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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0690.PDF
696 FLIGHT, 24 May 1957 CRUSADER ... of J57 has a long afterburner with eight nozzle shutters. Most ofthe accessories are grouped in a package on the nose of the engine or under the h-p. compressor.Stainless steel and titanium are the ruling materials in the powerplant bay, which is protected with rings of Edison continu-ous resetting fire-detector. Starting is effected by an air turbine mounted below the engine and driving the h-p. assembly througha Western Gear shaft coupling and angle box. Fuel is supplied by six Hydro Aire Hy V/L booster pumps and high-pressure pumps(Ceco 9400) driven by the engine. Fuel control is by Hamilton Standard, and the afterburner fuel control is the well-knownAR-6 unit by Chandler Evans rated for flows of 35,000 lb/hr. The fuel system can be replenished in flight by extending theFlight Refueling probe from its bay on the port side of the fuse- lage; the pipe swings outwards about its rear end and is braced bya sleeve strut hinged at the front of the bay. Synthetic turbo-oil is housed in the saddle tank above theengine 1-p. compressor casing and cooled by a fuel/oil heat exchanger by the Harrison Division of General Motors. Filtersare made by Purolator and by Cuno Engineering, the latter firm supplying Poro-Klean-type porous-metal magnetic assemblies.Cabin air-conditioning is the responsibility of Hamilton Standard who provide a self-contained package incorporating a South Wind961-A stainless-steel air/air heat exchanger. Electric power is generated by a large Bendix-Utica 28E11A.C./D.C. generator driven by an air turbine supplied with high- pressure air from the main powerplant. The whole unit is installedas a single assembly and provides a direct source of 28 V D.C. power and of precisely regulated 115 V current at 400 c/s.Hydraulic power is normally obtained from engine-driven pumps but an additional hydraulic pump is mounted on the Marquardtemergency power package driven by a ram-air turbine extended from the starboard side of the fuselage. The Marquardt packagesupplies hydraulic power and A.C./D.C. electrical power, and is energized by a 25 h.p. turbine governed at 6,000 r.p.m. by vanesmounted at the rear of the turbine duct. Installed weight of the Marquardt package is rather less than 50 lb. The Crusader's Armament In the highly debatable field of armament Chance Vought'saeroplane attempts to get the best of three worlds, since it can operate with guns, folding-fin rockets and guided missiles. Theguns are of the latest standard 20 mm design, and four such weapons are mounted on the sides of the front fuselage. Ammuni-tion is contained in tanks which slide down behind the rear cock- pit pressure-bulkhead and feed the guns through power-assistedbelt-guides inside the fuselage wall. Gun gas is expelled through powered vent doors on the underside of the fuselage. A radar gunsight is provided, together with an automatic fire-control system which also serves to govern the operation of the other weapons carried. Many of the dynamic problems posed bythis gunfire control have been evaluated with the aid of the con- trol-system simulator referred to earlier—a rig which is still inuse. The microwave scanner is housed in a hinged metal nose fairing terminated by a relatively small radome, just big enoughfor the pencil beam, supplied by Zenith Plastics. The cine-camera is mounted to the left of the radar beam, in the extreme nose. Eight or sixteen folding-fin, spin-stabilized rockets are housedin a retractable belly pack. The latter is made of magnesium and titanium and consists of left and right halves joined by bridge-pieces which straddle the underside of the fuselage keel member. Each of the eight rocket tubes is an aluminium-alloy extrusionfinished to close standards of dimensional accuracy yet able to withstand the high-temperature blast of the rocket motor. Partlyowing to the fact that internal guide rails have to be provided each tube is extruded with greater wall-thickness than is struc-turally required. They are then cut to length and chemically milled from the outside. Detail sketches on page 694 indicate the manner in which therocket package can be hinged about its rear end until the front has dropped clear of the fuselage ahead of it. Extension, firingand retraction is accomplished automatically under the control of the system already mentioned. A Servomechanisms data com-putor correlates Mach number with signals from nose-mounted vanes for angle of attack and yaw. Attached to the underside of the pack is the speed brake. Thisis a single "barn-door" surface, actuated hydraulically under the control of a left/right switch on the pilot's engine, power lever,the position being balanced against air load up to the maximum depression of some 55 deg.Guided-weapon armament comprises two or four Philco Side- winder (AAM-N-7) missiles. These slim weapons comprise five-inch tubes housing motor, infra-red homing head, hydraulic con- trols and three distributed warheads. One Sidewinder can beattached to zero-length mountings on each side of the fuselage below, and ahead of, the wing; more may be added later.The first machine completed its functional tests during the first quarter of 1955, and on March 25 the company chief test pilot,John Konrad, flew