The Navy was unsure as to whether jets could ever operate from carriers and did not want to concern itself with the added uncertainties of swept-wing performance. The Army decided to test the concept on the XP-86 and North American oftered the design change to the Navy too. The delay caused by the redesign of the XP-86 allowed for the opportunity to examine German reports on the benefit of swept wing technology.
#Westinghouse j34 beaings install
The Army to install wing tanks and thus enabled the removal of the belly saddle tanks which provided the basis for a much cleaner and efticient fuselage design. drop tanks, slatted wings, folded wings and deployed speed brakes. This change allowed 1Ībove, the 8th FJ-3 built, BuNo 135801, with 200 gal. However, early in the design phase the Army decided to move the dive brakes from the wings to the fuselage. Originally, the planes were virtually identical.
The Army's XP-86 was being developed concurrently with the XFJ-1. The initial contract for three XFJaircraft (NA-135) was signed on 1 January 1945. Even Vought went to this system by the time the F7U-1 grew into the F7U-3 Cutlass. This became the accepted method of removal and was used on the FJ-1 's counterpart, the F-86, and on the rest of the Fury series. This method involved removing the tail section and pulling the engine out the rear.
Lockheed's P/F-80 used the system of "breaking" the fuselage aft of the wing. Vought on its F7U-1 lowered the engine out of the bottom of the fuselage (Naval Fighters #6). North American approached the problem by making the entire upper fuselage from the cockpit aft to the fin removable. Since everyone was new to the jet business, there was considerable debate on how jet engines should be removed from airframes. XB turbojets and the FJ-1 around one General Electric TG-180 (Allison J35). Therefore, the F2H was designed around two of the Westinghouse J34 turbojets, the F6U around one Westinghouse J34, the FH-1 around two Westinghouse 19. Since these decisions were taking place in a wartime environment, the Navy could not rely on one airframe manufacturer or for that matter one engine manufacturer to produce a capable jet to counter the possible Japanese threat. These were the McDonnell XFD-2 (F2H) Banshee (Naval Fighters #2 & #73), the Chance Vought XF6U Pirate (Naval Fighters #9) and the North American FJ-1 Fury (Naval Fighters #7). From the proposais submitted, the BuAer technical desk chose three designs to be developed. It was for the twin-jet McDonnell XFD-1 (FH-1) Phantom (Naval Fighters #3). Up to that point only one all-jet fighter contract had been issued. In late 1944, BuAer sent requests to several manufacturers for a jet fighter proposal. These facts prompted the Navy to issue a requirement for carrier based jet fighters. As more German jets appeared in combat, it became a foregone conclusion that Japan would be producing them too. LlNEAGE: It was 1944, and a new age in aviation was dawning in the European skies, the jet age. Matsuzaki, David Menard, Wayne Morris, Stan Piet, Mick Roth, Fred Roos, Louis Santos, San Diego Aerospace Museum, Larry Smalley, William Swisher, Doug Siegfried, Tailhook Association, Norm Taylor, and Nick Williams. CONTRIBUTORS: Mark Aldrich, Scott Bloom, Peter Bowers, Jim Buridge, Jim Farmer, Fred Freeman, Harry Gann, Gene "Mule" Holmberg, Craig Kaston, Clay Jansson, William T. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, or otherwise without the written, permission, of the publisher. © 2010 by Steve Ginter ISBN-10 0-9846114-1-X ISBN-12 Steve Ginter, 1754 Warfield Cir., Simi Valley, California, 93063Īll rights reserved. Anyone able to fill-in these photographs please contact me at the address below. Those units which are not included in the squadron histories covered in this volume include the following: FASRON-3 (Norfolk) "FB", FASRON-4 (North Island), FASRON5 (Oceana) "FC", FASRON-6 (Jacksonville) "FD", FASRON-8 (Alameda), FASRON-9 (Cecil Field) "FE", FASRON-10 (Moffett Field), FASRON-11 (Atsugi), FASRON-12 (Miramar), FASRON-104 (Port Lyautey) "FK", FASRON-113 (Cubi Point), FASRON-117 (Barbers Point), NACA 1955, VF-124 "NJ" 1958, and VU-7 "UH" 1957-58. There are still many units that have eluded me. Now more than twenty years later, I decided to give up the search and produce the FJ-3/3M book anyway. The FJ-3/3M was intentionally bypassed due to lack of photographic coverage of all known operating units. FJ-3/3M DISCLAIMER: Early in the Naval Fighters se ries I covered the FJ-1 (#7), FJ-2 (#10) and then skipped to the FJ-4/4B (#25).