The Vought F7U Cutlass carrier-based
jet fighter was one of the most unusual designs ever produced for the United States Navy. Created as Vought's entry into a 1945 day-fighter
design competition, it was partially based on aerodynamic data from German companies
responsible for World War II’s Nazi aircraft. Vought designers denied the
German link at the time. When the revolutionary Cutlass first came
into the U.S. Navy service in April 1954, the tailless, swept-wing jet fighter
represented a leap into the future. It was also the perfect candidate to carry the
fighter bomber torch into the Cold War era. But several technical and handling
problems plagued it from the beginning, and over one-quarter of built jets
were destroyed in several accidents. One of those problems? It didn’t have a tail. Drawing Inspiration From The Germans At the dawn of the Jet Age, a period in
aviation history that brought some of the best turbine-powered aircraft into the forefront,
the Navy issued a request for proposal for a carrier-based fighter capable of operating
at 40,000 feet and reaching Mach 1 speed. Before the request was made in
June of 1945, aviation company Vought had already begun working on such
a project. Their reputation preceded them, as they were the first company to
develop a carrier-capable aircraft. They also had a trick up their
sleeve: his name was Waldemar Voigt. Voigt was a former senior
designer for Messerschmitt AG, the German aircraft manufacturing company
responsible for many of the Nazi fighter aircraft that terrorized the Pacific and
European Theatres during World War II. In the 1940s, the German aircraft
industry had built up an impressive technical background of
swept-wing design aircraft. At Messerschmitt AG, Voigt
oversaw several experimental aircraft projects for the Luftwaffe,
the German aerial warfare branch. He also developed the Messerschmitt P.1110
and P.1112 projects, involving designs for a single-seat high-altitude interceptor and
a fighter powered by turbojet technology. After the war ended, Voigt moved to
America to work with Vought. He supervised the development of new aircraft inspired by
his knowledge of German swept-wing designs. Vought chose Rex Beisel to be the lead designer
on the new project. Beisel was responsible for inventing the TS-1, the Navy's first aircraft
built specifically for carrier operations, and the famed F4U Corsair. This project
would become his last before his retirement. The result was the Vought F7U Cutlass. The
jet had swept wings and twin wing-mounted tail fins on either side of a short fuselage,
with a forward-placed cockpit to provide better visibility during carrier landings. From
a technical standpoint, it had no tail. The Cutlass had an avante-garde nose
landing gear strut that lifted the pilot's seat 14 feet into the air. Tailerons
for pitch and roll control were installed, and its controls were powered by
hydraulics. This system provided artificial feedback so the pilot could feel
aerodynamic forces acting on the plane. The jet was capable of loading two 2,000 pound
bombs on its inner pylons. It could also carry four AAM-N-2 Sparrow air-to-air missiles and
was fortified with four 20 millimeter cannons. When the Navy announced the
request for proposal's winner, the prototype's number changed
from V-346 to Vought F7U. The Cutlass logged its maiden
flight on September 29, 1948. It was piloted by Vought's chief test pilot,
J. Robert Baker. The jet took off from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland,
reaching a maximum speed of 625 miles per hour. Further test flights went exceedingly well. When
the tests proved that further prototypes of the F7U would meet all Navy requirements,
an order for 14 models was placed. Officials were convinced that the Vought F7U Cutlass could be a viable
threat in air-to-air combat. A Short-Lived Operational History As soon as production on the Cutlass began, the Navy requested that it
needed more powerful engines. Because of development problems with its
powerplant, the jet's second prototype never saw the light of day. After adjustments, the third
model became the definitive production version. Equipped with Westinghouse J46-WE-8B turbojets, 288 jets were built and sent
to 13 U.S. Navy Squadrons. The Cutlass was touted as highly
versatile in tactical functionality, but its performance
underwhelmed from the beginning. Its turbojet lacked enough engine thrust, so its
carrier landing and takeoff yielded disastrous results. The jet was also known to flame
out on rainy days, another cause of concern. Fighter Squadron 81 was the first fleet
to receive Cutlass models in April 1954. Strike Fighter Squadron 81, 83, 116, 124, 151,
and 212 also made deployments with the jet, but most of the models were beached
ashore due to operating difficulties. Accidents quickly began to pile up. The
Cutlass began receiving damning criticism, and given nicknames such as “Widow Maker,”
““Ensign Eliminator,” or “Gutless Cutlass.” Its most shocking incident happened to
be caught on camera. On July 14, 1955, Fighter Squadron 124, aboard carrier USS Hancock, was performing flight operations with several
