My father was a F-4D Skyray pilot and squadron commander of VF-13 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La, out of Mayport, FL. As a kid, I got to sit in the Skyray. I still remember it.

@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe

3 ай бұрын

Amazin.

@lostinpa-dadenduro7555

3 ай бұрын

Nice! 👍🇺🇸

@Richard-od7yd

3 ай бұрын

I was stationed in Mayport back during the SKYNARD era . Was it as much a dump back then as it was in the 70s 🤔😉😂

@Tiagomottadmello

3 ай бұрын

Awesome 👍🏻

@elroyfudbucker6806

3 ай бұрын

The USN actually named a ship, Shangri-la? Isn't that Tibetan for paradise?

At the age of 11, I watched one crash atMCAS Cherry Point. We were in the family car, stopped at the end of the runway. As the jet lifted off and began to climb. The aircraft began a roll to the right. Just past 90 degrees of roll, the pilot popped out, his chute opening Justin time to slow his descent into rising ground on the side of the runway. The jet continued to roll as it passed over the road ahead of us. Reaching inverted flight, it nosed over and plunged into the slough off the end of the runway, making a big splash. Pretty dramatic stuff to see at 11 years old.

@craigkdillon

3 ай бұрын

Damn. I bet you talked about that at school for a year. That's exciting at any age.

My father flew F-9 Panthers, before the Marines got this. Their very first super sonic aircraft. F-4f Skyray. VMF-115;out of El Toro. (Intercepters) My father was the pilot who bent the main frame on this aircraft. Pulling way too hard out of a dive. Showing the brass what it could do. So, yeah. This is the coolest episode ever, to me. Too bad he didn't make it this far. He would have loved this podcast. THANK YOU FOR THIS ONE. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️💔 Apache Grunt.

@johngalt2506

3 ай бұрын

I grew up living in El Toro in the 70s and 80s. Loved it! The Air Show was the high light of the year.

@teamgonzo9289

3 ай бұрын

@@johngalt2506 I was there in the 60s and 70s. Racing home to see speed racer every afternoon. The good old days!!! 👍

@johngalt2506

3 ай бұрын

@@teamgonzo9289 it was such an amazing place to live back in the day.

@teamgonzo9289

3 ай бұрын

@@johngalt2506 Amen brother 👍

@zeus-mt7wx

3 ай бұрын

He bent the air frame. 🙏🙏🙏🙏 Would have loved to hear what the top brass & manufacturers had to say about that. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

I thought this comment was posted, So here it is again. My dad was the leadman in Douglas prototype at El Segunda and built the first F4D Sky Ray and the F5D supersonic SkyLancer which had an area rule (boundary layer/coke bottle) fuselage which was about 8 feet longer but used the same J57 with AB. My dad worked directly with Ed Heinemann on those programs. Only built about 4 F5D.

One of the most beautiful fighters of the era.

This machine, the F4D Skyray, was more of a lightly built sport machine than a naval fighter. Operationally is was not deemed 'squaddy proof' by maintenance chiefs. It acquired many dents and other minor damage just being handled on the deck and in the hanger. But it was a better performer than the Grumman F-11 but slightly harder to handle for inexperienced pilots. It took the F-4 Phantom to replace it fully in the performance envelope. Just a machine way ahead of its time.

@SoloRenegade

3 ай бұрын

F11F-1F was far better

One of my alltime favorite jet aircraft! Over the last five decades I've built many models of the Skyray. 😎👍 It's a good thing they were able to switch engines, with the debacle of the failed J-40 engine.

What a handsome aeroplane. I remember seeing a kit in a model shop in Somerset some time back. Keep mining that rich seam of Cold War aircraft, you're finding some gems.

Aircraft designers with bold and innovative ideas.

A beautiful looking aircraft and held the world speed record for a while, one of my favourite jets

The Skyray has always been a favorite of mine. Thanks for posting this.

NASA also used the F5D Skylancer, and one pilot was Neil Armstrong. 😊

@taproom113

Ай бұрын

Didn't Neil use the Skylancer to work up the flight profile for the experimental Dyna-Soar re-entry vehicle? ^v^

My favorite model as a kid

This aircraft appears to be the first area rule blend type of design. Amazingly beautiful.

This is the one we were waiting for

Truly elegant shape and beautiful to watch.....from a time when anything in aviation was possible.

Good looking aircraft. Looks like it would fit right between an Avro 707 and a Vulcan.

Having built a few RC models of the skyray....they have all flown great.

I had totally forgotten about this unique aircraft. Many thanks for this great video.

