While reading through Naval Fighters 12, there is a section entirely on the aircraft as it is recalled by LCDR Milner. This section contains a wealth of information that really isn’t available anywhere else, so I’ve decided to retype the entire thing here to make it more accessible. I’ve also attempted to correct any typos in the original text, including some strange grammar:
Editor's Note and Introduction
EDITOR’S NOTE LCDR Milner had a long association with the Demon, starting in 1957 with the first Demon squadron, VF-14, and ending with the last F3H squadron, VF-161, in 1964. He flew Demons with VF-14, VF-101, VF-151, VF-121 and VF-161. He finally timed out with 1,300 hours in the Demon.
More than most aircraft I would say the Demon was a learning experience, and the more you learned about it the more you liked it. We used to say there were two kinds of Demon Drivers, those who were dead and those who loved the airplane. The F3H had a super Cadillac ride that made a Phantom look squirrelly by comparison. What the Demon really needed was an engine. If we could have had a Phantom’s J-79 we would have had an airplane that would of really watered some eyes. The J-79 would have reduced the weight and size of the engine and allowed us to carry more onboard fuel; as well as giving us a very favorable thrust to weight ratio. Even though handicapped by its powerplant, the F3H was a strong, dependable, safe, reliable and efficient all weather missile fighter. Its radar allowed it to fly and carry out its mission of fleet defense when all other fighters were grounded by the weather.
My proof that the Demon was an excellent aircraft is the fact that only one squadron has ever won the coveted combination Battle “E” and Safety award three years in a row, and that was VF-14 in 1959-60 and 61. Interestingly enough it was done in the only airplane that both the manufacturer and the Navy would rather not talk about. Most people who weren’t directly involved with the aircraft would like to forget it even existed; in fact, I heard a rumor that daddy Mac. had sued a model maker in the 50’s for trying to issue a kit of the Demon.
My first contact with the Demon came in Dec. 1955 while I was undergoing flight training at NAS Pensacola, Florida. There were about a dozen of the all blue F3H-1s parked along the sea wall (fate unknown). These aircraft had been barged down the Mississippi River from McDonnell’s St. Louis plant after it was determined that they were too underpowered for the Navy’s requirements. the F3H-1 differed visibly from the F3H-2 in having a smaller nose and in the absence of the characteristic swing belly. My first impression of the blue F3H-1 was that of a praying mantis, and at that point, what with their reputation and such, I hoped I would not get involved with the Demon.
The next time I saw a Demon was when I was at Key West going through FAWTUATLANT (Fleet All Weather Training Unit Atlantic) Detachment A in July of 1957. We were riding in the right seat of the F3D Skyknight while learning the fine art of radar intercepts in preparation for joining an all weather fighter squadron. This was before the days of the RAG, when each squadron was responsible for training its own pilots in type. In fact, there was no such thing as a NATOPS manual, just a pilot’s handbook.
When I arrived at my first squadron, VF-14, we had fourteen aircraft, only one of which was in an “up” condition, and nobody in the squadron had been checked out in the F3H. All told there were nineteen pilots in the squadron, including the CO, CDR Martin “Butch” O’Neil, and the XO, LCDR. Art Adams. Butch had a well thought out idea of how a RAG should work and tried to implement his ideas in our training. We got a lot of hands on experience before our first flights, as most of our aircraft were in pieces. In fact one had been so cannibalized that it had to be barged and trucked to Cecil Field, Florida.
My introduction to the Demon finally came when the Skipper borrowed three F3H pilots to show us the
ropes. First we learned to start and stop her, then start-taxi and shut down, and then first flight. It was Feb of 1958 when I first took the duty runway in my trusty Demon. I hadn’t put much thought into the fact that I hadn’t been alone in an aircraft since May of 1957 and that was in a straight winged F9F-2 Panther. Now I was all set to go in an afterburning, smoke-blowing, swing-bellied Demon, so it was hit the AB and go for it. It was a real thrill as I finally caught myself going through 40,000 ft.
Entering the Cockpit
The first thing that would attract your attention as a new Demon pilot was the fact that you had to be a mountain goat to get into the cockpit, as it was some thirteen feet above the deck. Aboard ship, we at first had a cumbersome ladder that folded in the middle and was a real bear in the wind. It was replaced by a single piece non-folding tubular ladder that floated. We used these new ladders for a short period of time till the sailors had managed to throw them all over the side. The first time a sailor pitched one over the side and got caught, he laughed and said, “what are you going to do with evidence?” He then turned around and saw it floating in the ships wake. So, generally, we didn’t use the ladders.
