# U.S. Navy Vought F8U Crusader 1P Reconnaissance Aircraft Familiarization 78594

Made by Jam Handy in 1961 for the U.S. Navy, this film familiarizes personnel with the F-8U1P, the photographic version of the F-8U Crusader. The film presents many aspects of operating the cameras which, interestingly enough, can be activated using the "fire guns" button on the aircraft stick. The Vought F-8 Crusader (originally F8U) was a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based air superiority jet aircraft built by Vought for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, replacing the Vought F7U Cutlass, and for the French Navy. The first F-8 prototype was ready for flight in February 1955. The F-8 served principally in the Vietnam War. The Crusader was the last American fighter with guns as the primary weapon, earning it the title "The Last of the Gunfighters". An early F8U-1 was modified as a photo-reconnaissance aircraft, becoming the first F8U-1P, subsequently the RF-8A equipped with cameras rather than guns and missiles. On 16 July 1957, Major John H. Glenn, JR, USMC, completed the first supersonic transcontinental flight in a F8U-1P, flying from NAS Los Alamitos, California to Floyd Bennett Field, New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8.3 seconds. The unarmed Crusader was operated aboard carriers as a detachment (Det) from either VFP-62 or VFP-63 to provide photo reconnaissance capability as RF-8A proved ideal for the task of getting low altitude detailed photographs. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, RF-8As flew extremely hazardous low-level photo reconnaissance…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/78594AircraftFamiliarizationF8U1P)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/78594AircraftFamiliarizationF8U1P?play=1)