Late delivery of J40-WE-22 engines slowed the F3H-1N production line to a crawl. Eleven accidents, some fatal, over several days got the attention of the press, which complained loudly about how the Navy was spending a lot of money to acquire an aircraft whose greatest accomplishment seemed to be killing its own pilots. The F3H-1N was a dangerous aircraft to fly and was hated by its pilots. In the face of this, the F3H-1N set an unofficial time-to-climb to record of climbing to 10,000 feet in 71 seconds.

      By 1952 McDonnell, fearing that the grossly underpowered J40 engine might be the stake through the heart of the F3H Demon program, asked for and received permission from an initially reluctant Bureau of Aeronautics to consider other powerplants. BuAer hesitated at first because the J40 had been designated as the powerplant in almost all the aircraft programs currently in development; McDonnell was authorized to conduct a feasibility study of fitting the F3H with the Allison J71 afterburning turbojet.

     Finally facing the fact that there was no way to solve the J40 problems, the Navy halted production of the F3H-1N after the 58th aircraft and canceled Temco's contract before a single aircraft was built. In July 1955 all F3H-1Ns were grounded and the Navy had to face growing congressional upset over the $200 million expended on the F3H-1N and its ill-fated engine. Worse was the humiliation of barging F3H-1Ns from St. Louis to Memphis, where they were towed to the Naval Air Station for maintenance training, while F3H-1Ns at Patuxent River were sent to Norfolk for the same purpose.

          The failure of the J40 forced Westinghouse to close its jet engine manufacturing division. The future of McDonnell looked grim but the company survived by building the F3H-2 Demon, fitted with the Allison J71 engine. This version was designated the F3H-2N. In August 1953 BuAer inspected a mockup and in November 1953 amended the contract to fit the 32nd and 34th F3H-1N aircraft with Allison J71 prototypes. A following amendment called for the 61st and all subsequent Demons to be fitted with the J71.

      The J71 was heavier than the J40; this increased weight plus the increase from making the Demon an all-weather fighter forced changes in the airframe, with wing area increased by 77 square feet by lengthening the wing chord by 40 inches at the root, moving the trailing edge back.

      On April 23, 1955, the first F3H-2N prototype, BuNo 133520 flew at Lambert Field and the first production F3H-2N flew in June of 1955. McDonnell delivered 140 production F3H aircraft powered by the Allison J71-A2. The A2 engine provided 10,000 lbs. of thrust at full military power and 14,400 lbs. in afterburner. The A-2 was later replaced by A-2A or A-2B versions of the engine. The airframe was a good design that provided excellent maneuverability in air combat situations at altitude; many involved in the program thought the airplane would have been completely successful had it been powered by the superb J57 with afterburner, which would have provided an additional 2,500 pounds of thrust in afterburner without the weight penalty of the J71, and made the Demon fully supersonic rather than barely transonic.

      The last F3H-2 Demon was delivered on April 8, 1960. The total number of production aircraft built and delivered was 519.

      During its service, the Demon was largely unloved by its pilots.  The fact it was underpowered in takeoff and landing configuration - the two most dangerous points of carrier-based operations - and did not have a zero-zero-ejection seat meant the pilots took off and landed with the canopy open in order to maximize their chance of survival in a crash.  Several aircraft were lost when flown into icing conditions, which led to shutdown of the engine when ice was ingested.  As a result, the Demon was prohibited from flying into known icing conditions, a serious restriction for an airplane that was supposed to be an all-weather interceptor.

      On March 7, 1956, VF-14 “Tophatters” at NAS Cecil Field Florida received the first operational F3H-2Ns and flew the aircraft from USS Forrestal (CVA-59) during a Mediterranean deployment in January to July 1957. On September 2 1956, the second-day of the National Air Show, Lt(jg) Richard Carson, flying an F3H-2N Demon of VF-124, captured the McDonnell Trophy with a nonstop, non-refueled flight from the carrier U.S.S. “Shangri-la” cruising off San Francisco to Oklahoma City.  He covered the 1,436 miles in 2 hours, 32 minutes, 13.45 seconds, for an average speed of 566.007 m.p.h.