The way we normally entered the cockpit was to scale up to it. the speed brakes would usually bleed open so it was one foot in the speed brake one in the flap and up the wing to the three goat steps that stuck out of the side of the fuselage. You would step across the goat steps to climb into the cockpit while holding onto the canopy bottom rail. The goat step started out being something the size of your finger and developed into a “L” shaped hook with a non-skid surface. We also added a big drawer puller handle on the back of the canopy to make it considerably safer. Before doing this we lost a gent one night who fell onto the deck and broke his leg pelvis arm and who knows what else. Since these modifications still wouldn’t prevent you from sliding off the wing, we installed a non-skid wing-walk. However, we didn’t use the regular aircraft type, but the type found on ships ladders.
Once into the cockpit a new pilot would realize he had a considerable amount of room. It was larger than a Phantoms cockpit and you certainly had a lot better visibility. The visibility was incredible. It gave me the feeling that if I leaned forward and looked down that I would see the nosewheel. You couldn’t but you could see someone standing next to the nosewheel. It sure was nice not to have to roll the airplane to see something below you. The rest of your visibility was restricted normally by the seat and its ledges.
APG-51 Radar System
The next thing that would grab a new pilots attention would be the second grip behind the throttle. This was the radar control stick. In the early days, it was a real Rube Goldberg type of thing. The stick had a switch on top that was a two speed “gate” switch. The choices being in and out. With this system you just couldn’t superimpose the range gate over a target very easily. It moved either way too fast or way too slow. So we changed the control so that the top was an antenna elevation switch. The movement of the handle back and forth became the range gate in and out. This made the whole thing a whole lot smoother and is basically what we find in the F-4 and F-14 today. In reality the hand control we use now was developed in the Demon, although it’s been modified since then.
Another development we introduced was nadar. With this capability a tape of the entire attack presentation on the radar could be made for post-flight review. We could then get a tape from lock-on to missile firing that we would play on television type gear.
Another feature we instituted was an antenna “L” marker, which would move from the right side of the scope to the left while at max-range and left to right while at mid-range. From this you could tell what the intercept geometry was and of course you’d have range and rate circles and the gyro indication on the scope. The Demon’s radar display changed from a simple system to the more complex system with collapsing range circles, etc. that’s found in the F-4 Phantom today. The Demon’s set had some capabilities built into it that were really unique. One of these features was a mapping mode which incorporated a range expanding mode within that mapping. The map scale went out to 200 miles and you could run in and out with a twistable knob. If you pulled that knob up, the entire scope became a 20 mile square. This would enable you to blow up a target when still 180 miles out. This gave us the ability to pick up RB-66 aircraft at a range of 180 miles during WESIG 1959 (WEAPONS SYSTEMS EVALUATION GROUP EXERCISE), during a jamming evaluation against the ship. The radar ranges as I recall were from top to bottom of the scope, 30 miles in the normal presentation which could be enlarged to about eight miles.
As originally built, lock-on could only be accomplished when the target was within 15 miles. Luckily, we had some technicians with us who were able to remove the block and allow the radar to operate at its own limitations. So your ability to lock-on was dependent on the size and range of the target and the quality of the return. We were able to obtain lock-ons at just inside 23 miles. This feat was certainly nothing compared to today’s F-14s - enviable in comparison with early F-4 Phantoms - incredible when compared with F-8 Crusaders, F4D Skyrays and F3D Skynights.
Autopilot
The next pilot comfort item was the autopilot. The control box was on the starboard console and had a joy stick of its own. It had a couple of function hold buttons mach and altitude. These enabled you to either hold your mach or your altitude. While the aircraft was in autopilot, you could control it through the use of its little joystick. The system had the capability of controlling the pitch without using the stick this was done with a knurled knob.
The autopilot itself could be engaged at anytime. If you engaged it in an attitude that exceeded the autopilot’s hold capability, the aircraft would roll in the reverse of the way it rolled going into the maneuver and recover straight and level. But if you engaged the autopilot within its hold capability limits, you could hold the aircraft in that attitude.
Th autopilot had its own gyro (as did the radar). If you found yourself in an extreme condition of vertigo, you could reach over and engage the autopilot, which would hold you if the aircraft was in a safe attitude. Once held, if you just disturbed the stick on the autopilot, the aircraft would recover to straight and Ievel trimmed flight. As an example, you could roll the plane upside down - nose high - 15° above the horizon, and let it run out of airspeed, then punch in the autopilot and it would roll in the opposite direction - recover - drop the nose - pick up the 200 or 300 kts. you had trimmed for and off you went.
