The Lowdown. General Dynamics, the contractor behind the F-16, joined forces with Vought, builder of the F-8 Crusader and A-7 Corsair II, to build the Model 1600.Based on the Block 10 F-16, the ...

The Crusader I and II won plaudits because they did carry cannon—but not the Crusader III. Like the F-4, the Super Crusader was proposed as a cannon-less fighter armed only with seven air-to-air ...

Vought's redemption was not born from lucky timing or borrowed designs. It came from grit, innovation, and a refusal to let failure define them. And that is why the Crusader stands as a monument.

Chance Vought even proposed mounting a rocket motor in the Super Crusader’s tail for extra boost. ... In mock dogfights, the Crusader III regularly defeated early-model Phantoms.

Simultaneously with the E-8A model, a reconnaissance version the RF-8A was developed. In 1964 a conversion program for these later aircraft was initiated to include stronger wings and fuselage, wing .

The Vought F-8 Crusader was such a plane, and was the very last offensive fighter jet to use machine guns as its primary armament when it was delivered to the U.S. Navy in the 1950s.