History / Military / Aviation & Space > Vought F7u-3 Cutlass
Vought F7u-3 Cutlass
By Tommy H Thomason, Alfred C Casby
Where to buy
Publish Date
November 23, 2024
Category
History / Military / United States
Transportation
Price
$81.95
The Chance Vought F7U Cutlass was ahead of its time. In 1948, when it first flew, it could hardly have been more exotic or state-of-the-art: a tail-less fighter to be powered by two afterburning jet engines. It was not only to be carrier-based but also climb quicker and be faster than the Air Force's new swept-wing North American F-86 Sabre. Developmental problems resulted in it taking too long to reach operational squadrons, which partly accounts for its relatively unsuccessful career. The Cutlass was designed too soon to benefit from the discovery of the area rule, which doomed it to transonic performance in level flight. Similarly, its lack of a horizontal tail was intended in part to address the transonic pitch-control difficulties being encountered at the time but they proved to be avoidable with one. Unfortunately, no horizontal tail resulted in it not only being radical in appearance but also having challenging handling qualities at approach speed. The F7U-3's service introduction was also accomplished before the Navy perfected a rigorous process for transitioning pilots to new airplanes, particularly important in the case of the Cutlass and its unusual handling qualities, one of which resulted in a rare aeronautical phenomenon, the post-stall gyration. It was also first deployed before the introduction of the angled-deck concept that greatly reduced the degree of difficulty in landing high-performance jet fighters back aboard a carrier. The F7U Cutlass did eventually join the fleet and deploy, albeit to mixed reviews. It is often unfairly included on shortlists of the world's worst jet fighters. It was actually innovative in many respects. This new, detailed history of the development and operation of the type provides a more balanced perspective on what was a fascinating aircraft.
Now retired, Tommy H. Thomason doesn't remember when he didn't want to be a pilot. He received his Private Pilot License a few days before his 21st birthday and subsequently graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering, earning graduate degrees from the University of Southern California and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. His 40-year career in the aerospace industry included assignments as a flight test engineer, manager, and executive. He has an Airline Transport Pilot certificate; been a flight instructor for airplanes, gliders, and instruments; and flown more than 3,000 hours in 80 different airplanes, helicopters, and sailplanes with one guest-pilot flight in the Goodyear blimp and another in the XV-15 Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft. Although thwarted by poor distance vision in becoming a Navy fighter pilot, he has maintained a very active interest in carrier aviation, authoring numerous articles and blog posts, five books, and seven monographs on U.S. Navy aircraft.
Assembling a proverbial "glue-bomb" model aircraft at the age of two-despite not ever having seen an aircraft nor having the ability to read the instructions-author Al Casby was clearly pre-disposed for a career as a pilot. At the age of eight he spotted an illustration of a Chance Vought F7U-1 Cutlass in his artist-father's files and his life's goal became instantly clear. He set out to acquire an actual F7U and began a letter-writing campaign whose recipients included Admirals, Senators, Astronauts, and over two hundred former Cutlass pilots. From purchasing his first F7U-3 cockpit as a teenager to starting up Westinghouse jet engines on his father's driveway, the dream of owning (and flying) a Cutlass was always first and foremost. In October of 2014, he finally acquired the only complete one that could be made flyable again and began the arduous ongoing task of restoring the aircraft to airworthiness. Employed as a senior commercial airline Captain, to date he has amassed over 31,000 flight hours in DC-6s, Convair 640s, L-188 Electras, Boeing 737 and 757s, and Airbus A319/320/321 airliners in his 41-year career. With retirement around the corner, he looks forward to continuing to restore his F7U-3 with the hopes of achieving the goal he set his sights on 56 years ago.
