Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Crusader FAW F-8K

[rickshaw]

Well, it would have been an improved Airpass.  Airpass was actually quite an advanced radar for it's day, being the first Monopulse radar (which meant it could determine bearing and range from a single radar pulse, which was pretty hot stuff when it was developed) and in turn was developed into the Blue Parrot carried on the Buccaneer and thence into the FLR (Forward Looking Radar) used in the TSR.2.  It also led eventually to the Blue Fox system used on the Sea Harrier FRS.1.   So it had a pretty long development career.  What would be required in this case to allow the Blue Top SARH missile to work would be an Illuminator mode, where the radar locks on and continues to paint the target while the missile homes in on the reflections.  Something I believe the Airpass could be developed to have.  The real determinant of range for a radar though, is the size of the dish, which the bigger it is, the better it's reception.  The F-8's nose is rather limited and that means the radar's range would be limited.

I spent 4 years analysing radars for the RAF.  Airpass may have been advanced for its day, but its day was some time in the 1950s.  By the time this aircraft would have come along, it's technology (valves, clockwork, waveguide emitting to a bi-concave dish) were way way out touch.  It may have been the spiritual predecessor to Blue Parrot/Fox etc, but there were no common components. 
I don't mean to sound like I'm having a go, I was just pointing out that Airpass, as it stood, wouldn't have been acceptable and a vastly updated version would have been needed to cut thru all the clutter.

Well, Airpass entered service in it's initial form in 1960, it was updated several times, I understand.  What you must remember is that a radar developed in the late 1950s isn't going to compare with a modern one very well.  As Mossie has pointed out, the pace of development was very fast in the 1960s.  You must also remember, this aircraft's backstory has it being developed in the early 1960s, which fits into the timeline of the Airpass radar system quite well.  I looked carefully at what was available and had a comparable dish size to the AN/APQ-84 which the standard F-8 carried and the Airpass was the only one.  Short of postulating a new system being developed or the US one being adopted (with it's subsequent limitations), the Airpass won out.

[Devilfish]

Fair enough. It is after all, your Whif, and I respect that you have done your research on what was available at the time.  I didn't realise this was early 60's.  Not really familiar with the Crusader timeline, so I was thinking late 60's.  Anyway, non-visible radar aside, I love it!

[zenrat]

Very good.
Well done.

[Captain Canada]

What a beauty ! Love that it's a two-holer. Very rare to see an F-8 model like that....love it ! Also really like the armament, the cannon pods a re a nice touch ! And of course, anything in that colour scheme is always going to get my vote  What a beauty. Thanks for sharing this one !

[Mossie]

Brian, what did you use for the cockpit?

[McColm]

Great build,
I was wondering if you could use the two seater A-7 cockpit, canopy and seats instead and add them to the F-8. Similarly the RA-7 two seater Corsair could be created

[Army of One]

Great looking a/c there.......love the scheme and load out.........

[rickshaw]

Brian, what did you use for the cockpit?

This conversion - http://www.airmodel.de/product_info.php?info=p48_rf-8---tf-8-crusader.html

[Captain Canada]

What a cool conversion....I thought I had one but it's for an A-7 two seater. Just love the look of this family as two seaters !

[PR19_Kit]

Brian, what did you use for the cockpit?

This conversion - http://www.airmodel.de/product_info.php?info=p48_rf-8---tf-8-crusader.html

I'm impressed how well that worked Brian. I was pretty scathing about the Airmodel vacforms when you were planning that build, from previous experience with their stuff, but it worked very well.