Real aircraft info scrap page
The Vought F7U Cutlass was a United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter and fighter-bomber of the early Cold War era. Design V-366 was a highly unusual, semi-tailless design and pretty large. Pitch and roll control was provided by elevons, though Vought called these surfaces "ailevators" at the time. Slats were fitted to the entire span of the leading edge. The first XF7U-1 flew in September 1948.
Several versions were developed. The F7U-1 was very close to the 6 prototypes and 14 were built. The US Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, flew two F7U-1 Cutlasses as a side demonstration during their 1953 show season but is was not a success. The next version was to be the F7U-2 but that was cancelled.
What followed was the F7U-3M that would be the definitive production version. It was significantly different from the F7U-1 with another nose profile and larger airframe with many more access doors for maintenance. The single nose wheel was soon replaced by a dual pair but still the nose gear gave problems. It also got 4 20mm guns in the upper intake lips. The later versions got other ejection seat and different wind shield. Also, a missile firing version was developed, the F7U-3M could fire the first generation Sparrow 1 missile with 4 pylons to be fitted. Some 50 earlier F7U-3 aircraft were modified to -3M standard.
Apart from the fighter, it was envisaged to use the Cutlass for photo reconnaissance. Some 6 reconnaissance F7U-3P aircraft were made with a 25" longer nose fitted with cameras. Guns were removed. First flight was July 1954. But in the end this version was only used for trials.
The Cutlass had a very long nose landing gear strut required for high angle of attack take-offs and that gave many problems. Also, the aircraft was underpowered with its Westinghouse J46 jets and its afterburner reduced its range a lot. The type had also numerous technical issues like flame outs and handling problems. It was not liked by pilots as it had only little margin of error, killing many pilots in fatal accidents.
A total of about 28 F7U-1 and 274 F7U-3 aircraft were manufactured equipping a dozen U.S. Navy squadrons including later on some 50 converted F7U-3 to -3M standard. The Cutlass was mostly operated from shore, only a few deployments were made from US aircraft carriers and even than the type operated abroad from nearby shore bases. Eventually, the Cutlass served only a short period with the U.S. Navy and went out of service in 1957.
(note: this a copy of my own text also published at the IPMS.NL Cutlass walk around which is recommended to study for details of the real aircraft; see also references).
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FLIGHT MANUAL AND MAINTENANCE MANUAL
Some nice illustrations from Flight manual and Technical manual of the F7U-3, dated 1954 (so the later F7U-3 changes and the F7U-3M missile carrier is not completely covered).
EXPLODED VIEW
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below... early style and later style windshield (as on the F7U-3)
.. later..
walkways
the different materials used. Note: Metalite seems to be rather "dull" in appearance
Servicing
below... the ejection seat on the left seems to be the earlier type,
on the right the later (F7U-3) style probably
. ... below... early style ?
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COCKPIT INTERIOR
... below without stand-by compass..
.. and with...
below... throttle
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Probable early radome layout...
... and later upward layout (F7U-3)
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Cockpit canopy / hood
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LANDING GEAR
and nose gear doors
... and below main gear lay out
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Folded wing hinge layout
Pylons
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Guns layout in upper intake lip
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FUEL SYSTEM
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Exterior lights
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ENGINE LAYOUT
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Panels
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Rocket system
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Some manual colour info
(Note: cockpit mostly black with chromate green details and rear section aft of seat)
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---- markings and colours ----
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Some photos of operations aboard carriers.
above after landing...
As pilots did not thrust a quick evacuation, take off and landing was done with canopy hood open!
below... towing around the large Cutlass , note the highly gloss metallic finish of first aircraft
References:
Books and magazine
- International Air Power review, Volume 15, pages 98... , AirTime publishing, 2005
- Cutlass, naval fighters series number Six, Steve Ginter, 1982
- Air international magazine: Vol. 43, pages 270...;
Internet:
WWW.IPMS.NL F7U walk around
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F7U_Cutlass
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Created this page March 5, 2020