The F-8E(FN) is a variant of the Vought F-8 Crusader operated exclusively by the French Navy's air arm, the Aéronavale, in the fleet air defence role. The aircraft incorporated a number of design changes from the standard F-8E Crusader that were required to allow its operation from France's aircraft carriers. Entering service in 1964, the Crusader underwent a major upgrade in the late 1980s to allow it to remain in service for another decade while a replacement aircraft was under development. The Crusader was eventually withdrawn in December 1999.
Background
In the mid-1950s, France's most modern aircraft carrier was Arromanches, a light fleet carrier originally obtained from the United Kingdom. However, the French Navy's carrier fleet was increasingly incapable of operating modern aircraft due to their size. As a result, in order to preserve the country's independence in terms of power projection, two new aircraft carriers were planned. These new ships, which ultimately became the , would be significantly bigger than Arromanches, and would be able to operate larger and more capable aircraft.Miller 2001, p. 14
Planned as multi-role strike carriers, the new ships, which were named as and , would operate a modern air group, with the new Dassault Étendard IV, in both its strike and reconnaissance versions, and the Bréguet Alizé for anti-submarine warfare.Haskew 2015, pp. 217-218. However, at the time the first ship was commissioned in 1961, France's domestic aviation industry had yet to develop a modern, high-performance, carrier-based interceptor, with Clemenceau'''s air defence squadron made up of 10 SNCASE Aquilons, a license-built version of the de Havilland Sea Venom. The Aquilon had been in service since 1954 and was rapidly approaching obsolescence, which led to a procurement exercise being undertaken to find a new air defence aircraft to operate from the new carriers. Although French companies did provide proposals, with Breguet offering a concept it called the Sirocco, while Dassault proposed a carrier-based version of the Mirage III, both of these were concepts that would have required time and resources to develop. So, the Navy instead looked at existing designs, with two primarily considered - the McDonnell F-4 Phantom and the Vought F-8 Crusader. Both were in service in the US Navy, but the Phantom, being significantly larger in size, was used in air defence squadrons aboard the large carriers of the , , and es. The majority of the US carrier fleet was made up of ships of the , which were a similar size to Clemenceau, and utilised the Crusader as their primary air defence aircraft. The size of the Phantom quickly put it out of the running for operation aboard the new French carriers, and led to the Crusader being selected. In March 1962, a pair of Crusaders from VF-32, a Crusader squadron based aboard , undertook a series of deck trials aboard Clemenceau to test the aircraft's suitability to operate from the smaller decks of the French ships. The success of these trials led to a contract being signed for the procurement of 40 single-seat Crusaders and 6 two-seaters trainers. However, the two-seat version was cancelled by the US Government, leading to France's order being amended to 42 single-seat aircraft, which proved to be the final Crusaders to be built. Although the Aéronavale assigned their own serial numbers, because the order was added to the tail end of the final order for the US Navy, the Crusaders being built for the French were also assigned Bureau of Aeronautics designating numbers (BuNo).
Design
Although the Crusader was capable of operating from the fairly small US carriers of the Essex-class, the size of France's new carriers required additional modifications to be made to the standard F-8E in order to safely operate from the decks of Clemenceau and Foch. Many of the modifications to the airframe came from the need to reduce the approach and landing speed of the aircraft. The maximum angle of the aircraft's variable-incidence wing was reduced from 7° to 5°, which improved the handling characteristics at the lower required speed, while boundary layer control was added. This took high-pressure air from the engine and, using special vents located on the wings and tail, blew it over the flight control surfaces, thus improving the low-speed characteristics of the aircraft. This, combined with the addition of leading-edge slats and an increase in the surface area of the tail, were all aimed at providing stability for the aircraft when landing on the smaller decks of the French carriers, which was at speeds of approximately less than Crusaders operated by the US Navy.Stijger 1993, p. 192
In addition to changes to the structure of the aircraft, there were also alterations made to account for differences in weapons fit. Crusaders operated by the US would, in addition to their four 20mm guns, usually operate with up to four AIM-9B Sidewinder air-to-air missiles (AAM), mounted on rails on the side of the fuselage. Although French Crusaders were able to operate the Sidewinder, they were adapted to also be capable of carrying the R.530, a domestic AAM available in both infrared and semi-active homing models. In order to utilise the semi-active version of the missile, French Crusaders were fitted with an improved version of the AN/APQ-94 radar, which was designated as the AN/APQ-104, combined with an AN/AWG-4 fire control system. French aircraft would generally carry one R.530 missile on each side, usually with one fitted as a semi-active homing version, and one for infrared homing. Owing to the larger exhaust plume of the R.530 compared to the AIM-9B, a deflector was fitted to protect the sides of the aircraft during missile launches. While the aircraft were procured with the provision for underwing hardpoints, similar to those carried by Crusaders of the US Navy, no actual hardpoints themselves were purchased, limiting the aircraft to carrying weapons using the rails on the fuselage.
