"Bob" wrote in message
oups.com...

F-8 vs F-4? I assume you refer to dogfight/sidewinder comparison. The
F-8 with an F-8 pilot driving would usually beat an F-4 with an F-4
pilot driving prior to 1968. An F-4 with an F-8 pilot driving would
usually beat an F-8 (which was only flown by F-8 pilots). After 1968,
the F-4 with either F-8 or F-4 pilot driving would usually beat an F-8.

Not in my experience. Certainly the Phantom community learned considerably
from the Top Gun effort (originally just a bunch of VF-121 instructors
flying VF-126 A-4's). But it remained a difficult aircraft to exploit and
up to CAG-19's departure on the last Fighter Eight cruise in 1975, the ole
gator usually prevailed.

There were guys who mastered the Hawg and were the exceptions to this rule.
After I transitioned to the F-4 and started fighting it, I originally
observed "No wonder we beat up on this pig." After a few hundred hours that
became, "How did we EVER beat up on this beast?" Two J-79's could transform
their shipping containers into a formidable machine, but given the Phantom's
flying qualities it wasn't easy to extract its performance.

As an interceptor, the F-4 was vastly superior to the F-8. Carrier
landing suitability, the F-4 was vastly superior to the F-8. Make
that, overwhelmingly superior. I personally never observed an F-100
beat an F-8 at anything. I'm sure it happened sometime but I never
heard of it in my short 22 years of flying. It was single seat and
single engine but kind of a lead sled. Admittedly parochial.

A clean F-8 was a joyful machine to fly, but its radar and WCS were
obviously inferior to the Phantom. It was, ah, unforgiving around the blunt
end of the boat while the Phantom was utterly stable and predictable
(although ramp strikes were not unheard of).

R / John