Gator! The F-8 Crusader

We're finally out of gunfighters... The Vought F-8 Crusader, arguably the best dogfighter if there ever was, has only recently ended its long career. The US Navy retired the very last of its Crusaders more than a decade ago, but the French Navy somehow didn't seem able to part from its ageing F-8's just yet. But the curtain finally fell with the end of the millenium and as the last military operator the Aeronavale retired its venerable Crusaders. For more than fourty years the saying in the Crusader-community was: "When you're out of F-8's... You're out of fighters!". Well, it seems we ran out...

This is the story of Vought's remarkable Crusader. A short history, good and bad days over the skies of Vietnam, all the different variants build, every unit who flew it, facts, figures and the ones that still linger on.

This is the story of the MiG Master!

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