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by Dr. Marshall Michel
86th Airlift Wing historian
When one thinks of air-to-air combat in the Korean War, the image is certainly dominated by the USAF’s sleek, silver, swept-wing F-86 Sabres dueling with equally sleek Soviet flown MiG-15s in gun-only dogfights over “MiG Alley” and the Yalu River.
While the F-86s and their well-trained pilots ran up a 9:1 kill ratio over their Soviet counterparts, there was another, much less glamorous fighter that also ran up a 9:1 kill ratio against the MiGs – the U.S. Navy’s straight wing Douglas F3D “Skyknight,”
universally known as the “Whale.”
While most fighters of that period were designed for the smallest possible fuselage to fit around a powerful engine, the F3D was a night fighter and was designed around two nose-mounted radar sets, the APS-21 long range search radar with a 30-inch dish and a smaller radar mounted just in front of it, the APS-26. The APS-26 was designed to “lock on” the target at three miles and guide the fighter in for the kill with its four 20mm cannon, even providing the capability to shoot down the target when the crew could not see it visually. Additionally, a small APS-28 radar set with a range of four miles was mounted in the tail facing aft to provide warning of approaching enemy fighters. The complexity of this radar system, produced before the advent of semi-conductor electronics, required intensive maintenance to keep it operating fully.
The large size of the nose radar meant the fuselage would have to have a huge diameter, so the pilot and the radar operator could sit side-by-side. The rest of the fuselage was devoted to 1,350 gallons of fuel (most jet fighters at this time carried about 600 gallons of fuel). However, power was powered by two small 3,400 lb/thrust J-34 engines underneath the fuselage and, given the aircraft’s large fuselage, straight wings and 21,000 + weight, the “Whale’s” performance was at best modest.
The F3D first flew in 1947 and proved to have pleasant, very straightforward flying characteristics and, by 1951, was carrier qualified and serving in operational units. However, carrier operations showed a number of problems. Its heavy weight often damaged the decks on landing, as well as straining and even breaking the H-8 hydraulic catapults on takeoff, making it impossible for the carrier to launch aircraft until the catapult was fixed. But the “Whale” had an even more disconcerting characteristic when operating off carriers. Navy carriers’ decks were made of wood and over the years had absorbed a great amount of oil and fuel. The F3D’s engines were so close to the deck that when full power was applied they would occasionally set the deck on fire!
The difficulties with carrier operations made the Navy fob most of their F3Ds off on the Marines, who sent them off to the Korean War. There, the Soviet MiGs had made mincemeat of U.S. B-29s flying daylight bombing missions, so the B-29s switched to night missions. When the MiGs began to come up after the B-29s at night, the Air Force tried to escort the B-29s with the F-94B “Starfighter,” a converted T-33 trainer, but the Starfighter’s small radar was inadequate for the task. The B-29 commanders asked the Marines’ F3Ds for help, and soon F3Ds were flying all the B-29 night escort missions.
The Soviet MiGs had huge performance advantages over the F3D, but the MiGs did not have radar and hence only flew on clear nights, controlled by ground radar. The F3D’s excellent radar allowed them to fence with the MiGs by hiding in the clouds and sneaking up on a MiG who had slowed down to attack a B-29, while the F3D’s tail radar warned it of any “trailers” following the attacking MiG. Many nights developed into blacked out ballets with the F3Ds trying to close a slow moving MiG that was followed by two or three other MiGs. The F3D would try to close, then break off into the clouds when the trailing MiGs got too close. In the end, crew skill and technology overcame speed and the “Whales” shot down nine MiGs, more than any other Navy or Marine Corps aircraft. Only one F3D was lost, shot down by a trailing MiG immediately after the F3D shot down the leader, but the ultimate acknowledgement of the “Whales” effectiveness was that B-29 losses dropped precipitously after their arrival.
Despite its low performance, the F3D proved very amenable to modification and stayed in the Navy as an electronic warfare aircraft until well into the Vietnam War and even occasionally operated off of carriers – new ones with metal decks.
