Aerospace expert and author Tommy Thomason discusses his book ‘‘U.S. Naval Air Superiority: Development of Shipborne Jet Fighters 1943-1962” at the Navy Museum, April 24.
The Navy’s transition from piston-powered planes to carrier-based jet fighters, which began at the close of World War II, involved some well known and some not so successful aircraft designs, which are analyzed in a new book by Tommy A. Thomason.
Thomason, who was a flight test engineer and manager in the aerospace industry for more than 40 years, discussed some of the findings in his book, ‘‘U.S. Naval Air Superiority: Development of Shipborne Jet Fighters 1943-1962” (Specialty Press 2008), for the 6 Bells Author Event at the U.S. Navy Museum, April 21.
The most successful aircraft of the Navy’s carrier-based jet fighter program was the McDonnell F4H Phantom II, said Thomason. The American military used the Phantom II from 1960 to 1996.
‘‘Every airplane is useful, if only as an example of what not to do,” said Thomason. ‘‘Each of the airplanes that I describe in my book was important to progress toward the milestone represented by the F4H Phantom II entering service.”
The biggest disappointment was the Westinghouse J40 engine, which was to power most of the Navy’s high-performance fighters in the 1950s, said Thomason. The engine didn’t become operational because it didn’t achieve the reliability and performance for which the Navy had contracted. The J40 engine program was terminated in 1955.
The worst managed program was the Grumman XF10F Jaguar, said Thomason. The aircraft was a total failure.
‘‘The most underrated, in my opinion, was the F3H Demon, which after a poor start – it was to be powered by the J40 engine – was the only effective all-weather fighter available to the Navy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In addition, it provided McDonnell [Aircraft Corp.] and the Navy with the experience that contributed to the successful development and employment of the F4H.”
The ‘‘two might-have-been greats” were the original Vought F7U Cutlass and the F8U-3, the ultimate Crusader that had even better performance in some respects than the F4H, he said.
Thomason said aircraft manufacturers McDonnell, Douglas, North American and Vought worked closely with the Navy in the 1940s and 1950s, using relatively informal and flexible competition and contracting procedures to accomplish the development and production of new and improved aircraft.
‘‘Some think that this process was adversely and permanently affected beginning when Robert McNamara became secretary of the defense in 1961 and not only imposed a systems management approach on the military services, but instituted a much greater degree of oversight on programs,” said Thomason. ‘‘In any event, since then there have been far fewer aircraft programs which take much longer to reach operational use, if they ever do.”
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