F-8K Crusader

This is a Vought F-8K Crusader on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.

The F-8 Crusader was an air superiority fighter that served the US Navy from the late 1950s through the mid 1980s. A unique feature of the Crusader was its variable incidence wing. Rather than have a very nose high attitude during take off and landing the Crusader’s wing would be tilted up. You can see this where this aircraft’s squadron name (Sundowners VF-111) is painted on at the front of the wing. During normal flight this would be retracted flush with the fuselage.

The Crusader was also intended to be the last US Navy fighter to have a built in gun, and was therefore known as “The Last of the Gunfighters”. Two of the guns can be seen below the cockpit. Poor air-to-air performance by the Phantom II and early aircraft missles lead the US Air Force to add a gun to its version of the F-4, and the gun returned in the US Navy’s F-14 Tomcat.

A detatchment of the VF-111 Sundowners flying F-8C Crusaders served aboard the USS Intrepid for one deployment to Vietnam. Later, while flying the F-14 Tomcat, the Sundowners appeared in the movie Top Gun.

This was taken with a handheld (string monopod) Sputnik on Kodak E100G.