The world’s first jet-propelled night fighter built specifically for that purpose was the U.S. Navy’s Douglas F3D Skyknight. As early as 1945, the German Me 262 twin-turbojet aircraft was employed in the night fighter role against Allied bombers, but that was a modification of the basic day fighter.
After World War II, several turbojet night fighter projects commenced in the United States: the Air Force initiated the Curtiss F-87 Blackhawk and the Northrop F-89 Scorpion; the Navy’s started the Grumman F9F and Douglas F3D. The F9F-1 was to be a four-turbojet aircraft, but it was cancelled. Instead, Grumman pursued the project as the F9F-2 Panther, the first of a long line of turbojet fighters from the “Grumman iron works.” (Flying from the carrier Valley Forge [CV-45], the F9F became the U.S. Navy’s jet-propelled aircraft in combat on 3 July 1950.) The Curtiss F-87 flew on 5 March 1948 but did not enter production. On the 23 March, the XF3D-1 took to the skies and became the first purpose-built jet night fighter to fly and enter production. It also made history, when, at about midnight of 2-3 November 1952, an F3D-2 piloted by Marine Major William T. Stratton Jr., with Master Sergeant Hans C. Hogland as his radar operator, made the first aerial jet-to-jet kill at night. Their victim was a North Korean Yak-15 turbojet fighter.
The F3D-1 Skyknight entered U.S. service in February 1951. Although designed for carrier operation, Skyknight carrier deployments were few. Navy composite squadron VC-4 put four planes aboard the Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA- 42) from 29 August to 19 December 1952 for a cruise to the North Atlantic and Mediterranean; one aircraft was lost in the routine operations. In an effort to use F3Ds from VC-4 in the Korean War, another detachment of four planes went aboard the Lake Champlain (CVA-39) in April 1953 as the carrier headed for the war zone. One of the VC-4 pilots described the experience on the straight- deck carrier:
When we remained at idle for fifteen to twenty minutes, waiting for our turn to be launched, the heat would bake the wood of the flight deck, which had often been previously saturated with oil and fuel spills. Eventually a minor conflagration would start. It wasn’t serious, but it was still a “fire on the flight deck” over the public address system, and the whole damn ship would rush to fire quarters. . . . We tried parking the plane with exhausts extending over the deck edge, but we burned up a few fire hoses and life rafts in the catwalks.1
In late June 1953, the Lake Champlain’s four F3D-2s flew ashore to an airfield known as K-6 near P’yongtaek in Korea to join Marine night fighter squadron VMF(N)-513. This ended carrier operations for the aircraft. The land- based Marine and Navy F3Ds were successful in night intercepts, proving to be particularly adapt at flying escort for B-29s in night bombing raids over North Korea. No B-29s were lost while under Skyknight escort, although the Soviets and Chinese did fly night fighters over Korea. Skyknights flown by Marines were credited with six kills during the war.
Designed by a Douglas team led by the brilliant Ed Heinemann, the Skyknight was an ungainly, large aircraft with a gross weight of 26,850 pounds and powered by two J34 turbojet engines. It was a mid-wing aircraft with the engine nacelles fitted low on the fuselage, below the wings, and it had side- by-side seating for the pilot and radar operator.
That arrangement prevented the use of contemporary ejection seats. Accordingly, an escape chute was fitted behind the crew positions, angled 40° down and aft, between the engine bays. To bail out, the crew activated a system that blew off the after portion of the bottom hatch; the forward portion hung down to form a windbreak. The crewmen then rotated their chairs to face aft, grabbed a vaulting bar, and slid feet-first out the chute. Escape tests were performed with successful bailouts at speeds from 139 to 444 miles per hour. Dummies were used at speeds up to 500 miles per hour.
The Skyknight was armed with four fixed 20-mm cannon, and had an AN/APQ-35 search and target acquisition radar mounted in the broad nose. Unlike the contemporary, piston-engine F4U-5N Corsair and F7F-3N Tigercat night fighters, which could carry bombs, the F3D’s only armament was cannon. It could carry two 150-gallon drop tanks to supplement 1,350 gallons carried in fuselage tanks, giving the aircraft a range of more than 1,200 miles with a cruise speed of 428 miles per hour.
At least 28 Skyknights were modified to carry the Sparrow air-to-air, radar- guided missile (designated F3D-1M and - 2M); another 35 aircraft were modified for electronic reconnaissance and electronic countermeasures (F3D-2Q, in 1962 redesignated EF-10B).
The Marines flew the latter aircraft in the Vietnam War beginning in April 1965. when several were based at Da Nang air base to support Navy and Marine air strikes over North Vietnam. The EF-10B Skyknights finally were retired from squadron service in 1970, replaced by the EA-6A Intruder and subsequently, the EA-6B Prowler. Other Skyknights served in research roles into the 1980s. In 1952 at least one was given the designation F3D-2B for special weapon tests, although details are not publicly known.
An advanced F3D-3 powered by two J46 turbojets with swept wings was designed, and contracts were awarded for 287 aircraft. But they were cancelled in early 1953 because the J46 program was halted, and it was determined that the J34’s performance was insufficient for the desired performance. Also, the Air Force briefly considered the Skyknight for the night fighter role.
Thus, a total of 268 Skyknights were produced—3 XF3D-1 prototypes, 28 F3D-1, and 237 F3D-2 variants. Although the carrier and combat experience of the Skyknight were limited, the aircraft’s “firsts” earned it a place in naval aviation history.
1. CAPT E. T. Wooldridge, U.S. Navy (Retired), Night Fighters Over Korea (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998), p. 85.