[Llarry]

The next step in carrier fighters was to break the sound barrier. But supersonic aircraft -- with a couple of notable exceptions like the SR-71 and the Concorde -- spend the vast majority of their flight at subsonic speeds. High speed, particularly when using an afterburner, consumes fuel at a furious rate.

Given the above, in the mid-1950s, there was an officer in the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics who decided that high (supersonic) speed was not worth the cost, both in additional expense to buy the aircraft and in fuel consumption. He issued a set of requirements that did not stress speed. The result was the North American FJ-4 Fury, which was a greatly improved version of the FJ-3 with the same engine but more fuel, an improved larger wing, etc. The FJ-4 was an excellent fighter, and the Navy bought 152 of them. The officer who had written the requirements ended his tour and was replaced by another officer who rewrote the fighter requirements and stressed that any new fighter must be supersonic. As a result, the FJ-4 production was limited and the aircraft were issued to Marine Corps fighter squadrons -- who loved it but like fighter pilots anywhere lamented the lack of speed. The Fury ended its days in the Navy Reserve.

The new requirements resulted in a couple of supersonic day fighters: The Grumman F11F Tiger and the Vought F8U Crusader. The F11F-1 was handicapped by a lack of fuel capacity and thus short range; its service in operational squadrons was short and it ended its days in advanced training squadrons. The F11F-1 (new designation F-11A) was also flown by the Blue Angels flight demonstration team for a number of years. The Vought F8U-1 (new designation F-8A), on the other hand, was a winner from the start; it was the first Navy fighter to exceed 1,000 miles per hour; later variants were progressively improved and had more power and speed and got all-weather capability with radar. The F-8 was a stalwart of the Vietnam war and much loved by its pilots. It was also modified into the Navy's standard photo recon aircraft and served many years in that role as the RF-8A and RF-8G. Navy RF-8As, along with Air Force RF-101s and U-2s, played a key role in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and were heavily involved in the Vietnam war.

As I've posted previously, the F-8 was also used by the French Navy and the Philippine Air Force.

The F11F, by the way, was involved in an unfortunate incident during testing -- it shot itself down! It fired its 20 mm cannon and then accelerated and actually caught up to its own cannon shells. I believe the pilot survived.