The first production U.S. Navy McDonnell F3H-1N <i>Demon</i> (BuNo 133489), in 1955. The F3H-1 was ordered before it s first flight to counter the Soviet MiG-15. However, only 58 aircraft were built and most never flew, because the Westinghouse J40 engine. The aircraft was seriously underpowered and the J40 was prone to inflight explosions and sudden failures. All F3H-1Ns were permanently grounded in July 1955 and the surviving airframes were either used as ground trainers or scrapped. 133489 first flew on 24 December 1953 and was used for service evaluation at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland (USA), in 1954.
U.S. Navy
1954-08-21
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/pages/doncoms/AdvQuery.php">U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation</a> photo No. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/pages/doncoms/Display.php?irn=23827&amp;QueryPage=%2Femuwebdoncoms%2Fpages%2Fdoncoms%2FAdvQuery.php">1996.253.7257.036</a>