Flying the F-8 Crusader | Kurt Schroeder (Part 1)

Former F-8 Crusader pilot, Kurt Schoeder, shares what it was like to fly the F-8, how it handled, the J57 engine, and much more!
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[@jetaddicted]

These flew above my house until the mid nineties, with the French Navy.

[@mikewysko2268]

A interview with a French Navy F8 pilot would be interesting.

[@babboon5764]

I didn't even realise there *were* houses in the French navy.

[@IosuamacaMhadaidh]

I think he means the French navy were flying them over his house.

[@Thetequilashooter1]

Discovery has a show about this beast called “The Last Dogfighter.” It really owned the skies over Nam, and had the best kill-to-death ratio out of all the fighters.

[@patrickgrasso541]

Great seeing Kurt Schroeder again!! Was our Test Pilot for F-14 A/B conversion at Grumman St. Augustine and also the EA-6B!!

[@IrishManJT]

Fantastic! I was lucky enough to witness two French Navy F8 Crusaders take off from RAF Fairford many years ago. I distinctly remember hearing the double tap (Boom Boom) of the afterburner. Absolutely Glorious. 😎

[@arthurfricchione8119]

Hi Kurt first aircraft I ever worked on in 68 when assigned to Service Test at PAX River Naval base. First high power engine when going into burner was awesome. I will now watch the interview. 🇺🇸

[@arthurfricchione8119]

Thanks for sharing. While down at Pax with the F14 never asked you about your time at test pilot school. I don’t know what year you were there but back in 68 I was assigned to Service Test. The Flight Test barracks was right next to the Service Test barrack. Yes the old wooden barracks. Did you ever fly out of Service Test during Test Pilot Training? We maintained a variety of aircraft. Learned a lot before being transferred to Heavy One and the RA5C. Still in touch with the crew of the aircraft I maintained during our West PAC cruise aboard the Ranger 1970. Your looking well. I miss the old days they were great Artie 🇺🇸

[@fourfortyroadrunner6701]

MAN!! Just found this channel. ETR-2, USN, 68-74, NAS Miramar 70-74, I maintained GCA/ TACAN. Miramar was a very busy place back then. Our shop was out behind the "bore sight range" off the high speed taxiway

[@DUBEE43]

Love CRUSADER!!!!! HAS BAD ASS WRITTEN ALL OVER IT 👍

[@mikewysko2268]

We thank you for sharing your F8 experience with us aviation enthusiasts. 🇺🇸✈🏁😎

[@arielalvarez5553]

Great interview, thanks a lot. The French Navy had its F-8 Crusader equipped with Matra 530 radar guide missiles. It was a very obsolete missile ended. The French F-8 also had the capability of launching the Matra 550 Magic I and II infrared missiles.

[@mikewysko2268]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know the French Navy had upgraded the F8 capability.

[@jpgabobo]

Yes, at last ...F-8! Needs more love. Thank you for the GREAT posts.

[@thetreblerebel]

One of my all time favorites, a Navy MiG KILLER

[@monstrok]

Thanks for posting this interview. Love the F-8 and have a couple of friends that flew them during their Naval Aviation careers.

[@kellywilson8440]

I was stationed at NAS Cecil Field Fla mid 80's in an F-18 squadron , Always enjoyed seeing the occasional F-8 , I dont think there is any feathering the afterburner it was either off or on . Made one heck of a boom very impressive ! Great review sir .

[@MrWarwick15]

Thanks Kurt and Mike. Great content! Rich.

[@userformerlyknownassquid8639]

I met this guy a few years ago in sequim wa. I helped pack his garage up. Cool guy.

[@jacobrudder7582]

Fantastic interview, thank you for bringing this content to us.

[@Aircrewinterview]

Cheers :)

[@antonleimbach648]

You do a great job handling these interviews. Letting the subject talk and also keeping them on subject is not easy and your excellent at it.

[@Aircrewinterview]

Thank you very much for your kind words.

[@bensmith7536]

Your channel is waaaay overdue to blow up, seriously.

[@Aircrewinterview]

Cheers Ben.

[@matthayward7889]

Absolutely this!

[@timwingham8952]

Crusader.....a real gunfighter. Looked sooooo mean!

[@gort8203]

Slogan trumps reality. Records indicate the F-8 got most of its kills in Vietnam with the AIM-9. The F-105 fighter-bomber not only got more MiG kills than the F-8, but it got the vast majority of them with the gun. It will never become the popular narrative, but in terms of actual combat results one could say the F-105 was the last of the U.S. gunfighters. :-)

[@thefrecklepuny]

Love the F-8 as a fighter. The same basic engine as the F-100 but much better performance despite the higher gross weight!