I have always liked this Delta Wing design. A beautiful aircraft!

One of beautiful fighter aircraft's design

Beautiful aircraft.

Such a beautifl aircraft

Good information and excellent vintage visuals.

That was always my 3rd favorite aircraft. The SR71 being my first favorite and the F4 Phantom being my second favorite.

Love these Cold War jets. 😍 Another interesting video, thank you.

Beautiful plane. If it had different paint, it almost would look like a modern design.

One of the first models I ever built. It still looks futuristic.

One of the prettiest fighters, ever.

Thank you for Kazimir Semenovich! Really nice!

This has always been one of my favorite aircraft. Right alongside the F7U Cutlass and F2Y Sea Dart.

Had a model of this jet was I was a kid. Good times.

Beautiful Aircraft! Delta Wings and Flying Wings are my favourite Aircrafts!😎👍

Nice aircraft. It looks like a mix of the Vulcan and the Phantom.

Great video. I specially liked the retro music towards the ending, I thought I was watching Agents of UNCLE from Guy Ritchie again...

Great video! I love Dark Skies!

What a gorgeous aircraft, it was a clean design. I’d love to have an RC EDF one day.

@jamesjacocks6221

3 ай бұрын

I built a Comet, or some other kit, a long time ago and it would hand glide nicely. It’s a stable design.

nice video 😍and very informative

I like the skyray. I would have liked to see it further experimented with. The F117 nighthawk, vaguely resembles a skyray made from cardboard cut-outs.

@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe

3 ай бұрын

From what aspect?

Would have been cool if they continued to develop the airframe

I Really Love This Plane I Would've Loved To See What It Could've Evolved Into

@larryweitzman5163

3 ай бұрын

It did evolve into the supersonic F5D which was a very similar design with an area rule fuselage that was slightly longer. The F4D later received the J57 which was used in the F5D of which only 4 were built. My dad, a leadman at Douglas Prototype worked with Heinemann in the building the prototype F4D and F5D.

Y'know... that's a damn fine looking airplane. I wonder if I can whip one up on my 3D printer...?

Why aren't there any flying examples of this wonderful bird ?

I've Always Liked The Delta-Wing Configuration.

It was so beautiful fighter.

The F117's control was configured like a delta wing. Can't help but think that the Skyray's design data was incorporated into it.

I did not realize th USN had this many Skyrays in their inventory. Good to know.

I haven’t gotten past the first ad. I’m excited to watch this about the f4-d and read the comments and learn more

The Ford got its nickname from its F4D type designation (Eff Four D = FORD) much like the Bone getting its nickname from B-1 (B-ONE). I liked this airplane a lot even though it left service before I was able to build scale models.

I would of like a comparison with the Canadian Delta wing Arrow, that was ready to be operational in 1959, skipping the prototype testing, but destroyed by the Canadian government of John Diefenbaker the same year for no good reason, that had no vision. That was an outstanding performance Aircraft.

@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe

3 ай бұрын

More in common with that huge RAF thing that was canceled as well.

Best jet of the 1950s

Many of the mid 30s film clips shown in this video show tailless designs not deltas. The Me163 was also a tailless design not a delta. The YB35 and YB49 and B1 are some examples of tailless designs. The main drawback to tailless designs are their pitch sensitivity. It’s possible for them to tumble out of control. Edwards AFB is named for a pilot who died from this .

Fun fact: They shoved a J-79 into at least one Skyray at Edwards. I cant remember what the test was, but. It was discussed in a book titled: The Killer Rays.

Cool jet aircraft

That's a good thumbnail someone took a lot of care building the freeflight model!

My foggy memory seems to recall an experimental program where a GE J-79 was fitted to the F-4D. True?

It looked far more modern than its peers.

The balsa and tissue thumbnail is cool!

For the US Navy the McDonnell F3H Demon was the big dog until it was replaced by the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II.

@taproom113

Ай бұрын

You're forgetting the Vought F-8 Crusader ... which flew rings around the Demon and the Phantom. The Phantoms kill ratio in Vietnam was 2.5:1 ... The Crusader's KR was 6:1 despite many more Phantoms being deployed in the conflict over a longer period of time. 90% of the first Top Gun instructors were Crusader jocks who were well trained in ACM (the F-8 was designed as an Air Superiority Fighter)... where the Phantom guys were 'missile launching interceptors' first, and ACM guys second. ^v^

That's a gorgeous bird.

A very aesthetically designed aircraft. It looks like it was eventually turned into the A-4 Skyhawk (though the A-4 did have two smaller tail wings...