Throughout its service with the Aéronavale, the Crusader underwent upgrades to allow it to compete with the progressively more modern interceptors used by other nations. Due to the poor reliability of the R.530 missile, in 1973 the Crusader was fitted to operate the R.550 Magic, a weapon originally developed in the mid-1960s as a short-range AAM. The R.550 was used increasingly, with the upgraded R.550 Magic 2, which replaced the original rear-aspect seeker with an improved all-aspect head, introduced in 1988, and the obsolete R.530 withdrawn in 1989; this though left the Crusader with no radar-guided missile, as the Super 530, an improved version of the R.530, could not be adapted to the AN/APG-104 radar and AN/AWG-4 fire control system of the Crusader. The Crusader's ability to utilise the Sidewinder was removed in 1986. The Crusader also received upgrades to its structure over the course of its service; in 1969, the aircraft received the wings that had been developed for the F-8J, an upgraded version of the F-8E used by the US Navy, while in 1979, new afterburners were fitted to the J57-20A engines.Stijger 1993, p. 195
In the late 1980s, France had begun development of a new multirole combat aircraft that it named as the Rafale. This was intended to replace a number of existing aircraft used by both the Aéronavale and the Armée de l'air, including the Crusader. However, although the Crusader had been in service for more than 20 years, the new aircraft would not be ready for service until the start of the 21st century. As a result, in order to retain an interceptor for use aboard its aircraft carriers, the Navy undertook a modernisation programme to update its remaining Crusaders for another decade's worth of service. A total of 17 Crusaders were therefore earmarked to undergo the upgrade, in which the hydraulic and electrical systems were completely overhauled, reinforcement of the airframe to deal with fatigue issues was done, and a new ejector seat fitted. Additionally, the avionics were substantially improved, with the radar and flight controls reconditioned, and new IFF, Radar Warning Receiver, TACAN GPS and inertial navigation fitted. The first of the upgraded Crusaders, which were designated as F-8P (for prolongé), was delivered in January 1993.Stijger 1993, p. 196
Operational history
As part of the overall contract to procure the Crusader, an agreement to produce a prototype was included. Rather than a new-build airframe being produced, an existing F-8D aircraft was obtained and underwent major conversion to incorporate the various features intended to be found on the production models. The prototype (BuNo 147036), which was designated as a YF-8E(FN), first flew on 27 February 1964, fitted with a stall warning system, an autothrottle and equipment to measure the aircraft's characteristics during the planned test programme. This continued successfully until its 21st flight on 11 April 1964, when the prototype crashed. As a result, testing was stopped until a new aircraft could be obtained to take its place. This was restarted when the first production model (BuNo 151732) was fitted with measuring equipment to resume the test programme, first flying on 26 June 1964.Joos 1966, p. 9
By late 1964, sufficient airframes had been delivered to allow a full scale programme of flight deck trials – in November, the second and third production models were used aboard the aircraft carrier by pilots from both France and the United States. These two airframes, plus aircraft number 4, were also used for weapons trials, including fit checks of the R.530 missile, at NAS China Lake in California. The success of the trials programme in the US led to the Crusader achieving its initial operational status in late 1964. On 6 October 1964, the initial batch of 13 aircraft were loaded aboard Arromanches at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia for transport back to France. While these were en route, the Aéronavale activated Flottille 12F as its first Crusader squadron. Arromanches arrived in Saint-Nazaire on 4 November, with its load of aircraft disembarked for transport to BAN Lann-Bihoué in Brittany, which was the new home base of the Crusader force. Five months after 12F was reformed, the Aéronavale formed a second Crusader squadron, Flottille 14F, on 1 March 1965, while the remaining 29 aircraft were transported from the United States aboard Foch. The Crusader's first deployment came in April, when 12F sent four aircraft to operate from Clemenceau in the Mediterranean for a week to evaluate the Crusader's performance integrated with the remainder of the French air group. At the same time, the Aéronavale created a detachment, DEM 530, to coordinate the integration of the R.530 missile with the Crusader, while more flight tests with the aircraft were undertaken, including testing its in-flight refuelling capability. Having been grouped together to form Carrier Air Wing 2, 12F and 14F were declared operational on 1 March 1966. From 1966 onwards, 12F and 14F shared responsibility for providing up to 10 aircraft to make up the interceptor squadron assigned to one of the French aircraft carriers.Jordan 1983, p. 130 In 1968, the entire Crusader force was moved from BAN Lann-Bihoué to take up residence at BAN Landivisiau on the northern coast of Britanny.Stijger 1993, p. 193