[@gort8203]

I also like the F-8, but the numbers I don't found don't indicate that it had all *that* much more performance than the F-100. The F-8 didn't weigh more than the F-100, had nearly identical GW and MTOW, and was actually a 3000 lb lighter when empty. It also had an extra 2000 lbs of thrust. So the F-8 had higher T/W and was indeed a bit faster, but the F-100 climbed a bit better and had lower wing loading. I'd say determining which airplane had an edge would depend on what you were trying to do with it, as they were in the same general performance category despite the fact that the F-8 was the more recent design. I've got nothing against the F-8 at all and it did raise the bar a bit -- it's just that I see it constantly bathed by unwarranted mystique worship, while the F-100 suffers an undeserved level of disrespect. The pilots that flew the F-8 were what really distinguished it because they were still training to dogfight while the F-100 pilots had to spend most of their time on the bombing range.

[@wwclay86]

@@gort8203 in combat in Vietnam, the F-100 was found wanting. It was not up to par in the air combat game. Some were shot down on mig cap missions...the crusader is the better of the two.

[@gort8203]

@@wwclay86 The Crusader should been the better of the two, being the younger more recent design. It was indeed a bit faster, and perhaps had better landing characteristics because the designers learned from earlier jets and gave it enough vertical stabilizer to start with. But it it did not have "much" better performance on the same basic engine as the F-100 despite a higher gross weight. Just look at the numbers and you can see speed is its only advantage over the Hun. The F-100 was used mostly as a fighter-bomber in the south, so it's pointless to compare its air to air record with any aircraft that flew a lot of CAP and escort. The F-8 was a good fighter, but it's overrated by fanboys due to decades of PR hype and slogans like "the last of the gunfighters".

[@wwclay86]

@@gort8203 you had a super saver just wasn't up to the mustard all the ones in Vietnam did have the enlarged tails so there's no excuse for saying that the short tail and a hampered a maneuverability when that wasn't the case the crusader is just playing the better fighter

[@gort8203]

@@wwclay86 The F-100 was the first USAF fighter to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. Of course a more modern fighter was "better" (improved). You miss the point which is that I was trying to debunk this inaccurate statement: "The same basic engine as the F-100 but much better performance despite the higher gross weight." Like I said look at the numbers and maybe learn something, or more likely just keep repeating your mantra.

[@blount99RT]

Incredible jet that I would love to have been around!

[@dougstitt1652]

Good stuff thanks A.I. and Mr Schroeder

[@jager6863]

Part 1 & Part 2 are a great watch, thanks, Hopefully you can interview a pilot who had some experience with this plane in Vietnam, as I'm am curious how bad the Colt 20mm Cannons actually performed. Also I believe they were able, with some difficulty to get an airframe modification approved, to allow the pilot to select either the upper cannons, lower cannons or both. This allowed the pilots to conserve ammo and have more time for CAS duties, protecting downed pilots, etc. Also would be curious if the Civilian Bell Radar Detectors actually helped the pilots against the SA-2 radars/missiles, to provide warning of when you were targeted. I read that the Navy bought a bunch of these and drilled out the K Band Antenna and literally bolted them to the plane as is, to provide an indication that you were being illuminated by X Band Radar.

[@Aircrewinterview]

Cheers Kevin.

[@raywhitehead730]

The last F8. In about 1985 I landed at So Centro, NAF, California to get gas. On landing, a d walking to the nearest hangar to take aliss, I noticed the line airplane in the hanger, no others. I was surprised, I thought they had all gone to the bone yard retired out. But I noticed that the cockpit area looked burned, slighlly. And yep it was the last regular flying F8, destroyed by a cockpit fire. The pilot had gotten out safly.

[@5695q]

The F-14 squadron I was assigned to ( VF-302 ) had a pilot whose well worn flight jacket had a F-8 Centurion patch on it, this was in the late 1980's and by all accounts he was a pretty good Tomcat pilot also.

[@jmp.t28b99]

Great interview.

[@jaxsmith1744]

My old man man was a RF-8 driver with VFP-62. Blue Moon Over Cuba. Castro on Candid camera.

