Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Crusader FAW F-8KBy 1960, it was obvious to the Admiralty that it needed to update it's Fleet Air Arm's fighters. The UK air industry was seriously lagging behind in many areas and naval aircraft was one which mattered to their Lordships at the admiralty. The US Navy had leapt ahead in the 1950s and become the world's most advanced naval air force, bringing into service a succession of advanced aircraft and the carriers to operate them. The FAA therefore decided that it should engage in some technology transfer, as it is now termed and have an American aircraft license produced in the UK to operate from the existing and future classes of RN carriers.
What was wanted was a powerful, supersonic fighter which had a long range and could incorporate many British pieces of kit as possible in order to keep the cost down. While the F-4 Phantom II was the preferred aircraft, there were doubts it could operate off the smaller British carriers without substantial and expensive modifications of both the aircraft and the carriers. It was also, at this point still very much an unknown quantity, early in it's development and service life. The F-8 Crusader was already operational with the US Fleet and was proving to be an excellent fighter. It also had the advantage that it utilised only one engine which the reasoning went obviously must make it cheaper to purchase and operate!
Negotiations were opened with the Crusader's manufacturer, Chance-Vought. Short Brothers of Belfast had unused manufacturing capacity and was therefore selected as the license manufacture. Based on the two-seat TF-8 trainer, with pilot and radar observer/navigator. Rear fuselage manufacture was to be done in the United States while the front fuselage production and final assembly was to be done in Belfast. The decision was made to substitute a British Engine and the RB.168-25R Spey turbofan, 12,000lb dry thrust, 20,000lb reheat. was chosen, offering superior performance and fuel consumption over the US J-57 turbojet engine normally utilised. It also lifted the maximum speed slightly to nearly Mach 2. The US radar, the AN/APQ-84 was replaced with a version of the Ferranti Airpass I system utilised on the RAF's Lightning fighter which allowed the aircraft to utilise Firestreak and later Red Top IR guided and Blue Top radar guided air-to-air missiles. The four M139 20mm revolver cannon were replaced by two 30mm ADEN revolver cannons in cheek pods, which if necessary could be easily removed to reduce weight and drag. With the variable incidence wing and BLC (Boundary Layer Control) blown ailerons and flaps, it was able to be flown on and off the smaller British carriers with relative ease and only minimal modification.
The aircraft depicted is one from HMS Eagle, 899 NAS, in 1972, carrying a full load of two Red Top IR guided missiles, two Blue Top Radar guided missiles and two 30mm cannons.
The ModelInspired by several threads over at What-if on the F-8K, it is the Academy F-8E kit, mated to the Airmodel TF-8 conversion with some Pavela Harrier 30mm cannon pods and the Red/Blue tops came from Capt'n Canada and Buzzbomb. The Blue tops were constructed with Sparrow radomes after cutting the IR nose off of a standard Red Top. The bang seats are Neomega (fantastically detailed and it was a shame to stick them in 'cause none of it can really be seen).
