The Cutlass was a swept-wing tailless single-seat carrier-borne fighter which entered service with the US Navy in several versions from 1952. Production ended in December 1955. It was the first production naval aircraft to achieve supersonic flight, the first to release bombs at a speed greater than the speed of sound and the first to be catapulted from a carrier while carrying nearly 2300kg of external stores. It was also the first fighter to have incorporated in its design the use of afterburners, full power controls with an 'artificial feel' system and an automatic stabilisation system.
The Cutlass wing, which was of symmetrical section, was fitted with full-span leading-edge slats, air brakes, power-operated irreversible 'ailavators' (combined ailerons and elevators) and vertical fin and rudder surfaces.
Four versions were produced, beginning with 14 F7U-1 for training and operational evaluation for aircraft carrier use. Power was provided by two J34-WE-32 turbojets. The F7U-1 were followed by 180 larger F7U-3 with folding wings, arrester gear and 20.46kN J46-WE-8A turbojet engines. Armament was increased to four 20mm cannons and a new type of underfuselage rocket launcher carrying a Mighty Mouse pack. For strike missions two further packs could be carried under the wings. Delivery of production F7U-3 to the Navy began in 1954. In 1955 the F7U-3P variant was produced for photographic reconnaissance duties and 12 were subsequently completed, each featuring an elongated nose to house the camera equipment. The final version of the Cutlass (of which 98 were produced) was the F7U-3M, basically similar to the F7U-3 but with provision for carrying four Sparrow I beam-riding missiles.
Does anyone remember the F7U that crashed on final while conducting night FCLP's at NBB approximately 1954? Now you see him now you don't. I was an AC3 in the tower at the time.
I served on USS Ticonderoga CVA-14 October 1955 until August 1956. We had a squadron of these planes aboard during our Mediterranean cruise. I thought they were the most beautiful planes I had ever seen. They operated for a short time but nose wheel collapse sidelined them at some point. They were great to look at though.
I know I'm overly critical of inadequate specs but no max speed even? I believe it did 680 mph clean and initial climb was 13,000' /min. Too bad it had such engine trouble! Reliability is a Navy fighter prerequisite always!
Please leave email address'. How am i gonna expand my video collection if you guys don't leave an address? Am i the only one who realises that the email link does'nt work.
VA-116 deployed to Westpac Apr 57 on Hancock (Happy Hanna) and completed cruise Sept 57. We did not offload the entire squadron during the deployment, but sent two dets to NAS Atsugi (May 57 & June 57) while ship was in port (Yokohama). VA-116 was last F7U sqd and made full cruise intact. Upon return to Miramar we transitioned to FJ4B.
I hate to disagree with PR2 R. Moris, but I was a plane captain in VA-116 (1956-1957). We were not kicked off the USS Hancock for starting deck fires on her wooden deck, we were "kicked off" the USS Hornet while on carrier quals (11 /26 /56-11 /30 /56). Since Hornet had no jet blast deflector (JBD) and the F7U high nose /low tail angle, when afterburner was selected the exhaust went directly to the deck, thus starting the fire. After launch the deck crew had to rush out with buckets of water to extinguish the fire. The "Air Boss" tolerated this for a short time, but I guess he finally convinced the ships CO to "invite" us to leave. The aircraft returned to NAS Miramar.
yes this had many nicknames ensign killer was due to the landing gear colapsing and sending the ensin into the canopy top due to the ejection seat goin off it also had gutless due the engine not powerfull enough it also the nickname burn out couse of the after burner and the plane didnt not have rivets it was all weldied stress metal lary watson
I would like to build a model of a bare metal variant of the F7U-3. Can anyone tell where I can get a schematic showing the rivet lines on the aircraft as I would like to reproduce these to some degree. Also, I would imagine that the gull gray and white aircraft would have cockpits that are dark gull gray (FS 36231. Would the seats also be that colour? Can anyone comment on colour of the wheel wells ? In a bare metal variant would it be possible that the cockpit is black from the consoles up with an interior green floor? Any thoughts on the colour of the seat and and wheel wells?
Looking over a Rareplane (1 /72nd scale) vacuformed F7U-3 model that made its way into my stash some time ago for possible conversion back to F7U-1 configuration -- before I found the Anigrand resin kit of the "dash one" It includes a "belly pack", but does not indicate what in the world this "belly pack was for, or what in the sam hill that it did. I found a picture of an F7U-3M on the net that shows this thing pretty clearly, but again no mention of it's purpose. Looks like two large holes in the slanted front. . .Maybe a camera /photo-recon pod?? I would be very happy if someone could shed a little light on what this "belly pack" was for. Thanks much to anyone who might be willing to help.
Had the pleasure [?] of helping maintain the "Gutlass" I was assigned to VA116 [ known as "callis's cutlass coolies " ] for our Skipper Cdr. Callis. We were commisioned at NAS Miramar in 1955. I believe that we were the last squadron to take the bird aboard ship for a normal Westpac deployment. The Hancock, CVA 19 in 1957. As I recall our maintance hours were 14 vs 1 hour flight time. Which was considered an excellent time ratio achivement. As I recall the ships skipper at that time was Capt Bueie. He saw to it that we were put ashore at Asugi naval Air Station due to setting fire to his Teak wood flight deck when we sat too long in one spot waiting for launch. During the time I was with the squadron we lost as I recall 5 birds for one reason or another. All sucessful ejections or wheelups landings ie. no Pilots lost. would be happy to talk /message to anyone that has questions that maybe I have the answers too.
I am a retired aero engineer and am very interested in acquiring the Aerodynamic data base, Mass and inertia characteristics and flight control info on the Cutlass. I would like to use the cutlass data for a stability and control / flying qualities analyses. I am aware of the shortcomongs of the airplane but have no intention of denegrating it.It is an interesting configuration and would be a good model for analyses purposes.So if anyone can help or would be interested, let me know. Thanks. Skip
I flew the F7U-3M in VA-83 during 1955-56. We deployed with it on Intreped to the Med with reasonable success. The only problem was it's size which restricted the number of birds we could keep aboard; the rest operated out of Port Lautey (sp?) in Morocco. It was a very comfortable bird to fly but it's single engine performance was poor, particularly if one had to come aboard ship with one engine. We changed engines after only 40 hours so it kept the maintenance crews unduly busy. I knew nothing about a wingwash problem noted by Jim Bass but if one stalled the bird it was possible to get into a J C (Jesus Christ) maneuver which was uncontrollable and usually resulted in bailout. Later it was found if one had enough altitude and guts that if you turned loose of the controls the airplane got out of the problem by itself. All in all I enjoyed my tour in the Cutlass. It was truly ahead of it's time.
I concur with Mr Pitmann. I was in the Navy during the 60's, and some of the pilots that I knew referred to the F-7 as "The Ensign Eater", because it was unsafe for carrier landings, and had killed a number of pilots on carriers. Apparently the rudders would get caught in the wingwash during the high angle of attack on short final, and the aircraft became yaw unstable. Apparently also the Navy allowed the production of this because they wanted the F8, and LTV might have gone under if they cancelled the contract early. That is, of course, scuttlebutt. Any comments are welcome.
