The Gutless Cutlass

Chance-Vought designed the F4U Corsair which was one of the best piston-engined fighters ever created. However, the transition to the jet age proved something of a challenge for Chance-Vought engineers. Their first jet aircraft, the F6U Pirate, was so unimpressive that most pilots seemed to find it boring. The Navy described the F6U as “so sub-marginal [sic] in performance that combat utilization is not feasible.”.

Their next aircraft proved much less boring and even, some would say, something of a challenge. The F7U-1 Cutlass was an innovative design, a bit ahead of its time. All three prototypes were destroyed in crashes, and meanwhile the design was declared unfit for combat by the Navy. The 14 preproduction aircraft that had been ordered by the Navy were thus relegated to training duties, where they achieved such an impressive accident rate that two aircraft are reported to have crashed before delivery from the manufacturer.

The main reason for the F7U's lack of performance was that it was underpowered. Its Westinghouse J46 engines were designed to deliver up to 10,000 pounds of thrust per engine. However, their actual thrust proved to be a mere 60% of that, making the Cutlass seriously underpowered.

One particularly disappointed test pilot, referring to the fact that Westinghouse also manufactured household appliances at the time, declared that “the Westinghouse J46 engines generated about as much heat as their toasters.”

Chance-Vought eventually redesigned entirely the aircraft and the new version, the F7U-3 entered USN operational service in 1954. It still remained unimpressive enough for its pilot to change its name from “Cutlass” to “Gutless”.