"IRBusch" wrote in message
...
I was happy to read this since I've been trying to get some more info
on aircraft of this era.

Particularly for the F-8E: did its APS-94/104 have the ability to
illuminate for guiding Sparrow? I was under the impression that the
(only 2 built) next generation Crusader (Crusader II or Super Crusader
or whatever it was called) had this capability, but I didn't know if
the garden variety did. I had read somewhere that the F-8E(FN) for
the French could lauch/guide the Matra 530 (which I thought, like
Sparrow, was SARH), but I can't find out if Sparrow was ever carried.

Nope. There was a capability to carry and launch the AIM-9C (radar
sidewinder), but I don't think the missile ever made it to operational
status. There was never a provision to carry Sparrow on the operational
F-8. The F-8U3 Crusader III (three prototypes built) was Sparrow capable.
The Crusader III lost a fly-off to the lower performance F-4 Phantom in
1958. No examples survive.

SNIP

R / John