it for the first time from Edwards A.F.B., Gal.; level-sonic performance was reached on this occasion.Within a few months several more F8U aircraft were placed in flight-test status while another airframe was tested structurally.Very comprehensive instrumentation was provided, typical equip- ment being the Ascop PW-series sampler for up to 43 sourcesof test data, each channel being recorded on tape or telemetered to the ground. Early development was generally most encouraging,with the exception of two disastrous structural failures involving basic airframe components. In at least one of these incidents thewing parted from the fuselage. . Nevertheless it was clear all along that the F8U was a winner.In the summer of 1955 the type was named "Crusader" and in December of that year a $100m production order was signed,supplemented by another for $45m in March 1956, one for $20m in May 1956 (the first to include the F8U-1P) and a fourth pro-duction order for $200m last September. Numbers of aircraft involved have not been announced, but last June the F8U aircrafton the line, plus full spares, averaged $1,043,041 each. The first production aeroplane left the Dallas plant on September30, 1955. Development followed the Navy variation of the U.S.A.F. Cook/Craigie plan, aircraft number 30 being regardedas truly representative of die ultimate product. This aircraft, BuNo. 141360, was taken as the prototype of simulators, hand-books and other weapon-system equipment. Aircraft No. 30 was not, however, the first Crusader to reach the Navy. Americanarmed services are possibly less restrictive than our own in accept- ing aircraft which do not meet full contract specifications. From the earliest days Navy pilots and even enlisted mainten-ance men have been able to familiarize themselves with the air- craft, and there is no doubt in the writer's mind that such a policyunearths operational "bugs" early and gets modifications on the line which might otherwise remain hidden for months. British C.A.release, always rigidly applied, may not be the best arrangement. Certainly one cannot argue against a method which producessuch rapid results as have been obtained with the Crusader. The time-table actually achieved has been: design competition, March1953; first flight, March 1955; first production F8U-1, September 1955; carrier qualification, April 1956; F.I .P. (see below), January1957; operational service, March 1957. As far as the writer is aware no other supersonic aeroplane, and very few high-subsonic,have been developed so quickly. Carrier qualification trials were conducted aboard U.S.S. For-restal in April last year. Every aspect of shipboard operation is searchingly examined in such trials and the F8U was assessed as"generally satisfactory." On August 21 Lt-Cdr. R. W. "Duke" Windsor, U.S.N., took off in an instrumented F8U from N.O.T.S.China Lake, Cal., and returned 32 minutes later with a national speed record. His flight covered some 400 miles, all but 80 ofwhich were supersonic. Two runs were made at about 35,OOOft over special timing equipment and the mean speed was assessedas 1,015.428 m.p.h. The performance won many awards, including the coveted Thompson Trophy. Last January "F.I.P." started. Fleet Indoctrination Program isthe title of the U.S. Navy's intensive service trials of new aircraft, and in the case of the F8U 600 hr had to be logged or eight weeksF.I.P. had to be completed (the latter being the bad-weather alter- native). Prior to this numerous Crusaders had been operated bythe various test divisions of the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, as well as by Squadron VX-3 at Atlantic City and theBoard of Inspection and Survey. Crusader F.I.P. was handled by a group of 13 pilots fromVF-32 at Cecil Field, Fla., and VF(AW)-3 at Moffett Field, Cal. Seven aircraft were assigned to them. As is usual, company tech-nicians were allowed to assist in specialized maintenance until the F.I.P. crews had "learned the ropes." The pilots were instructedin the aircraft systems, including the new lightweight ejection seat, the combined jerkin and harness, the new oxygen system andthe full-pressure suit, required for extreme F8U operations. The programme ended on March 3, when 603 hr had beenflown in 412 missions—notwithstanding the fact that bad weather had grounded the aircraft on 24 of the 53 days. Six VF(AW)-3pilots flew back to Moffett to train pilots assigned to other squad- rons. Eleven VF-32 pilots were posted to Cecil to work up as thefirst regular F8U squadron. To speed the process of technical instruction Chance Vought have delivered two mobile trainingunits, each of which comprises 15 separate systems-trainers—the largest, for surface controls, being 23ft long. Today the entire F8U programme is on, or ahead of, schedule.Output from Dallas is accelerating and some hundred aircraft have so far been completed. Basic F8U-1 and -IP productionagainst current orders will keep the firm busy for at least 18 months. There is every prospect of further orders for the presentCrusader, and it is being backed up by the F8U-3 (probably to be redesignated F9U) programme for a J75-powered machine of com-pletely re-engineered design and with a performance of about Mach 2.4. The first of the bigger and more powerful familyshould fly this year.
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