In recent times there have been attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of one of the most legendarily dangerous Cold War fighter aircraft: the F7U Cutlass. In this video I take a long look at its history, design and try and understand whether the Cutlass was a disaster, or just misunderstood.
Main sources:
"Naval Fighters No. 6" by Steve Ginter is interesting but typically eclectic in style
"Vought F7U Cutlass: A Developmental History" by Tom Gardner is a slightly heavy read, but contains fabulous detail
I also referenced the Pilots Instructions for the U-1 and U-3 models to get a sense for the control and equipment differences
This is a brilliant blog post on the Cutlass cockpit configuration and the Sparrow: [ Ссылка ]
News stories on the narrow escape of the Del:
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