This E-book about the F3H Demon published by Detail & Scale Aviation Publication contains an elaborate description of the history of the first, arrow-winged marine jet of the United States. It is part of more publications about the by the US marine engaged jets suitable for use from their aircraft carriers. As the title tells, the history of the Demon is in very great detail described in the first part of the book. The different types, paintings, armament and the designed tasks are all set out.
The Demon was the successor of the PH-1 Phantom, the very first turbine driven plane that after the Second World War was used on the American aircraft carriers and was deployed during the Korean War The development, building and testing of the Demon is explained and a lot of original photo material is used for illustration.
Major problems were there with the first types, which had axial jet engines of the type Westinghouse J-40, which of course were not so reliable as the nowadays types. They had too little power and turbine stalls were a daily hassle. The operational use of this type of engine staid very limited, also because of the many accidents, after which Westinghouse never built jet turbines again. The successor was the Allison J-71 engine. Still the Demon had very good flying characteristics and was used by the US marine with success for more than 7 years as day- and night jet between 1956 and 1963, after which came the famous and successful Phantom II.
This book contains a large amount of photos and pictures of the different types with their paintings and armament, with as goal to give the model plane maker all the information there is, so they can built a very accurate true to life model. This goes really far! By clicking on the photos or pictures, they are enhanced and even more information and photo material becomes available. All squadron configurations and types can be found with even descriptions of which type of antenna and or radar system belonged to it. And of course everything completed with scale drawings and schedules of technical performances.
A short chapter is dedicated to the experiences of the pilots with the Demon and that could have been a bit more, because it gave interesting stories. Next follows a chapter about the restoration of a Demon for the US Naval Museum, also with a good amount of detail photos from the different stages of restoration and with drawings and photos of the cockpit-types. The book ends with a description of the offered scale models in different types and the available details (sticky pictures) of the paintings.
In short, when you are interested in the extensive history of the Mc Donnel Demon and also want to build a true to life model of this plane, than you’ll have with this edition all the necessary information you can get! As said, amply illustrated with colour, black and white photos and pictures of all deployed types and paintings. For the true lover a must have.
Leave a Reply