F7U-3M vs F-4D - Cutlass vs Skyray

[hyair]

Because of it's ability to climb very fast the Skyray was assigned to NORAD - the organisation
that was responsible for the air defence of North America.
Squadron VFAW-3 of the navy was operated from NAS ( naval air station ) north island in
San Diego.
NAS North Island had a very small runway which was perfect for the Skyray short and steep
takeoffs. In the event of an alaram the Skyray was scrambled and after a short takeoff the nose was pointing at an astonishing angel of 70 degrees into the sky with full after burner.
The Skyray service there was between 1958-1961.
The Skyray received the name " the one minute interceptor " because of it's limited range
and the excellent rate of climb.

Yair

[hyair]

The two with guests photos.
The Skyray with Skyhawk and Cutlass with Demon.

Yair

[hyair]

The withdrawal of the cutlass from service started at late 1956. By mid 1957
most of the squadrons retired the Cutlass exept VA-116 that was in deployment in Formosa crisis in the far east and returned back in October 1957 and traded for the new Skyhawk. Most of the Cutlass squadrons were replaced by F8U-1 , Fury FJ-4B and A-4 Skyhawks. Some squadron commanders left them self a private Cutlass hoping that the futuristic looking of the Cutlass will help recruiting for the Navy. The last Cutlass to be retired was 3P version that served as a mine dropper till 1959.

The Skyray stayed in production till late 1958. So the last ones served till the Cuban 1962 missile crisis. When the F-4 Phantom and the Crusader started to
get into service his days were numbered.
Some Skyrays stayed in service as test beds for new electronic and missile equipment but again here only a few stayed in service.

Both never opened a fire in anger as the period was before Vietnam and the
problems encountered during operational service in both prevented their use in an actual war. The attrition rate of the Cutlass was the highest but the Skyray was not far behind !

In the next chapters I will summarize about both of them.


Yair

[hyair]

At I already posted before fact is that the 1950's were the golden years of aviation. Therefore
many types of aircraft that could served for 10 years were replaced after less than 5 years as much more advanced types came into service.
The Cutlass main reason for the short service life was the introduction of the much better F-8U Crusader in early 1957. Some examples were put into bonyards with less that 50 hours of flight ! . The NAVY was glad to get reed of it because of the demanding maintainance requirements and the last one was retired in 1959.
The Skyray was entering service late because of the failure of the J40 engine and the need to redesign the structure for the J57. When it was interduced for service in 1956 it was already
behind in compare to the F-8U which was 500 kph faster with the same engine !
Now, we are talking about an era in which speed was almost everything with jet aircraft. As the Crusader and Phantom with their high supersonic speeds of plus \ minus mach 2.0 performance put the mach 1.1 of the Skyray in a shade. The Skyray main asset was it's ability to climb very speedy to altitude in an amazing 70 degrees angel. But it had high drag and short operational range and was also not so easy to maintain. The type was phased out from service shortly after the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and as the Cutlass never fired a shut in anger and missed the Vietnam conflict.

Attached here some more photos of these two interesting NAVY fighters.

Yair

[paperengineer]

Really interesting, Yair! Nice pics, too