The Last Picture Plane
The RF-8 Crusader—often called the Photo Crusader—was the U.S. Navy’s last specialized photo plane in a lineage that extended to at least World War II. Probably the first dedicated photo plane derived from a carrier-based aircraft was the F4F-7 variant of the famed Wildcat fighter. A succession of fighter and attack aircraft configured for the photo-reconnaissance role followed.
The Photo Crusader was adapted from the F8U Crusader, a high-performance, single-seat day fighter. Produced by Chance Vought Aircraft (later LTV), the XF8U-1 first flew on 25 March 1955, exceeding Mach 1 on its first flight. A production F8U-1 later set an international speed record of 1,015.428 mph.
Faced with the problem of creating a Mach 1+ fighter with good carrier-landing characteristics, Chance Vought designers gave the Crusader a wing that rose seven degrees during landing and takeoff, thus providing the angle-of-attack necessary for a 130-mph landing speed while retaining the fuselage in a near-horizontal attitude for maximum pilot visibility. The F8U began entering Navy and Marine fighter squadrons in 1957. The Navy procured 1,072 F8U fighters in addition to two XF8U-1 prototypes. Originally the F8U, the Crusader series was changed to F-8 in the 1962 redesignation of U.S. military aircraft. Another 42 F-8E(FN) Crusaders were purchased by the French navy for the carriers Clemenceau and Foch.
The efficacy of the F8U design led the U.S. Navy to select it for the photo reconnaissance role, and the 32nd F8U-1 was converted to a “recon” prototype (YF8U-1P). One hundred forty-four F8U-1P Photo Crusaders were produced (changed to RF-8A in 1962). In the photo planes the 20-mm guns and magazines were absent, more fuel was carried, and the nose was reconfigured with up to six cameras being fitted.1 The types of cameras and arrangement periodically were changed. The aircraft could perform photo missions both day and night, from treetop levels up to approximately 35,000 feet. The cameras were controlled through an electronic arrangement that enabled the pilot to take photos manually, or to use an automatic mode with which he dialed in the plane’s speed and altitude.
The Photo Crusader was first assigned to composite and later to light photographic squadrons (VCP and VFP), complementing the larger, high-flying AJ/A-2 Savage, A3D/A-3 Skywarrior, and, eventually, A3J/A-5 Vigilante aircraft flown in a reconnaissance configuration by heavy photographic squadrons (VAP and RVAH).
The speed and range of the Photo Crusader was demonstrated in July 1957 when Marine Major John H. Glenn Jr. piloted an F8U-1P (illustration, right) from California to New York in three hours, 28 minutes, 50 seconds, for an average speed of 723.517 mph, a cross-continent record. (On three occasions Glenn had to descend from his optimum altitude and slow to 350 mph to fuel from AJ-2 Savage tankers, but he still maintained an average speed of Mach 1.1 for the flight.2)
The Photo Crusader played a role during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. While high-flying U-2 spyplanes had provided the first photographs of the Soviet weapons buildup on the Caribbean island, the Kennedy administration needed low-level, detailed photos of the missile sites. Six Navy F8U-1P photo planes, flying from Key West, Florida, undertook the first U.S. low-level overflights of Cuba on 23 October 1962—Operation Blue Moon. As they began their photo runs over Cuba, the planes flew at speeds of 400 mph at altitudes of a few hundred feet.3
Led by Commander William B. Ecker, commanding officer of VFP-62, Navy and Marine pilots flew 80 low-level sorties during the crisis, providing detailed intelligence on Soviet activities in Cuba. The F8U-1Ps were joined as of 26 October by Air Force RF-101 Voodoo photo planes.4 The low-level photo missions also had harassment value as Soviet officials could have no doubt that the Americans knew precisely what was happening, and that the reconnaissance planes could be followed by strike aircraft. Neither Soviet nor Cuban weapons were fired at Ecker’s planes.
The VFP-62 accomplishments were recognized when President John F. Kennedy personally awarded the squadron the first “peacetime” Navy Unit Citation. Additionally, 12 Navy and four Marine pilots were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the Blue Moon missions.