Unspinnable
The Demon was the original unspinnable aircraft. The story here says the McDonnell test pilot went out to test the Demons spin recovery capabilities. Eight attempts and three hops later, he still was unsuccessful. Finally he pulled a combination maneuver which succeeded in getting the F3H into a spin. He then tried the three known recovery techniques, all of which didn’t work. By this time he had passed through 10,000 feet and had deployed the anti-spin chute, which didn’t work either. He then attempted to burn off the chute by use of afterburner, and when that failed he ejected. After he had left the aircraft, the Demon recovered while in AB and climbed up through 40,000 ft. while departing the St. Louis area. The airplane flamed out at 40,000 ft. and made its own dead stick landing in a farmers field. It probably would have been undamaged except that it caught a wingtip during slide out. The outcome of this whole incident was that if you wanted the aircraft to do something weird, you had to hold the controls there, but to recover all you had to do was let go of the stick and rudders.
An interesting side note is that the Air Defense Command was contacted and asked to intercept. When they found out what it was and that it was in AB at 40,000 ft., they said to forget it because they couldn’t catch it.
Control Surfaces
The F3H had absolutely incredible rudder and stabilator (flying tail) authority. Directional control on the runway became effective at 20 m.p.h. with use of the rudder. Stabilator control was so good that you could actually compress the nose strut down all the way by pushing the stick forward. On a carrier deck you could even jump the nose wheel off the deck by pushing the stick full forward and full back a couple of times. In fact the wind down the deck was enough for you to be able to swing the nose just through the use of the rudder, which is a real feat considering the Demon did not have a steerable nose wheel.
The other part of our control system was the combination spoiler aileron. The spoiler was set inboard on the top of the wing. These were 1/2 inch aluminum planks that slammed down on top of the wing when you operated them. Our method of trimming stick center at night was to trim the spoilers first. This was done because the spoilers were the only mechanical surface, and if you trimmed them first and then were unable to trim the ailerons level, you knew that your autopilot actuator for the displaced aileron was bad. The aircraft would also switch from aileron to spoiler control automatically somewhere around mach .82 or so.
Armament
Although four 20mm guns were installed, the Demon evolved into basically an all missile interceptor. In June of 1958, VF-14 took six Demons out to NAS Point Mugu, Calif. The purpose of this cross country was to finish the installation of the Sparrow III systems. The planes were F3H-2N’s, which were entirely Sidewinder and gun capable. (The F3H-2Ms, which were Sparrow I capable were never uprated to the Sparrow III system). When we arrived at Pt. Mugu the CW transmitting gear was installed in the nose well to complete the system. This gear made the aircraft slightly nose heavy.
While at Pt. Mugu our belief in the aircraft grew greatly because the Sparrow III was a super weapon. At that time an interceptor was not designed for hassling, instead you flew wings level, 250 to 300 kts., while pointing your nose right at the enemy. You would let your enemy do the work for you, the faster he flew the sooner you got to shoot and the quicker the intercept was complete. In that time I never saw a Sparrow miss, however I never saw a sidewinder hit, so I was thrilled with the success of the weapons system.
Guns + or -
Since we developed into a missile interceptor and were somewhat underpowered, it became common practice to remove the two upper 20mm guns. This would save about 500 Ibs for the guns and 50 lbs for the ammo cans. With the upper guns removed you could use that compartment for baggage stowage. In some photos you will notice blank-offs installed in the upper gun positions. The upper guns were removed instead of the lower ones, because the lower guns had more of a blast reflector apparatus which was harder to remove. We had tried removing all four guns, but discovered that the F3H was then much too light in the nose.
Refueling and Drop Tanks
We didn’t carry drop tanks at VF-14 for a couple of very good reasons - range and performance. Two drop tanks hanging side by side on the narrow fuselage stations netted you a loss in range and performance and a whole five more minutes of flight time. One drop tank was somewhat better; it gave you an additional five to ten minutes of flight time with no increase in range. Unlike VF-14, the following squadrons all carried single drop tanks - VF-31, 151 and 161.
In Jan. 1961, I became the second man to attempt to plug a Demon into an AJ Savage tanker. We had been given no instructions on how it was to be done. The XO, LCDR Roy Cornwell, went in first with the slats and flaps up While going down hill at 180 kts. (500 ft. per. min.). The AJ was going flat out and we were dragging our feet. It didn’t work and the XO was unable to complete the engagement. So it was up to me to make the next attempt with the slats out. That little maneuver found me looking at the top of the AJ over my canopy rail while in the inverted position. We finally found out that by using the speed brakes in conjunction with more power we could alter our closing speed properly. This procedure gave us a higher power setting and allowed us more maneuverability. Once we became proficient with the AJ, we decided to try our hand at the venerable Able Dog (Skyraider). The AD worked well too.
