Unique Aircraft That Didn't Make It!

[PAUL161]

The gutless Cuttless, or Widow maker, plus a few other names tagged on it, was a very unique aircraft. The F7U Cutlass sure had it's problems during development. We had 2 of them in the hanger that GE was experimenting with more powerful engines and for some reason was using them as flying test beds. I thought they had beautiful lines, but was told they were very tricky to fly, might have been easer with more power. One major problem was, at the time carrier decks were covered with wood and the Cutlass with it's sharp down angle of the blast would scorch the decks, not a good thing. I sat in the cockpit a couple times and it was very tight, gave you the impression you were wearing it not setting in it. There are many more failures, but the list would be too long. The latest models would carry 5500 lbs of weaponry, but still wasn't up to snuff on power. PJ
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[SaxMan]

The engineers at Vought designed an airframe that was well beyond the capabilities of the first generation of jet engines that were available to power it. If the GE J79, for example, was available at the time of the Cutlass' development, the plane would have likely been more successful. Then again, if you strapped a J79 to a barn, it would probably fly well, too. The failure of the F7U led Vought back to the drawing board and the result was the F8U Crusader - a far superior plane to the Cutlass in every regard -- "the last of the Gunfighters". Where the F7U was a "one deployment" aircraft -- after one carrier deployment, they were withdrawn, the F8U went on to a 30 year career with the Navy, with the last examples being retired in the latter part of the 1980s.

There was a YF7U that was acquired by Montgomery Parks and placed on display at Wheaton Regional Park as a playground piece of equipment. It finally was worn out from being "loved to death" with dozens and dozens of kids playing on it day in and day out being far more stressful than carrier landings. Rumor has it that it was broken up in situ and buried. I've been trying to confirm those rumors, but Montgomery Parks has been less than enthusiastic about my archaeological expedition ideas.

 

[NutmegCT]

Another that didn't quite make it ...

The Stipa-Caproni of 1932.

gak

 

[PAUL161]

The engineers at Vought designed an airframe that was well beyond the capabilities of the first generation of jet engines that were available to power it. If the GE J79, for example, was available at the time of the Cutlass' development, the plane would have likely been more successful. Then again, if you strapped a J79 to a barn, it would probably fly well, too. The failure of the F7U led Vought back to the drawing board and the result was the F8U Crusader - a far superior plane to the Cutlass in every regard -- "the last of the Gunfighters". Where the F7U was a "one deployment" aircraft -- after one carrier deployment, they were withdrawn, the F8U went on to a 30 year career with the Navy, with the last examples being retired in the latter part of the 1980s.

There was a YF7U that was acquired by Montgomery Parks and placed on display at Wheaton Regional Park as a playground piece of equipment. It finally was worn out from being "loved to death" with dozens and dozens of kids playing on it day in and day out being far more stressful than carrier landings. Rumor has it that it was broken up in situ and buried. I've been trying to confirm those rumors, but Montgomery Parks has been less than enthusiastic about my archaeological expedition ideas.

We had a squadron of Crusaders down at Gitmo and it was one great aircraft! Had a couple go down, pretty bad with the pilots feet about 4 feet from the nose, one survived, one didn't. Only time we had to go out in Cuban territory, with permission of course and retrieve everything we could. That was the bad one. The other was the aircraft on takeoff lost the after burners and couldn't stop before dropping off a 47 foot cliff at the end. Alive and still in the seat, which was the most forward part of the aircraft, nose and side panels were gone. 6 months later he was back in the seat and putting it to it! PJ

 

[Basil]

Another that didn't quite make it ...

The Stipa-Caproni of 1932.

gak

That is one weird looking airplane!

Looks like at one time someone had big ideas for that design:

 

[Basil]

Well look what I found!

 

[NutmegCT]

Wow - never saw that film before. I've read the aircraft actually was very stable in flight.

Another two that were definitely unique, but didn't exist for long - the Dornier DO-X (1929-1936), and the Tupolev ANT 20 and 20bis (1934-42).

Dornier:

Tupolev:

 

[Gliderman8]

Fortunately this one didn't make it.

 

[catfood]

While at university a friend of mine chose to study the aerodynamics of an annular wing (basically a wooden barrel like construction with an aerofoil cross section) as his final year project. All went well until he tried it at high angles of attack in the wind tunnel when severe buffeting ensued resulting in a rapid and spectacular disintegration of the wing!

 

[PAUL161]

Another of German design. I have no idea if it ever flew. :highly_amused: PJ
View attachment 42198
Probably do a nice barrel roll in it!

 

[mikephillips]

Used to surprise people with a paper airplane that was an annular wing. Amazed a lot of people that with a flick of the wrist it would fly across the room.

 

[judow]

Another of German design. I have no idea if it ever flew. :highly_amused: PJ
View attachment 42198 .
Probably do a nice barrel roll in it!

Oh my gosh, it looks like a pregnant guppy. Not the most attractive aircraft I would say. I can't post, it ??? says my post is not long enough............... Okay I'm lengthening it.

 

[PC]

Oh my gosh, it looks like a pregnant guppy....

No it doesn't. The Pregnant Guppy looked like this. layful:

And, if you think the Stipa-Caproni's version of a ducted fan layout looks weird, check out the proposed (but never built) Convair model 49.

Back when the Air Force and Army were wrangling over the who/what/where/when of close air support, Convair sensed the Army's exasperation with the Air Force's attitude and proposed they build their own CAS platform. The (sort-of) helicopter-ish configuration would let the Army cut the Air Force out of the game.

Of course the Air Force (seeing the potential of mucho budget allocation loss) relented, which paved the way for the wonderful Warthogs. (And AF brass has been trying to kill them off ever since, but the grunts (and friends of grunts) won't let them.)