IMHO, one of the most beautiful fighters ever built.Clean and sleak. I wonder why no one has copied this design in a homebuilt microjet.

I'm surprised that there's no mention to it's tendency to porpoise when pulling into a climb or pancaking on landings. The former tended to ripple the skin of the aircraft while the latter made landings more difficult. The later version of it had thinner wings, thicker skin, and an extended nose. It's one of my favorite aircraft, just odd not to hear about some of it's major issues

Love the English Electric Lighting....did not know it was a delta wing

@kingoftadpoles

3 ай бұрын

Lol I saw that too. 1.11 or thereabouts.

That's a sharp aircraft, never did build a model jet. But plenty of propeller driven models from ww2.

My father wrote to Lippish about circular wings. Lips was a wonderful man and wrote back about them and also his work. KZread has a series of Lippish tv shows on aerodynamics. Great series.

@mitchellkaye9619

Ай бұрын

Lippisch was actually a hard core Nazi

Anyone else glad this thing no longer wong rips super easy on War thunder?

I worked for Westiinghouse (you can be sure if it's Westinghouse), but it was not... It was Pratt&Whitney that powered the ford (F4D)... Better check your facts...

3 ай бұрын

At the same time Canada built a delta wing interceptor with twin J79 pratt and whitney engines that tested in one of the first flights at mach 1.9 at 50000 feet

One of my favorite Navy birds.

Heinemann, a great but almost forgotten, aircraft designer.

@bobharrison7693

Ай бұрын

Forgotten? Hardly!

@Franky46Boy

Ай бұрын

@@bobharrison7693 You know him. I know him. And a few thousand other aircraft nerds know him. But he is not as well known as R. Mitchell, Willy Messerschmitt, Jack Northrop and Sidney Camm. And I forgot Kelly Johnson...

While I love this channel's videos and content, I'm constatntly surprised at how so many clips don't match the subject, or what's being talked about at that moment.

Not only are our modern aircraft designs taken from the old Luftwaffe hence F86 looks alot like the Mig15 which both came from the Messerschmitt P1101 jet. Also dual axial flow jet turbine engines are also directly sourced from German turbines designed by Dr. Ohain. No body uses the English Frank Whittle centrifugal jet engine anymore.

@michaelburke5907

3 ай бұрын

More Nazi fetishism...

@Oldbmwr100rs

3 ай бұрын

Centrifugal are still common on smaller utility engines, like GPU's, as well as smaller turboshaft engines, so they're still viable at least. Simple design.

@bobharrison7693

3 ай бұрын

The Whittle centrifugal flow design was the right engine at the right time. Little compressor development was required at the time as the centrifugal compressor was already well developed and in wide use in both mechanical and exhaust driven superchargers. On the other hand, axial flow compressors were much more complex, harder to build and still in the early stages of development. Centrifugal units are still in use today in tandem with axial flow compressors in many turboprop engines.

@danapicray9040

3 ай бұрын

P1101 looks more like a bell and yak 9

Please do something on the Cutlass also?

Interesting how the current move towards blended body designs look like they are mimicking the thick wing designs of old. That is how the NGAD is supposed to achieve greater range with more fuel, I believe.

Looks like a mini Avro Vulcan!

If they let us know they have this...what do they have we don't know about?

and here at 1:57 who is inventor? pilot or that who is resting on aircraft?

I have a large official photo of a 101 or 102 ? 6682 tail number. R&D version I suspect. The Engine is huge!

Heinemann designed the plane to accommodate different engines, in case the projected engines came up short in specs. Engines that didn't meet design power were a major source of failed aircraft during that time. While the F4D could go supersonic, it drank prodigious amounts of fuel because of it's fuselage shape; she was designed before the area rule of fuselage design was developed which greatly reduced drag. The Navy decided not to go with the newer F5D, as it's capabilities nearly matched the F8U Crusader already in service and that there were worries that McDonald Douglas would have the monopoly on naval aircraft.

I think it’s interesting how the Americans used delta wings relatively rarely on their fighters, while European engineers used them all the time. Is cost a reason? European developers probably didn’t have the same resources.

@draconian6692

3 ай бұрын

The us often gets stuck in tradition when it comes to the military

@shorthand1121

3 ай бұрын

Other than the variable geometry era the F-4 F-15 f-22 and f-35 are each true deltas just with elevators and the F-16 and F-18 are double deltas. I mainly think that the F-14 just looms large in the imagination. I do wish the F-16xl had gone to production though.