Since the refueling capabilities of the Demon were an afterthought and therefore externally mounted, it was relatively easy to remove the probe and cover the openings with a blank-off plate. We ususally flew the airplane with the probe off and when on the beach removed the racks and rails too. Besides the obvious drag savings we saved an additional 180 lbs by removing the refueling gear.
The F3H Versus the F-8
We used to have a axiom that said, the fighter pilot that would win was the one who knew the most about the other guys aircraft. Since no one wanted to know anything about the Demon and it was easy to know anything you wanted to know about the F-8 Crusader, we had a distinct advantage.
The F-8s used to have a hammer head stall maneuver to lose interceptors. they would go straight up in burner and then turn around and come straight down when they ran out. Well, we’d wait for them and catch them on the way back and follow them down the hill. That was a real education for F-8 drivers, who weren’t knowledgeable about the F3H.
When the heavy underpowered Demon was full of fuel it was no match for a F-8. But if a F3H hassled a fully fueled and armed F-8 when the Demon had burned down to fighting weight - F-8 beware. At this point the Demon would have the same thrust-to-weight ratio as the Crusader. It was always a real eye-opener to a F-8 pilot - to come off the deck on board ship and find a Demon in a low fuel condition waiting for him. The first time they would try and jump us, they would think they were flying a lead sled, because the Demon would turn around and go the other way inside the F-8’s gunnery pursuit curve. My favorite maneuver would be to catch a F-8 rolling in and then throw the speed brakes out and slow to 250 kts., and then stash it in burner and put that thing into 90° of bank and just reef it around the corner and meet him head on going the opposite direction flying up his pursuit curve.
I remember encountering another F-8 after carquals off the Florida coast. During carquals we didn’t have racks and rails or IFR probes or anything heavy. So one day I had one of these stripped down carqual F3H’s out and was playing around when I noticed two F8U-2NEs below me. They were two VF-174 rag birds out practicing intercepts. There was an instructor in the second F-8 who was tagging along with the student at about 38,000 feet. Well I’m sure I destroyed the instructors whole day as I started down on my high side gunnery run from 43,000 feet. You could just see him look out his canopy and say, “a Demon coming down on me - obviously it’s time for my world famous maneuver”, and he stashed it in burner and yanked back on the stick, but instead of going straight up, he just spun out. So while he was doing his octoflugerons while trying to recover the airplane, I casually joined up and flew wing on him. When he recovered and looked out the cockpit and saw me on his wing - you could see the dropped eyelids and gaping open mouth - as if saying how in the world did you do that. He then went through a couple of more gyrations to get rid of me and when that didn’t work, he gave up and waved. Once back at the field the instructor, who turned out to be a friend of mine, found me and related how he hadn’t know a Demon could do all that.
One of the other things about the maneuverability of the aircraft was that since we had hydraulic control of slats and flaps, we could go slats only, or quarter flap, or half flaps or whatever. We could go slats only and turn like crazy and if an A-4 Skyhawk tried to match your roll it would end up slipping a slat on the wrong wing and go the other way, particularly if you were slow - which a Demon usually was. We generaIIy stayed in the region of 275 to 300 kts.
Survivability
The Demon was a rugged aircraft that had extremely good survival capabilities either ditching, crashing, or even leaving the runway.
The first incident I saw was at Key West, where a F3H left the side of the runway. Since Key West or Boca Chica is at such a low altitude, it had water on both sides of the runway, and when the plane stopped, the pilot looked over the side and thought he was in the water. So he inflated his Mae West and jumped, but to his shock he found the water only six inches deep.
My roommate, LTJG. “Fab” Fabiszewski, took a Demon into Nice, France with an electrical problem. He came in minus the canopy, gear down, slats down and no flaps. He also was coming in with his nozzle open because his AB mod switch wouldn’t work. He came in downwind over the water towards the city. He had actually flamed the aircraft out at 6,000 feet and dived it down to the runway with his ram air driven hydraulic pump spinning from the belly of the plane. He was of course, too fast to stop, so he took it off the side of the runway. Well at Cote D’Azur they used great big river bed rocks on the sides of the runway. He ran across these and finally stopped up against a concrete abutment. All this did was to bend the nose strut.
Another pilot with VF-14, was flying around when he lost AB nozzle control. This gent decided a straight in approach would be best and when he put the gear and flaps down, he couldn’t maintain altitude, and found himself settling into the Florida pines. He then picked up his flaps in an attempt to decrease his drag and started plowing pine trees. He then hit AB about the time he hit the ground and continued plowing trees and miraculously got airborne again. He continued into the break and turned downwind to make what he called an uneventful landing minus his main mounts.