[@John_Redcorn_]

Expected to hear more specifics about the aircraft and more actual flight experiences/stories about it 😕

[@MissKay1994]

So a little input I have on 5:03 having done a lot of research, there was actually a radar guided missile, the AIM-9C with semi active homing radar guidance, which was used by the All-Weather squadrons because it was a more reliable weapon at night for radar intercepts than the Infrared guided AIM-9B and D. It's really cool to hear about the experiences of an actual pilot since that's not a very common. It seems like he was was never actually put through the training for all the weapon systems of the F-8E since he seems to indicate he didn't learn to do rocket or bombing missions which the aircraft did a lot in Vietnam.

[@FromGamingwithLove0456]

A sidewinder with radar eh? Pretty sure you mean the sparrow: aim 7c

[@RobertWilliams-us4kw]

In all due respect From Gaming with Love, Kay1994 is correct in their analogy of the Aim-9C being a semi-active radar homing missile. The Aim-9C was specifically designed by Motorols to meet the operational requirements of the USN to arm the F-8 Crusader so as to give it a true all-weather missile capability. The Aim-9C used a conically scanning semi-active seeker. Granted, the functionality of the Aim-9C seems a lot more work than that of the IR-guided Aim-9, but I guess that's the price paid for an all-weather capability in an existing fighter design with a limited sized radar antenna, dictated by the Crusader's inherent design. Logistical and maintenance support for the Aim-9C, however, was inadequate, and the Navy shelved the AIM-9C in 1969 because its launch envelope was “too restrictive,” the missile was too maintenance-intensive, and because the Navy lacked the money to complete a much-needed “major rework” of the missiles. It should be noted that only around 1,000 Aim-9C were manufactured, and most of the remaining stocks of Aim-9C's were later converted into AGM-122 Sidearms to meet USMC requirements for a lightweight Anti-Radiation Missile. www.donhollway.com/foxtwo/crusader.mp4 Rob

[@stuco81]

I've sat in the cockpit of an F-8 in the Tillamook(spelling?) aviation museum. It was a snug fit to say the least! And I'm not a big guy at 12st and 5ft11...

[@94Whiskey]

The Philippine Air Force was the last to fly F-8's ....the country's air space & sovereignty was secure. Soviet bombers were intercepted and neighboring countries feared the Philippine Air Force... until maintenance & parts became difficult...until 1991...Pinatubo eruption shut down Clark Air Base...the US Military called it quits due to political & environmental reasons.... this was the nail to the coffin for the F-8...

[@cassidy109]

I’d love to hear an interview from a Navy pilot that flew the F-8 Crusader in combat. I’m curious to know how much air-to-ground work Navy F-8 pilots engaged in when flying missions over Vietnam and South East Asia.

[@judithposs9319]

My 2 husbands flew this plane I would like to connect with this pilot. We were squadron 232 in Kaneoe bay Hawaii. Went to Vietnam at the start of the war.

[@troyledbetter6597]

The Red Devils!

[@evo-labs]

Interesting comment about the bubble canopy being a 'later' edition to fighters...when it already existed in the P-51 and P-47 (to name a few) i.e pre-jet age. I wonder if the regression was deliberate, and if so, why?

[@rogerbloxham5381]

It will be nice to hear from somebody who flew them in Vietnam

[@christianmirande2026]

the F-8 did eventually have a radar guided missile, the AIM-9C

[@edwardpate6128]

When you are out of F8's you are out of fighters!

[@colin5577]

This illustrates the challenge of eliciting fun, entertaining seat of the pants stories or subjective, whimsical impressions of an aircraft from a test pilot. 😬

[@raywhitehead730]

About half of the F8 were destroyed by accidents.

[@raywhitehead730]

The F8 was a dramatic failure, before the last F8 flew it's last flight, 87% had been lost to accidents or combat. About 1200 had been built. It only shot down 18 adversaries in combat. True some versions were very very fast. As a gun fighter it only shoot down about five Viet jets with guns. The kind of airplane you don't want, if your the Admiral. Doing the math, for every airplane it shot down, over 20 were destroyed by accidents....

[@zodszoo]

Lol over 1000 losses, that's funny.

[@raywhitehead730]

The losses in planes and aircrew in the US Navy in the late 50's and early to mid sixties were Very high very high ..but the general attitude was very willing to take the risk! For most being a A Naval Aviator was worth it...I know well.

[@troyledbetter6597]

I believe Cecil Field was used by the Doolittle Raiders in 1942 to train for taking off of aircraft carriers. Thanks phor a great interview!

[@Derek-je6vg]

Nonsense - look at phantom availability and accident rates early on - I’ll take a crusader any day

[@twolak1972]

AT 1st glance it doesnt look very agile but it was and God Almighty it was FAST.