The F7U Cutlass, born from post-WW2 experimental designs, entered service with promise—yet quickly earned a deadly reputation. What went wrong with this bizarre, tail-less Navy jet?

Pilots hated the plane, and even the improved F7U-3 wasn't much better, as well as being a mechanical nightmare to maintain. Despite all this, Oldsmobile decided to name a car after the plane; ...

The F7U made its maiden flight in 1948. For an aircraft that would lose a quarter of its rolling stock to accidents, many of them fatal, the Cutlass had a fairly trouble-free first few test flights.

But Beisel also invented the F7U Cutlass jet, which was not anyone’s idea of a fine fighter.The Cutlass “was ahead of its time and the capabilities of available power plants, resulting in its ...

On December 20, 1951, the F7U-3 made its first flight. “Our job was to test the Cutlass,” wrote F7U Navy test pilot—later astronaut—Wally Schirra in his autobiography, Schirra’s Space .

But Beisel also invented the F7U Cutlass jet, which was not anyone’s idea of a fine fighter.The Cutlass “was ahead of its time and the capabilities of available power plants, resulting in its ...

This collection consists of a letter and poster from John Konrad, Chief Pilot with Chance Vought. The poster depicts a Chance Vought F7U-3 Cutlass in flight over a US Navy fleet while the letter ...

F7U-3 Cutlasses crashed on at least four occasions in 1955, the year this photo was taken over New Jersey. One beautiful southern California afternoon in the summer of 1954, I watched a Navy F7U-3 ...