On December 4, 1959, the skies over San Diego were clear as 21-year-old Navy pilot Ensign Albert Hickman prepared for carrier landing training maneuvers in his McDonnell F3H Demon.
This jet, plagued with engine troubles since its inception, had earned a reputation for unreliability. As Hickman executed his practice maneuvers, which initially went great, a familiar sense of unease crept in after some time. The Demon’s engine, notorious for its flaws, began to falter. At just 2,000 feet, it cut out completely, leaving him in a dire situation.
Hickman’s mind raced. Below him was a school filled with children. He knew that ejecting would save his life, but the unmanned jet could cause a devastating disaster.
With seconds to decide, Hickman faced a race against time and his own survival instinct. He knew just what to do. After all, he was a Demon Driver, flying an aircraft that demanded extraordinary bravery from those who piloted it.
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I don't understand why this video is stuffed with irrelevant shots of, in particular, A-4 Skyhawks. I see this in other videos. It's confusing for those who don't know the difference and annoying for those of us who do.
Chuck Yeager said any stories about pilots riding out a doomed aircraft to prevent civilian casualties is nonsense. He claimed it was propaganda spun by the service after the fact.
They'd show the F-3 and all could see is how it inspired the F-4. There is no denying those lines…
These are some things about this era of jets that I thought about while listening to this video.
The J34 was the only truly successful turbojet built by Westinghouse.
They are STILL running around on drag strips over 60 years later,
often still operating as they were when sold as surplus long ago,
no overhaul.
Unfortunately,
those engines were rather underperforming when released but that was an era of rapid advancements and changes-
those were first generation fighter jets that were not yet supersonic.
The J-34’s are widely considered to be the bane of the X-3 Stiletto project,
which is in my opinion the most beautifully advanced aircraft ever created.
That program commenced in 1949.
It was fortunate for them that she was underpowered because they had problems with the deadly new phenomena of
inertial coupling which was something that the engineers were not yet familiar with.
That aircraft was significantly influential on the successful yet also dangerous F-104 Starfighter.
Back to the J-34’s,
the only aircraft powered by the -36 version of the J-34 was the
twin engine F3D-2 “Skyknight.”
It was a night fighter used exclusively by the Marine Corps in the Korean War, which destroyed more enemy planes than any other Navy or Marine Corps type in use-
there were only 265 Skyknights were produced.
That prototype first flew in 1948.
The better known F-86 Sabre was a USAF jet-
almost 10,000 units were produced.
The F-86 is the most easily recognized US fighter jet of that era.
Anyway…
back to the Skyknight.
It was not very respected by the pilot community for several reasons…
in addition to being considered to be rather ugly.
Just remember-
they were primarily escorting the piston prop-driven B-29’s in Korea-
This was a very awkard time of transition with underperforming jets trying to work with well-developed, combat-proven, war-winning propeller bombers.
Yet,
B-29’s Cruised at 220mph and their top speed was
357mph.
The Skyknight cruised at
455mph.
Obviously,
these are very
mis-matched operating speeds and jets are not safe,responsive or efficient when operating well under their intended range of operations.
Here’s the thing-
The Skyknight led to the Douglas F6D Missileer project which was a proposed carrier-based fleet defense fighter designed by the
Douglas Aircraft Company in response to a 1959 United States Navy requirement.
It never even reached prototype stage
BUT
it was designed to be able to loiter for extended periods at a relatively long distance from the Navy's aircraft carriers, engaging hostile aircraft 100 miles (160 km) away with its powerful radar and long-range missiles.
Since the enemy would be fired on long before they reached visual range,
the aircraft had little dogfighting capability and was strictly subsonic.
When doubts were expressed about the Missileer's ability to defend itself after firing its missiles,
the value of the project was questioned, leading to its cancellation.
Yet,
some of the Missileer's systems,
primarily the engines intended to re-power this re-worked Skyknight,
the Pratt&Whitney TF-30 turbofan
(as well as radar&missile systems) continued development in spite of the aircraft cancellation,
eventually emerging on the ill-fated General Dynamics–Grumman F-111B and another jet you may have heard of…
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat.
Many vehicular designs throughout history were so far ahead of their time that the engines or construction techniques were simply not yet available.
You can really see that in the work of
Leonardo Da Vinci.
Just because some of these aircraft,engine and system designs seem liked failures at first glance they were often crucial components of the process to solve these problems and achieve&maintain
air superiority.
So did Ensign Hickman survive the crash????
"Demon drivers" whoa.
(ex war thunder player). They call it the Whale
When the president of the manufacturing company sends a letter saying 'don't use our product', you should probably listen.
Is this when we learned not to put the engine intakes against the fuselage?
Did the Demon magically morph into the A-4? Lol
McDonnell Douglas advised the US Government not to use this engine. The production aircraft were towed from the factory to the St. Louis river front and loaded on barges to ship to Memphis. McDonnell Douglas built the airgrames but the customer (US Government) selects the power plants.
McDonnell Douglas has always named their aircraft after the occult, Demon, Phantom, Voodoo, Goblin.
I want to like this but you get so much of the footage wrong it is so annoying. I know there isn't much demon footage but I would rather it play on repeat than the A-4 stuff.
Wasn't aware the Chicago lions were in Cali
To me, it looks like the forerunner to the Skyhawk, another iconic aircraft.
Like most US fighters of the era, the Demon was underpowered and the engines unreliable. The US Axial Flow jet engines all failed and it was not until the J-57, the first reliable US Axial Flow jet engine appeared in 1955 that the designs became reliable.
