{"id":72488,"date":"2024-02-04T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T15:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=72488"},"modified":"2024-02-04T04:26:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T10:26:27","slug":"last-of-the-cold-war-gunfighters-vought-f-8-crusader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/04\/last-of-the-cold-war-gunfighters-vought-f-8-crusader\/","title":{"rendered":"Last of the Cold War Gunfighters: Vought F-8 Crusader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

Vought F-8 Crusader: Last of the Gunfighters<\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Vought F-8 Crusader was a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based, high-performance jet fighter that first flew in 1955, a mere decade after the end of World War II. The Crusader was the first American fighter to break 1,000 miles per hour.<\/h2>\n

The F-8 earned its testosterone-besotted moniker because of its primary armament. Where subsequent fighter planes were designed around missile engagements, the Crusader was first and foremost a gun platform. The F-8 carried four Mk 12 20mm autocannons in the lower fuselage packing 125 rounds apiece. Each gas-operated gun weighed 101 lbs. and cycled at 1,000 rounds per minute. This gave the Crusader a sum total of 7.5 seconds\u2019 worth of fire for combat engagements.<\/h2>\n

Additionally, the F-8 could carry four AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles on side-mounted fuselage pylons. There was also a retractable rocket tray in the belly that could carry 32 unguided 2.75-inch Mk4\/Mk 40 FFAR (Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets).<\/h2>\n

Uncle Sam called these nasty rascals the Mighty Mouse.<\/h2>\n

RTWT.<\/a><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

USMC F-8 Gunslinger<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vought F-8 Crusader: Last of the Gunfighters   The Vought F-8 Crusader was a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based, high-performance jet fighter that first flew in 1955, a mere decade after the end of World War II. The Crusader was the first American fighter to break 1,000 miles per hour. The F-8 earned its testosterone-besotted moniker because…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[7725,2770,5940,475,5064,478,479,6789,1286,6899,6052,4827,6458,5016,1898,7357],"tags":[12744,3018,17053,17054,4667,17051,17055,766,17052],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72488"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72491,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72488\/revisions\/72491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}