4 ms·

This plane sounds like the F-35 of its time -- with even worse reliability!

• elipsey 11y ago
  The F-35 arguably had a design philosphy that was the opposite of the one used for the Cutlass. It looks like the design started in 1945, and this story was taking place in the early 50's. The F35 took longer and cost more, whereas the Cutlass was killing people and being improved on the fly only 6 years from inception, so maybe this is a lesson in extremes of "agile" developement vs. extremes of big budget "waterfall" approaches. I guess the developement philosphy for the Cutlass would be "fix it in production."
  • michel-slm 11y ago
    F7U was an unusual design (cf F35 thanks to the USMC's S/VTOL requirements), and its development period was quite lengthy for its time (though nothing compared to some programs these days including the F35). The F-9F first flew less than a year earlier and was already serving in Korea in 1950, the F-7U finally made its carrier deployment in 1955 and it didn't stay in service for that long afterwards. I'd point out similarities to teething problems with the F-35 -- the first time the USMC deployed it, didn't they find that the exhaust would damage deck plating, which subsequently had to be strengthened? Didn't happen when Harriers are taking off and landing...