Tag: Vietnamese Peoples’ Air Force

Lt Cdr Thomas' F-8 had been hit in the utility hydraulic system, preventing him from raising the fighter's wing for a proper shipboard landing. He diverted to Da Nang, blowing down his landing gear with an emergency air system. The first acknowledged engagement between US Navy F-8 Crusaders and Vietnamese People’s Air Force (VPAF)...

With the controls unresponsive, Capt Wilfred K Abbott pulled the black and yellow handle, rocketing himself out of the doomed F-8. He parachuted into seven years of captivity  Known to its pilots as the 'last of the gunfighters' due to its quartet of Colt-Browning Mk12 20mm cannon (its great naval rival, the F-4 Phantom II, was armed exclusively with missiles), the F-8...