F3H-2 Demon 1:48 Build diary - Page 3

**hyair** · #21 12-21-2015, 03:49 PM

The Demon is going to be a long project and the best way
to tackle it at least for me is to do small progress each time.
The sleeves of the intakes with the inner deflectors were
completed. Now the cockpit needs to be build as it will sit
on top while the front landing gear compartment is bellow.
Will continue.

Yair

**hyair** · #22 12-22-2015, 11:48 AM

All the new navy fighters of 1954 - the Cutlass , Skyray , Demon were designed to be supersonic and if the intended engines were performed as advertised they could rivaled the f-100 super-sabre.
Only the Skyray received a decent engine - the J57 with 10000 lb dry thrust and 16000 lb in after burner. The cutlass had to stay with the J46 which his power was de-rated by more than 40 percent something that killed any chance of being supersonic. In the Demon case it was the same problem as the cutlass.
In order to get a more potent engine a redesign of the fuselage was needed and therefore only the Alison J71 could be fitted.
In retrospective this was a bad choose as the J71 was under powered for the big 15 ton Demon. The engine had tendency for compressor stalls and flame outs beside high fuel consumption . The turbine blades had a tendency to brush the engine frame so they were shortened - something that lowered the thrust even further. In the Demon site they have a memorial page which is showing no less than 256 pilots who perished when flying the type.
I am not sure if the number is including ground crew people but its a huge
number by any standard.
Those who flew the type were called Demon drivers and the ground crews were called Demon Doctors.
Due to the good visibility from the cockpit the Demon was called the"CHAIR" but some other not flattering names as " LED SLED" were common for obvious reasons.
The Demon will be remembered at best as a gap filling aircraft that won no fame and was shadowed TOTALLY by the much more capable F-4 Phantom.

Yair