[lanslide]

Oh! Thanks for the clarification David. I will go back and edit my post. I have learned much from you about Tomcats and now Corsair IIs and Crusaders!

Originally Posted by David Hingtgen

My last comment was purely for the KC-135 and 707. Engines, gear, and stabs. For A-7 and F-8, it's gear only.

lanslide--you've got it backwards. The A-7 came from the F-8. It was one of the design requirements of the Navy----no "completely new" designs---it had to be based off proven tech/aerodynamics. So Grumman's, Douglas', and Vought's proposals for the YF-7 were all heavily based off existing planes. Basically just a "Super Skyhawk", and "Mini Intruder". The A-7 however, was even more different from the F-8 than the Super Hornet is from the Hornet. It's almost all-new, it just retains the basic shape of the F-8. But it LOOKED like just a mini-Crusader, so it fit the requirements. (But by being actually almost all-new, it far outperformed the other rehashed designs)

Ironically, the ultimate A-7, the A-7F, was a stretched, afterburning A-7. Which REALLY looked like an F-8. Only prototypes built though.

[JETFAN]

The F-8 would be my priority; lots of colors, both USN and USMC. With some judicious tool design, the forward lower fuselage could be revised to produce an RF-8 photo-reconn version; several USN and USMC squadrons operated these. VFP-63 had some very colorful Bicentennial schemes and, with Dets on several carriers, wore lots of different Air Group codes etc. For those who like "foreign" air forces, the Philippine Air Force and French Aeronavale both operated ex-USN F-8s.

[David Hingtgen]

France's were not ex-USN, they were built for France, and they were pretty unique. Many of the design changes for the French version of the F-8 were incorporated into the F-8E upgrade program, creating the F-8J.

And France used them up until 1999! The F-8's replacement is the Rafale!

PS--an RF-8 requires a whole new fuselage from the main gear well forward, not just the bottom part. The upper part was entirely changed to maintain area ruling. The RF-8 has a hump behind the cockpit, and no refueling probe bulge. But actually, due to the presence of the large gear bay behind the rocket tray/speed brake bay, and the variable incidence wing, that actually makes it easy to hide the seam. If you split the F-8 fuselage front/back where the change is needed, you'd end up with only a short vertical seam on each side, hidden between the wing and gear doors.

To do an RF-8 and F-8 would require 1.5 whole fuselages, but it can easily be done very accurately and almost invisibly if you know right where to "make the cut".