Helluva aircraft. When I was in, they were only being used as reconnaissance aircraft.
I saw one go off the bow cat, and immediate roll and dive into the ocean...the pilot survived, but that was a close one.
When I was a kid living in Subic Bay in the Philippines, Cubi Point was right near the beach we went to.
How different things were. I was 12 years old, and I would walk around the flightline, peering at all the planes tied down there. One day, a pilot was pre-flighting a Crusader, and he let me sit in the cockpit, put on his helmet, the whole nine yards! First time I ever sat in the cockpit of any plane!
When I had to leave he grinned and said “Watch me take off!”
Well he took off, and went pretty near vertical, did a bunch of aileron rolls before reaching altitude and zooming off.
I cannot tell you how thrilled I was!
That's why they added the strakes under the tail, they provide just enough stability to keep the plane from 'getting ahead of itself'!
How different things were. I was 12 years old, and I would walk around the flightline, peering at all the planes tied down there.
Sitting in an F-8U 2N cockpit was a thrill for my 8ish year old self.
When I took my kids to the Hornet, they had an F-8 on the deck. We did a walk around, and I pointed out the APU was deployed as it would be to catch the slipstream and power the cockpit and hydraulics to keep the plane flyable. Then I commented that one of the pilots in my dad's squadron was in that situation and his failed to deploy.
The docent overheard me and asked if that was Rankin from VMF 122?
Yup. Turns out that aircraft, despite its Navy markings, was from my dad's old Marine Corps squadron!
It was very special to me to have my kids sit in the cockpit of an F-8 that might well have been the very same cockpit I sat in at about their ages!