 5-plane cross at 550 kts in full afterburner with the low man 100 feet above the ground. The wives went to their knees and the guys just stood there in tears. It had been over 25 years since any of the US pilots had flown the Crusader and the French were flying it into the history books.
When the last F-8E(N) shut down and the whine of the J-57 died out… The champagne corks started popping. They catered a castle for the Crusader Ball that evening and 475 of us tried to put a dent in the French wine supply to no avail.
The next morning we drove to Mont Saint Michel located 50 miles South of the Normandy beachhead for a self-guided tour.
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That was followed by brunch at La Mère Poulard where we ordered their world famous omelettes and more great French wine.
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What a Hoot!
Lefty... I took a slick F-4J Phantom up to Mach 2... but it just wasn't the same. Read the Hemingway quote at the bottom of my posts and you'll get the idea...
The F-4 did have it's advantages and was always a crowd pleaser at the NAS Point Mugu Spacefair.
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This is the famous photo by Harry Gann of VX-4's Vandy-One pushing Mach 1 less than 50 feet above the runway. If you've never seen a fighter go by supersonic... It's a real experience... There's no sound until the aircraft is past your position and then the sonic boom hits like a 105mm Howitzer going off 5 feet away.
We flew Vandy-One in the Space Fair Shows all three years I was stationed at VX-4. I also fired several AIM-9L Sidewinders off this aircraft on the missile range at NWC China Lake.
The Bicentennial F-4S prototype was a bird of a different color... several... The leading edge slats were fixed in the extended position so we had to Mach limit the aircraft at .95 Mach to keep from tearing them off.
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We called this bird "Chicken-Licken" for a couple reasons... The paint job and the fact it would turn circles around other Phantoms. If flown properly, it would also turn with the F-14 Tom Cat and A-4 Skyhawk and you could beat them in a rolling scissors...
I took it up to the Edwards test range to calibrate the airspeed and mach indicators and drop off an AIM-9L sidewinder.
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When I finished my runs on the timing rage I called Edwards Tower for a high speed low altitude fly-by... They refused... but they did approve a low pass by the Tower so they could do visual check to see if the landing gear were up...
Soooo... I flew down the runway at 550 kts and 200 feet... and they confirmed my landing gear were up...

Then they asked me to do it again just to be sure... They didn't have their cameras ready...

Take care,
V/R, Batch