Another time a fellow lost his port brake while making an arrested landing. He stood on the right brake to make the airplane stop. This resulted in the nose of his airplane making a half circle which took the tails off of two AD Skyraiders and stopped against a third. About the only damage to the Demon was the destruction of the fiberglass radome and damage to the radar antennae.
One night in the Med, a fellow named Jack Childes was forced to land aboard ship with his port main gear up and locked. On his first pass he caught the #2 wire and the barricade, which stopped him neatly. The Demon Doctors jacked up the airplane, took the main mount out, repaired it, changed the outboard wing panel and we were able to use the aircraft the next day. During my tour with VF-101, I too landed a F3H with the port main mount up, again with minimal damage.
The first stories and photos I ever saw of a Demon in the Florida pines was of a fellow named Ed Feaks who had lost power on take-off and landed wings level while sliding out through the fields. He really tore up some trees, as he went through a farmers field, a fence, a ditch and over a road and down into more trees. When the thing finally came to a halt, the farthest point forward was the seat’s stirrups (as his aircraft had been equipped with the McDonnell seat instead of the later Martin Baker seat which didn’t have stirrups). So there he sat with a tree right between his knees. Another six inches and his nose would have been touching the tree.
At VF-101 we had a GCA officer by the name of MacElhaney. He was doing some GCA instructor training with a gent named J.C. Barenti. I was walking out to the flightline as the two were coming in. Mr. Mac was coming down fast behind the trees. As he went behind the trees, I was saying to my students, “Gee I didn’t think the runway went that far out.” About that time, I saw a big puff of black smoke which marked his point of entry into the water short of the runway. What had happened was that Mr. Mac had been using the blackout bag over his head and when it came to GCA wave off time, it had become entangled with his helmet and he couldn’t get it off. He then hit the water and the impact snapped his head forward and the bag came off. After he had waded ashore, the airplane caught fire and burned for the next three days.
AB Mod Switch
The Demon had an acceptable rpm range which was pretty limited at full power. As I recall you were supposed to have 99 1/2 to 100 1/2 with a temperature of 677° or “620° and building.” Once stabilized and at max military power the nozzle continually hunted to maintain 677°. The nozzle itself was closed hydraulically, but was allowed to open electrically. There was an AC relay that was involved and if it failed, you’d get an open nozzle. With your nozzle in the open position, you just about had enough power in a clean configuration to fly at four or five thousand feet, and when the gear and flaps came down you would come down in a normal glide slope of 4° at landing weight. The AB mod switch was a lift push toggle switch which put the aircraft into after-burner anytime you were above 80% throttle. Since the airplane idled at 76%, it didn’t leave you much leeway. Once in burner, the only way out of burner was by turning off the switch.
One time at Key West, a fellow pilot failed to note that his AB mod switch was in AB during his cockpit check. Now since he was an old salt and wanted to show the kids in the rag how to leave the line, he goosed it coming out of the chocks. Of course he went over 80% and the burner lit about the time he applied differential braking, as the Demon did not have a steerable nose wheel. You can well imagine his shock and the few hairy moments until he was able to shut down the burner.
The real purpose of the switch was that if you had a failed open nozzle in flight, and were coming aboard ship, you obviously couldn’t be satisfied by the sink rate provided with the gear and flaps down. You needed the power you got at 94-96%. In AB “mod”, 84-86% gave you that power, but very slow acceleration.
In the F3H, the curve in the power available range started somewhere around 92%, and more than half your thrust was above that point. Since that’s where you were when dirty and coming aboard, we frequently used speed brakes because they retracted faster than the power came on. Acceleration time on the engine from idle to military power was like 13 1/2 seconds, and considering idle was about 76%, that just was not a fast engine.
Our type of burner was called a soft lite/open nozzle burner. In this system the nozzle would open and the burner would light. If the nozzle opened and the burner didn’t light, you would have an instant loss of power, if it lit you’d get a little buck. Now the F-8 Crusader had a J-57 engine which would light with the nozzle closed. This would give you what we called a hard light.
The Demon also had what was called a flat throttle. That is, in the range from 76 to 92% the throttle would only move about an inch. After that you had about three to three and a half inches to play with. In that three to three and a half inches you were only modulating the engine between 92 and 100%, giving you more finite power control. So you really had to be careful when operating it in the 92% and lower range.
Last Note
Even though the Demon was referred to as a “lead sled”, you really could go supersonic if you were straight and level at 8,000 feet. The thing that was nice about the Demon’s reputation was that if you did bust up someone’s windows, they would blame an F-8 or F-4.
