United States Navy training film from
1953, aimed at teaching
Navy pilots the flight characteristics of the new FJ-2 jet fighter.
The North American FJ-2
Fury was a swept-wing carrier-capable fighter created for the United States Navy and
Marine Corps.
Based on the
United States Air Force's
F-86 Sabre, these aircraft featured folding wings, and a longer nose landing strut designed to both increase angle of attack upon launch and to absorb the shock of hard landings on an aircraft carrier deck. Although sharing a
U.S. Navy designation with its distant predecessor, the straight-winged
North American FJ-1 Fury, the FJ-2 was a completely different aircraft.
Further information about the FJ-2 courtesy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_FJ-2/-3_Fury
By 1951, the Navy's existing straight-wing fighters were much inferior in performance to the swept-wing
Soviet MiG-15 then operating in the
Korean War; the swept-wing fighters in the Navy's development pipeline, including the
Vought F7U Cutlass and
F9F Cougar were not yet ready for deployment.
As an interim measure, the Navy's
Bureau of Aeronautics ordered a direct development of the swept-wing F-86E Sabres as the FJ-2. As the
F-86 had not been designed to be carrier-capable, this involved some risk, but Navy pilots had observed that the F-86A actually had a lower landing speed than the
F9F Panther. The urgency behind the program was such that
300 (later reduced to
200) FJ-2 fighters were ordered before the prototypes had flown.
The first prototype to fly was actually the third aircraft ordered:
Designated XFJ-2B and first flown on
27 December 1951, it differed only from a standard F-86E-10 in its armament, having four 20-mm
Colt Mk 12 cannon instead of the six
Colt-Browning M3 .50 machine guns of the Sabre. The second and third aircraft to fly were designated XFJ-2 and lacked armament, but were modified to be carrier-capable: They had an arrester hook and a longer nosewheel leg to increase angle of attack at take-off and landing, and catapult fittings. In August
1952 carrier trials were flown on
USS Midway (
CVB-41), followed by carrier qualification trials on
USS Coral Sea (
CVA-43) in October--December 1952.
Results were less than satisfactory. Low-speed handling was considered poor, and the arrester hook and nose gear leg were insufficiently strong.
The first production aircraft flew on
22 November 1952. This FJ-2 incorporated further modifications for carrier operations: The track of the main landing gear was widened by eight inches, the outer wing panels folded upward, and the windscreen was modified to give the pilot a better view during approach. The FJ-2 also featured an all-moving "flying tail" without dihedral. Because of problems experienced during launches with steam catapults, a number of FJ-2 later received a stronger nosewheel strut. Outwardly, the FJ-2 was hard to distinguish from an F-86, apart from Navy paint and the gun muzzles of the 20-mm cannon. The engine was the
General Electric J47-GE-2, a navalized version of the J47-GE-27 used in the
F-86F. The naval modifications of the FJ-2 had increased weight by about
500 kg over the F-86F, but unfortunately had not succeeded in delivering a fully carrier-capable fighter. A decision had already been made to give it to land-based squadrons of the
US Marine Corps.
Construction was slowed due to demand for the F-86 in
Korea; the FJ-2 was not produced in large numbers until after that conflict had concluded. Only seven aircraft had been delivered by then end of 1953, and it was
January 1954 before the first aircraft was delivered to a
Marine squadron,
VMF-122. The Navy preferred the lighter
F9F Cougar due to its superior slow-speed performance for carrier operations, and the 200 FJ-2 models built were delivered to the
United States Marine Corps.
The Marines did make several cruises aboard carriers and tried to solve the type's carrier handling problems, but the FJ-2 was never really satisfactory. In
1956, the FJ-2 already disappeared from front-line service, and reserve units retired it in
1957. .
.
WDTVLIVE42 -
Transport, technology, and general interest movies from the past - newsreels, documentaries & publicity films from my archives.
- published: 31 Mar 2012
- views: 15536