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RF-8 Crusaders over Cuba and Vietnam

$17.95

Aircraft of the Aces: Men & Legends Book 44
Published in 2001 by Del Prado / Osprey, UK
Softcover, 64 Pages
Size - 25cm * 19cm

Although the Crusader was built as a Navy interceptor, as has often been the tradition with US fighters, a photo-reconnaissance variant was also produced by Vought. Blessed with great speed and the traditional 'long legs' associated with all Navy aircraft, the Crusader was effectively converted into a reconnaissance platform by removing the four 20 mm cannon beneath the cockpit.

In their place an equal number of camera positions were introduced in a broadened and flattened belly. The photo-bird's first operational test came in the autumn of 1962 when its overflights of Cuba alerted the world to the likely presence of edium-range ballistic missiles on the Caribbean island.

The reconnaissance Crusader's next action came during the long years of the Vietnam War, when the Vought jet assumed the mantle of the US Navy's primary light-photographic platform. Forty-nine carrier detachments deployed between October 1963 and January 1974, with 20 RF-8s lost in action.

Fully Illustrated with B&W photos, 3 pages of line drawings, 3 pages of colour photos, and 9 pages of colour drawings