@ThePressurizer

3 ай бұрын

@@shorthand1121 Ah, thank you. I admit, I don't know nearly enough about wing geometry. But the European jets like Mirage always seemed more, well, triangular.

@RobertWilliams-ox4hz

3 ай бұрын

​@@ThePressurizerI think you're thinking of Europeans using deltas with canard. Like the Eurofighter, Rafale, and Gripen.

@ThePressurizer

3 ай бұрын

@@RobertWilliams-ox4hz Yes, exactly, that was what I had in mind.

Theres no doubt. Ed Heinemann knew what he was doing!

So when McNamara decided to take the f110 and force the Air Force to call it the f4, he was read designating an aircraft who's designation already existed. And would probably have been a better aircraft for Vietnam in the first place. I remember years ago seeing the flight characteristics of this aircraft, and it would probably have eviscerated migs. By the 1960s it would have been engine to be able to go up at faster than it dead in the 1950s. It's agility was probably much superior to the make 17 or the 21.

All american Delta aircraft are based in the work by Alexander Lippisch, who, as video points, was in Langley during the NACA tests of his DM-1/ L-13, seized after UK-USA attacks to Germany and other European nations. Just the tailor Roy Scroggs had patented a Delta Wing Planform aircraft before the studies by Alexander Lippisch and CharlesT Jones.

A tail-less delta wing design was never a great idea as a carrier fighter ! But one off the deck it was quite a hot ship !

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

The Westinghouse engine was a failure and was replaced with a Pratt and Whitney J-57 jet engine. Several other Navy aircraft were put at risk by Westinghouse and rescued by P&W.

What was secret about the Douglas F4D Skyray? The J-40 (one of Westinghouse‘s rubbish follow ons to the J-34 (the J-46 was the other) that handicapped several US Navy programs (Douglas F4D-1, Douglas A3D, McDonnell F3H-1, Vought F7U Cutlass). However even with the J-40 the prototype F4D took a world speed record. Replacing the J-40 with the reliable J-57 redeemed the F4D (and the A3D), though low speed handling gave some rather alarming looking carrier landings. The lightweight airframe somewhat compromised it’s naval service, the F5D Skylancer was better, but by then it was competing against Vought’s F8U Crusader, McDonnell’s F4H Phantom.

If the development had not been delayed, it would have been interesting how this would have competed against the MIG-15. Are there any gaming portrayals of this type of encounter?

Never heard of this craft.

The N.A.C.A. was never called nA’kuh People did not pronounce organization initials as words back then. My father was Chief Aerodynamicist for the agency and I grew up in the core circle of families in leadership of the agency. The people who, when the agency changed its name to N.A.S.A would become the core of the new agency. For which he was also the Chief Aerodynamicist, before reordering the research structure and becoming the director of space vehicle research. Known as N-A-S-A or “the space agency” it would not be pronounced as a word until the very late 1960s. Hearing nA’kuh is like fingernails on a hundred blackboards.

What about the tr3 Astra?

👏👏👏👏👏

Burgess-Dunne 1910...Delta 1(x2)

Look's a bit like the F-7U Cutlass as so many other planes of today do as well .

@7:08 was surprised that sparks didn't come out on that high angle-of-attack take off....Guess the A-4 was a tail dragger?

@craigwall9536

3 ай бұрын

Wooden deck.

@drlong08

3 ай бұрын

@@craigwall9536 🤦‍♂️

This does remind one of the F-16 a little bit.

Jack Northrop was experimenting with the Delta Wing in the 30's and 40's with his flying wing.... Northrop was just too far ahead of his time is all.... But Northrop got to see his dream become reality when they wheeled him in his wheelchair into a Top Secret hanger to show him the B-2 Spirit shortly before he died.... The proof Jack was right all along.... RIP Jack‼️🇺🇲‼️

They could have thickened the wing and had a bunch of individual bomb bays. Could have been a great overall small fighter bomber

@Idahoguy10157

3 ай бұрын

See the A-4 Skyhawk

@None-zc5vg

3 ай бұрын

​@@Idahoguy10157The Skyray and Skyhawk are essentially the same: the 'A4D' was a Navy designation for what was retitled the 'A4' in 1962.

Interesting topic and overall a very good video but 1) should be more focused on the topic 2) video footages do not always match.

Designed as a successor to the Douglas AD 'Skyraider' by the same designer, Ed Heinemann.

@bobharrison7693

3 ай бұрын

The A-4 ne A4D was the successor to the A-1 ne AD.