As a former Navy pilot (born the year this happened), I object to your use of the current inane, overused and misused term "insane" with regards to the pilots who flew these early aircraft. These men were anything but "insane". Actions such as those exhibited by E-1 Hickman were quite sane and powerfully selfless to save the school at his own peril. You can throw that word at those in procurement within the Pentagon, perhaps. Or just try to not use "trendy" idiotic, addlepated vocabulary to sell your channel. And your misuse of crash footage at about 3:50 is NOT of a Demon but a F-9F Panther. Get a clue, do some research, try harder.
video about the F3H Demon, but a lot of shots showing the A4 Skyhawk, and an F4 Phantom
The predecessor to the Phantom was the F101. Other than tail hooks , the Demon and Phantom haven’t much in common.
GE had experience in turbochargers. Allison, P&W, Wright experience with supercharger blowers. Westinghouse experience was?..steam turbines. I think the Navy was browned by the USAF and wanted its own engine source. In the event, US manufacturers built licensed British engines from 1943 to the early 50s and Wright to the 60s.
Concerning the Demon, note the curious absence of a boundary layer splitter plate on the inlet.
😮😮😮😮😮😮
😊😊😊😊
The -G model Demon was going to be available with either a single seat or two seat variant also.
I love your content but you really need to stop showing other aircraft when your talking about a specific one. The folks who watch your channel obviously know the difference between an A4 Skyhawks and the demon. I know it is difficult to find some footage sometimes but your audience, just like you, are way to smart for that. Better to make shorter videos
Ah yes, politics over practicality. I'm 100% sure that all police cars will be Tesla's if Trump is elected in November.
After all, Elon Musk is a right wing homophobic BIGOT and is pumping $45 million per month into Donald Trump's campaign…..
McDonnell Douglas went onto produce the MD-11.
Any questions?
Why do you show an F4 Phantom in this video?
Excellent history; but why the extensive use on non-Demon aircraft photos??
Why do they keep showing footage of the A-4 Skyhawk? This video is supposed to be about the F3H Demon.
Man I love the demon it’s a shame that it has the worst aim7’s
The McDonnell F3H Demon was not "iconic". It was garbage, from start to finish.
shows Niagara falls “Skys over San Diego”
4:20 “less powerful” ????
Not a complaint about the footage.
My complaint is about the YouTuber's trope that pilots of 50s/60s jets were incredibly brave just to take off in them. Yeah, accident rates were higher then than now but the way you go on, it's like it was the first day on the Somme.
The F-3H Demon wasn't quite what they wanted, but man did they get it right with their next plane, the F-4 Phantom II. The lineage is very obvious when you compare the F-3H's appearance to the F-4. The F-4 was probably the most well-built jet we've ever fielded. Durability and reliability that kept it in service far longer and with many more service hours per airframe compared to its contemporaries. In terms of the sheer value we got out of it and how long it was relevant, it's almost certainly the best fighter we've ever fielded.
Call me a bit of a superstitious old fool, but maybe aircraft manufacturers and the military might refrain from using the word DEMON in designating their fighting equipment in the future.
At 0:05 into the video, you're talking about the skies over San Diego, but you're show one of the lions in front of The Art Institute of Chicago. Looks like the camera was 1730 miles out of focus.
Anybody recognize the pilot sitting to the right at 11:05? He's famous.
You can see the F-4 Phantom in this aeroplane.
Very cool! I was a kid growing up in north St Louis County, within a couple of miles of the McDonnell airplane factory at Lambert Field. We actually lived in the flight path for planes taking off, and landing. The exterior building shots are as familiar to me as my old neighborhood. I can remember the F4 testing, the engines howling at night in the hangars, the planes flying overhead by day. What a fantastic time to be a kid!
Thank you for this post. I remember the crash of Ensign Hickman, although not his name. There have been a few pilots who made that same sacrifice, a few of them around Oceana Naval Air Station, where I lived for some years. Those pilots made the public a little more aware of both the dangers that pilots face, and the remarkable young men of that time who flew the aircraft.
My dad spent about half his career on aircraft carriers. We attended enough funerals of pilots and crew killed in peacetime accidents that I became aware early on how peacetime operations had almost the same fatality rate as combat operations. The reason was that the Navy had learned that training HAD to approximate the tempo of combat operations so all the deck crew, munitions ratings, and air crew practiced and learned to function in the stressful environment of combat.
Hey, I'm just some guy. This is my understanding from conversations I've had with friends who have served in carrier flying. I welcome correction.
0:06 Tom Hanks? 🤣🤣🤣 sorry could not help myself
Your VIDEO PRODUCTION is severely FLAWED because you're using B-roll footage of A4 Skyhawk intermixed with the F3 Demon. SLOPPY!!
Complimentary algorithm enhancement comment!😊
Looks a bit like a Phantom, which makes sense.
Nice view of A-4 Skyhawks
Love the cameo of the USS Shangri-La. 🙂
Some A-4 footage here.
i used to like this channel and its siblings…but idk its became very confusing sometimes and most of the time isnt related at all or the title is just 10% from total length of the video ….
now okay its cool we got more knowledge but still…
Doesnt that mean, that the Aircraft itself could had been great if they had gotten access to a proper engine?
Adding Countermeasures, Better Sidwinders like Aim-9Es and more advanced Sparrows and better Radar, that thing could have served up to the Vietnam war.
Speed shouldnt had been an Issue since the A-7 and A-4 as well as the A-6 were still alot slower.