models in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. When pilot Lieutenant Commander Jay Alkire
approached the carrier's deck, he could not gain enough thrust to clear the round down at the end
of the flight deck landing area. The F7U struck the side of the ramp, and as it slided left of
the center lane, it burst into a ball of flames. Rumors circulated about several
deck crewmembers’ casualties, but the ship’s logs only
mentioned Commander Alkire. After another similar accident took the
life of pilot Lieutenant George Millard, in which his nosegear and thrust
malfunctioned, triggering his ejection seat. The USS Hancock’s captain ordered
every Cutlass to be taken off the ship. A Few Incidents Too Many The elite Navy Flight Demonstration
Squadron, the Blue Angels, flew two F7U Cutlass jets as part of a
side demonstration during the 1953 season. Both pilots and ground crews found
the aircraft difficult to manage. Some of the issues the Blue Angels’
employees reported were landing gear and hydraulic system failures,
and engine fires while airborne. During the season's opening appearance, pilot Lieutenant Edward “Whitey” Feightner,
formally employed as the F7U program manager, lost all hydraulics systems during a
full afterburner takeoff and steep climb. Feightner tried to reach enough
altitude for a safe ejection and the jet’s backup system eventually turned on. While making the emergency landing, he cut
through trees on the end of the runway, which caused the left engine to burst into flames.
With hydraulic fluid dripping from the side, Feightner made a hard turn and
got the plane back on track. The crowd went wild. Before the Blue Angels called, Freightner knew the Cutlass was trouble, as
he told Air&Space Magazine in 2012 (QUOTE): “We determined right off the bat
that the Cutlass wasn’t the answer. But the Navy wanted to get some time on it. I
actually took it aboard ship and made 14 landings before the airplane broke in half right
behind the cockpit during a landing.” In a strange turn of events, a Vought F7U Cutlass
was the first aircraft to land on a new runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. While traveling to a show at Glenview
Air Station in Chicago, Blue Angels pilot Lieutenant Hardin MacKnight was flying a
Cutlass when he experienced an engine flameout. Thankfully, Lieutenant Feightner was his copilot,
and he was no stranger to Cutlass difficulties. Forced to make an emergency landing
at the nearest runway, Feightner was redirected to Chicago's former Orchard Airpark,
recently expanded and renamed O'Hare Airport. The runway had just been finalized and
was temporarily covered in peach baskets in a makeshift solution to prevent
aircraft from landing. Feightner and MacKnight were instructed to ignore
the baskets, and land on top of them. Following these incidents with the Blue Angels, the two Cutlass jets were deemed
unsuitable for demonstration flying. When asked why the insistent of showcasing
the aircraft, Freightner recalled (QUOTE): “There were Congressmen, senators, and
we had a couple of pretty senior officers who wanted their airplane to
be the Blue Angels airplane.” The aircraft were flown to Naval Air
Station in Tennessee, where they became maintenance instructional airframes for
the Naval Technical Training Center. The End of the Program Of all the designs that came out of the Jet Age, the F7U appeared to hold the greatest
potential for supersonic flight. Its swept-back wings and unusual look represented
a leap into the future for jet-powered aircraft. But despite its twin engines and hydraulic system, the F7U lacked enough thrust and was
too bulky to break the sound barrier. While flying at 30,000 feet, the Cutlass
only reached Mach .98 and .99 with its afterburners. It was expected that with the
afterburners on and in a power dive position, the jet could match the speed of
sound, but it was a moot point. As tensions rose during the
Cold War in the early 1950s, every new American aircraft design was
expected to accommodate novel nuclear weaponry. New carrier-based attack planes were now
the prime candidates to add this capability. In 1957, Vought analyzed
all major Cutlass incidents. There had been 78 reported accidents,
accumulating 55,000 flight hours. With approximately a quarter of
the models lost in these mishaps, the Vought F7U Cutlass held the highest accident
rate of all Navy swept-wing fighter aircraft. This appalling safety record was mostly
the result of advanced design techniques created to apply new aerodynamic principles
with insufficiently reliable engines. On paper, the futuristic-looking Cutlass appeared
to have all the necessary traits to make it the ideal fighter for the Cold War era. But with its
poor carrier takeoff and landing performances, and the many accidents in which it was involved,
there was no point in continuing the program. The Vought F7U Cutlass was retired from service in
March 1959 and was replaced by a far more capable Vought fighter, the F9F-8 Cougar, which went
on to serve in the Navy for almost 20 years.
