Thursday, November 15, 2012

How to Fly a Skyray

I ran across this video of a nearly forgotten U.S. Navy jet fighter that was quite a performer in its day. The Douglas F4D-1 Skyray was a fascinating bird with a modified delta wing and an incredible climb rate. Hampered by the Westinghouse jet engine fiasco of the late ‘40s, the plane had to make do with a Pratt and Whitney J57 engine instead. Even so, it was a great short range interceptor and even stood duty with NORAD for awhile.

From ground checks to landing, all is covered in this long video.

Be warned, it is a long video and I almost felt qualified to fly the Skyray after watching it. Too bad there aren’t any around; it was a very good looking fighter.

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