Less than two years later, U.S. military forces became involved in the crisis in Southeast Asia. Warships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet patrolled off South Vietnam, with Photo Crusaders from the carriers conducting reconnaissance flights over the area on a regular basis. During late May 1964, the attack carrier Kitty Hawk (CVA-63), steaming in the South China Sea, launched reconnaissance missions over Pathet Lao territory in an effort to aid the Laotian neutralist regime. The RF-8A Crusaders crisscrossed the communist-controlled areas of the country. Occasionally light antiaircraft guns, provided to the Pathet Lao by either China or the Soviet Union, fired at the aircraft. One of these first recce flights—flown by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann on 21 May—was hit by ground fire. His Crusader burned in the air for 20 minutes en route back to the Kitty Hawk, yet landed safely aboard the ship.5
On 6 June ground fire again hit Lieutenant Klusmann’s plane over Laos. This time the damage was severe, and he ejected from the crippled jet, parachuting safely to the ground. When a Kitty Hawk helicopter attempted to pick him up, he waved the whirlybird away. Nearby communist troops fired on the helicopter, and, despite some damage, it returned to the carrier. Klusmann was captured, but nearly three months later he escaped and reached safety.
Immediately after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964, two RF-8As from Marine Composite Squadron (VMCJ) 1 in Japan flew to the Philippines and then aboard the Constellation (CVA-64). Shortly after their arrival, however, the Marines were transferred to the smaller carrier Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) as the “Connie” was leaving the line. Marine Photo Crusaders thus joined their Navy cousins in carrier deployments to Southeast Asia.
These aircraft brought back photos of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troop and supply movements, identified potential targets, and conducted post-strike reconnaissance. On 5 April 1965, an RF?8A from the Coral Sea (CVA-43) brought back photographs of the first SA-2 Guideline surface?to?air missile (SAM) site to be positively identified. Discovery of the site, 15 miles southeast of Hanoi, was of major significance for the air war over North Vietnam. The Photo Crusaders flew throughout the Vietnam conflict. Twenty of the planes were lost to enemy ground fire, none to missiles or MiG fighters.
The important role of the aircraft was recognized when 73 RF-8A aircraft were “remanufactured,” being upgraded to permit continued service with the designation RF-8G.
The last F-8 fighters were retired from active squadrons in 1976, but the RF-8Gs carried on. Their last carrier deployment was on board the Coral Sea, ending in June 1980—a ten-month cruise. The last fleet squadron, VFP-63 was disbanded on 30 June 1982, after a lengthy drawdown period.
Navy as well as Marine reserve squadrons continued to fly recce and fighter variants. Reserve Photo Crusaders were flown until 1986. The last carrier trap, or landing, was an RF-8G from reserve squadron VFP-206 on board the America (CV-66) on 18 October 1986. That squadron, the last to fly Crusaders, was disbanded on 29 March 1987. The next day Commander David Strong, VFP-206’s last commanding officer, flew from Naval Air Facility Andrews (Washington, D.C.) to nearby Dulles Airport. The RF-8G was then put in storage and is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
Thus ended an era in naval aviation—that of the specialized photo-reconnaissance aircraft. Aviation historian Peter Mersky observed, “Aerial photography with the photo Crusader became a fine art and skill that could only be acquired with experience.”6
1. The F8U-1 fighter carried 1,273 gallons; the F8U-1P carried 1,497 gallons, i.e., a 15 percent increase.
2. Glenn subsequently became the first American astronaut to orbit Earth and later served as a U.S. senator.
3. These land-based F8U-1P reconnaissance flights are detailed in Dino A. Brugioni, Eyeball to Eyeball: The Inside Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: Random House, 1990), and in his “Chalk up Another Chicken!” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (October 1992), pp. 96-101. Also see N. Polmar and John D. Gresham, DEFCON-2: Standing on the Brink of Nuclear War During the Cuban Missile Crisis (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons, 2006).
4. At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis the RF-101s were fitted with KA-1 and KA-2 cameras, which were unsuitable for high-speed, low-level photography. Only after KA-45 cameras (produced by Chicago Aero Industries for the Navy) were installed could the RF?101s undertake the low-level photo missions.
5. The RF-8 deployments on board carriers during the Vietnam War are listed in Roy A. Grossnick, United States Naval Aviation 1910–1995 (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1997), pp. 705-717. Also available online at www.history.navy.mil.
6. Peter Mersky, “Vought’s Long-Lived Photobird,” Air International (September 1987), p. 121.