Monday, 15 May 2017

McDonnell F3H Demon

We have a double post today!
The McDonnell F3H Demon was liked by their pilots thanks to its docile handling, but, however, its endurance was marginal and it was underpowered. Usually two of the upper cannons were removed in order to make it lighter with the cannon parts faired over. Its service with the United States Navy was brief considering that combat aircraft designs were advancing really fast back then and the problems with the J40 engine delayed the Demon's introduction. By the early 1960s it had already been replaced by the Vought F-8 Crusader and the McDonnell Douglas F-4B Phantom II. The Phantom II was initially thought as a direct follow-up of the Demon, but even if the ancestry was apparent, the commonality was virtual. An F3H-2N was used as a testbed of the Phantom II's AN/APQ-50 radar.
It was formally withdrawn from service at the end of 1964 though some of them would be flown for testing purposes in the following years. It never served with any foreign air arm and it never saw any combat. Nowadays none of them remain airworthy.











Sources:
1. http://www.airvectors.net/avdemon.html
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_F3H_Demon
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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