      22 squadrons were eventually equipped with the Demon, and it was flown in combat situations over Lebanon in the summer of 1958 and over the Formosa Straits during the Quemoy-Matsu crisis later that year. The last squadron equipped with the Demon was VF-161 at NAS Miramar, California. CO CDR Wayne Welty flew the last Demon from Miramar to NAF Litchfield Park on September 21, 1964.

 Please visit the preview for a look at what comes in the box.

     I have to say up front that, given my experience with the Grand Phoenix FJ-4 Fury last year, I was not one of those who shouted “Oh Joy!” when I heard the announcement earlier this year that the company’s next release would be the Demon.  So, let me say right here at the outset that my fears were not borne out in experience.  This kit of the F3H Demon exhibits none of the design or production problems of the earlier kit.

      I started by assembling the wings and tail surfaces.  I sanded these down before gluing them together, to give thinner trailing edges.  The resin wheel wells fit without problem when I sanded them down to the point I could see light through the resin roof when I held the part up. 

     Looking at the strange assembly of the fuselage, I decided to assemble the fuselage in complete halves first, which would allow me to work on the joints of the forward and main fuselage from inside and out, and to attach any reinforcement necessary on the inside.  As it turned out this was a good idea, because I used Evergreen .010 sheet on the interior of the joints to give added strength.  After test fitting the fuselage halves, I also made a second bulkhead just like the one provided in the kit, which I attached just forward of where the wing spar goes; the spar was glued to this before the fuselage halves were assembled.  I had assembled the resin afterburner and when this was test-fitted I decided it would be a good idea to make a third bulkhead that would be positioned so the afterburner could be glued to it when installed.  With these three bulkheads installed, the large fuselage went together with only slight seam problems which were easily solved with Mr. Surfacer 500.

      The resin cockpit went together with little problem, other than time taken to dremel off the casting block for it and the nose wheel well.  I painted and detailed the cockpit and installed it, with only a bit of trimming necessary to get all the parts to fit well.  I left the seat and control stick out till after the model was painted. I also added sufficient fish weights inside the radome to ensure the model would not be a tail-sitter, since it sits in a tail-low position.

      The wings and tail surfaces went on without difficulty.  Do be careful to align the tail boom correctly before installing these parts, and glue the exhaust shield in place only after you have the tail boom aligned right.  Remember, this is a limited-run kit.  This was the only problematic area I found.

      I also replaced the various photo-etch wing fences with fences made from .010 Evergreen sheet, because the p-e parts looked to be nothing but trouble down the line, being too thin to not be overly delicate when handled.  The resulting fences were a bit thicker than scale, but they are solid and unlikely to present trouble in the future.

      With the seams all sanded down and the panel lines rescribed where necessary, the model was ready to go to the paint shop after a surprisingly-easy build.

      I did install the gear legs before painting, so the model could rest clear of the workbench while the paint was drying. 

Painting:

      I pre-shaded the model with flat black, masked off the radome, then painted the lower surfaces with Gunze-Sangyo H-316 “gloss white,” and did the upper surfaces with Xtracrylix “Light Gull Grey,” a very nice new paint that dries quickly and hard in semi-gloss. I hand-painted the leading edges of the wings and tail with Model Master Aluminum to simulate the coroguard paint.

      I then masked off the rear area and painted it with ModelMaster Magnesium and Stainless Steel.  When that was dry I gave the model two coats of Future and we were ready for decals.

Decals:

      Scott  had let me know he was going to do the VF-122 airplane, so I did the VF-124 airplane, which I liked better anyway.  VF-124 was the squadron with the record-breaker in 1956, and was also involved in the Quemoy-Matsu crisis in 1958.  The decals are Cartograf and went down with no trouble.  When everything was set up, I gave the model another coat of Future.

 Final Finish:

      I gave the white areas a coat of Glosscote, and the upper surfaces a couple coats of Dullcote. 

      I then installed the afterburner and then gave the area some exhaust staining with Tamiya “Smoke.”  I then attached the horizontal stabilizers.

      The seat went into the cockpit with no problem and the canopy was installed in the open position.

      It’s a big, good-looking 1950s Navy jet, one of my favorite periods to do models of, and looks great sitting next to the F4D-1 Skyray and F-8J Crusader.

September 2004

Review kit courtesy of my wallet.