The McDonnell F3H Demon was an American all-metal, swept-wing fighter aircraft of the Cold War era. The basic version was powered by a single Westinghouse J-40-WE-22 turbojet engine. The prototype flew in 1951, and the aircraft served in the US Navy from 1956 to 1964. A total of about 520 aircraft of this type were built. The aircraft was armed with four Colt Mk. 12 20 mm cannons.
The McDonnell F3H Demon was developed for the needs of the US Navy, which in the late 1940s declared a need for a new jet fighter with characteristics similar to those achieved by the US Air Force. The first version of the new fighter was the F3H-1N, which was equipped with the Westinghouse J-40 engine. This engine turned out to be a complete failure for this aircraft, and in itself was underdeveloped and unreliable. This led to the creation of the next version: the F3H-2N, which was already equipped with the Allison J71 engine. The use of the new engine led to an increase in the airframe and minor changes in the geometry of the wings. However, the new engine also turned out to be not very successful and did not meet the expected parameters, but it was less prone to accidents than the Westinghouse engine, which led to the introduction of aircraft with this power unit into mass production under the designation F3H-2. Due to the underdeveloped power plant, the McDonnell F3H Demon turned out to be a not very successful aircraft and was relatively quickly withdrawn from the line in favor of the F-4 Phantom fighter. McDonnell F3H Demon aircraft were not exported, they were never used in combat.
