At roughly 56 feet long, with a 36-foot wingspan and an empty weight of 18,800 pounds, the Crusader left substantial room between its empty and 34,000-pound maximum takeoff weights. Its internal fuel capacity was given as 5,112 litres, while the Pratt & Whitney J57 produced 11,400 pounds of dry thrust and 18,000 with afterburner. That combination supported a cited Mach 1.8 maximum speed, 58,000-foot ceiling, and 1,157-nautical-mile ferry range with external fuel. The variable-incidence wing and flaps could reduce the landing speed to about 100 mph even though the normal-flight stall figure was much higher. The unusual wing reconciled the opposing demands of supersonic performance and carrier recovery.
Notable Point · 25:14-29:27
Size, thrust, and the carrier-performance envelope
The figures show how Vought paired a relatively light airframe and powerful J57 with a wing system that could reconcile Mach 1.8 flight with 100 mph carrier approaches.