In article ,
(WaltBJ) writes:
(robert arndt) wrote in message

Sounds like he's describing a F7-U Cutlass... maybe?

SNIP:
Bill Gunston in his great book "Fighters of the Fifties" states an
F7U3 Cutlass exceeded 1.01 in a weapons release dive bomb test.
Looking at the picture of a F7U3 I can see why there would be massive
canopy buffeting. It's really humpbacked and most certainly flow
separation would occur at high speed.
FWIW I saw one take off from our base on Okinawa and I immediately saw
why it was nicknamed "Gutless." T/O roll with both AB lit was about
6000-6500 feet, a lot longer than our own LeadSled F86Ds.

According to a couple of guys I talked with that flew them, it
could get even scarier than that, from what I understand. Both
engines were fed from the same sump tank, which was filled from the
other tanks by the usual electrical pumps. Of course, in afterburner
at low altitude, (Such as takeoff, or, say, a missed approach), teh
fuel pumps for teh afterburners were draining the sump tank about 4
times faster than it could be filled - you could lose the airplae due
to fuel starvation with nearly full tanks. AS it went into service,
it was dicovered that it couldn't maintain airspeed in the pattern
dirtied up for landing - even with the afterburner going on the good
engine! The single loop boosted controls worked fairly well, when
everything was working - when they failed, though, the manual
changeover took something like 10-15 seconds - not much fun when the
hydraulics pack up while dive bombing.

It didn't entirely start out that way - teh original model, the F7U-1,
was a pretty racy looking machine. But it gained a lot of weight,
which meant it needed the bigger, thirstier engines. Then it was
realized that all that extra weight meant a really high AoA in the
pattern, and that the pilot couldn't see the boat at all on final. So
they bulged the canopy and sat the pilot pretty much on top of the
fuselage. Of course, with a low aspect ratio wing at high AoA, and
not much power, it was on the ugly side of the drag curve as soon as
you thought about landing.

With all that to work with, it's no wonder that the F8U Crusader was
so good. It had to be.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster