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The F7U-3: A Definitive History


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  • 2 weeks later...

 

Paul, I agree with "I just like it!" Is a cool looking Jet for sure, and your VF-111 livery is stunning!  

 

Now along the same lines for better engines how about a better coupling clutch system for the A2D-1 Skyshark. That would have been the Spad everyone would want! Brutal in looks and likely would have been a PHANTASTIC close air support weapon! 

We can only wish at the time. 

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On 6/24/2024 at 9:18 AM, Jon Krol said:

I thought your book on the Cutlass was going to be a redo over of the Ginter book of same.

It started out as a significant redo of Ginter's book but the more Al Casby got involved, it got too big (380 pages) with too much color for Steve.

Edited by Tailspin Turtle
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16 hours ago, JeffreyK said:

The Crecy link doesn't seem to work, not even the main site...

 

On another note, how is Al's restoration project coming along? Will we really see a flying Cutlass?

J

Crécy's web site has been down for a couple of days now. Al thinks that his involvement in the book has delayed the first flight of his Cutlass for about a year but he will be retiring soon from American and the book is almost done (we started reviewing the proof today), so it's probably going to happen.

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I thought Crecey did a good job on Baker's Saturn 1B book after Haynes stopped printing and dropped it.  I love Ginter's books but the Crecy group seems more "professional" wrt print and binding quality.

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5 hours ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

It started out as a significant redo of Ginter's book but the more Al Casby got involved, it got too big (380 pages) with too much color for Steve.

I just bought the Ginter book based on correspondence I've had with Casby.

Nice guy.

 

Until your post, I wasn't sure if this was the Ginter book he said he was working on.

Thanks for the clarification that there isn't suddenly two new Cutlass books out there.

Since Casby is involved in this book I'll be buying it.

 

You might consider purchasing it from David Doyle books...if he stocks it.

He usually has some sort of discount and it's good to support a nice small business guy.

Edited by JohnEB
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On 6/15/2024 at 7:39 PM, Paul Boyer said:

My absolute favorite airplane - for no good reason. I just like it.

Imagine what it could have been if better engines came along in time. Here's my take:

 

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I agree PAUL  along withe the Skyray [My personal fav.!] ..they have a Sci-Fi feel.  Almost like they should be able to go into Space & underwater


Steve

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  • 6 months later...
On 6/26/2024 at 8:13 AM, scorvi said:

I agree PAUL  along withe the Skyray [My personal fav.!] ..they have a Sci-Fi feel.  Almost like they should be able to go into Space & underwater


Steve

 

I concur. One thing about the Cutlass and Skyray is you could park them on a ramp with an F-18, and they wouldn't look completely out of place. The Navy used the Skyray as a testbed for the GE J-79 when the Westinghouse designs flopped epically, and they used the Cutlass for nuclear dive bombing tests. I've added a picture of a VX 5 Skywarrior to give an idea of the VX 5 markings on the Cutlass, bands in medium green bordered with white stripes, on the nose, wings and tail. The A3D had an extra touch of scalloped engine intakes. The GE testbed pic (color) is a shot from the line at Edwards AFB. The XF4D is red over all with white fuselage undersides and diagonal pink (light red?) stripes on the wing bottoms. (the previously mentioned dark gloss sea blue and the gloss red B-66 Destroyer in this pic would both make ridiculously cool subjects too.) The black and white photo of the aircraft shows flames coming off the intake warning area is very interesting too. Add in the white one is the one Lindberg modeled their ancient A4D kit after, and the gloss dark sea blue "NOTS Nik" Skyray in the second color pic is on my list of "things to do," also...

 

Dave

 

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Oh, Dave, those pictures are so very cool. In my childhood, these two aircraft were the ones....along with the F-90 (saw a picture in Popular Mechanics and fell in love) and the little F11F. Thanks to all who shared on this thread, I missed it and am just getting caught up.  It beings back a lot of memories -  from a lot of airshows, and bases, and base housing and times gone by. Those were the days, my friends....

 

 And I want to add that in 1/72 scale two of the finest kits ever made (in my opinion) are the Tamiya Ford and the Fujimi Cutlass. Both are on my list of absolute favorite kits to build...just dreams on the work bench. Pour a little glue into the end of the box, shake, and bingo...done...off to the paint shop.

 

I also want the NOTSINK bird, I have all the Starfighters decals and resin, just need to get cracking. Come to think of it, what a perfect opportunity. Going to be cold, rainy and perfect for modeling over the next week.

 

More, more, more................

 

Harry

Lutz, FL

 

PS.  The Sundwoners Cutlass is sooooooooo cool. VF-143 next?

Edited by STEN8
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The Maps Air Museum at the Akron Canton Airport in Ohio  is currently restoring a Cutlass rescued from Walter Soplatas aircraft boneyard- information on the airframe here:

https://mapsairmuseum.org/vought-f7u-3-cutlass/

 

And you can follow restoration progress, they post quite a few updates on the Cutlass and their other projects here:

https://mapsairmuseum.org/renovation-activities-as-o-1-15-25/

 

 

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5 hours ago, STEN8 said:

Oh, Dave, those pictures are so very cool. In my childhood, these two aircraft were the ones....along with the F-90 (saw a picture in Popular Mechanics and fell in love) and the little F11F. Thanks to all who shared on this thread, I missed it and am just getting caught up.  It beings back a lot of memories -  from a lot of airshows, and bases, and base housing and times gone by. Those were the days, my friends....

 

 And I want to add that in 1/72 scale two of the finest kits ever made (in my opinion) are the Tamiya Ford and the Fujimi Cutlass. Both are on my list of absolute favorite kits to build...just dreams on the work bench. Pour a little glue into the end of the box, shake, and bingo...done...off to the paint shop.

 

I also want the NOTSINK bird, I have all the Starfighters decals and resin, just need to get cracking. Come to think of it, what a perfect opportunity. Going to be cold, rainy and perfect for modeling over the next week.

 

More, more, more................

 

Harry

Lutz, FL

 

PS.  The Sundwoners Cutlass is sooooooooo cool. VF-143 next?

 

I have to agree. That Sundowners Cutlass is extremely cool. This site could use better control in loading photos, the ability to caption them would be nice. I'm a huge fan of 1950s flying machines, there's fun for everyone. There's WWII retreads like the F-51, early helicopters like the CH-37 Mojave, anemic early jets like the Convair XB-46 and FH-1 Phantom, X planes and Century Series. Just too much cool. I snapped up the Mikro Mir XB-51 in .007 seconds after its release. And, speaking of the Sundowners Cutlass, there's this:

 

 

XB-51_40-scaled.jpg

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Goodbye, Paul Doumer Bridge! And at night!

 

Part of the appeal of Fifties birds for me is the bewildering speed which designs were developed, hit the front lines, got modified and/or sent to NATO or the Air National Guard and Naval/Marine Reserves, etc.

North American, Grumman, Lockheed, Vought, Martin, McDonnell, Douglas, Boeing, Republic cranking them out. Now there is one fighter, one bomber.

 

Harry

Lutz, FL

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I was born at the Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake California in 1957. Personally, I think the 50s are the most overlooked era in the modeling industry. Sure, they've turned out some stuff, but Trumpeter infamously flogged the F-100 in every scale from 1/32 to 1/72, Roden made a new North American AJ-1 Savage, nice but if you want to build a -2P or -2 Savage, the old Rareplanes kit is your only recourse, if you can find one. How about the Martin P4m-2Q Mercator? A few limited run vacuform and multi-media kits were made, but try to find on for sale. They've done RF and F84Fs and F-101 kits, but there again, limited run, you'd better have your wallet out when it's released, or you'll have missed the boat. They done multiple F-105 kits but how about a B or D that left the factory a week ago rather than ones that are due to go to the boneyard next week? And what about an EC-121 kit that doesn't require $500 of aftermarket goodies to make right? The list goes on, am I dreaming in color if I think I'll ever see one of these things? Probably, but you never know what you might get until you ask!

 

 

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One cool thing about China Lake is that nearly every piece of hardware ever hung on a military airplane was invented there. They once called the nearby town of Inyokern "the secret city," and the Navy would deny the existence of nearly every project that went on at China Lake until after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. With some of the colors to make them easier to see, and experiments with guidance fins, early Sidewinders looked like something out of Buck Rogers...

 

 

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13 minutes ago, STEN8 said:

Pax River, 1958.

 

 

By '68 my dad had crossed over to the Air Force and was working on the F-106 for the 48th FIS, It was close to Pax, but we never went there, the USS John F Kennedy had just retuned from its shakedown cruise, and hosted an open house. We went to the Newport News Naval Air Station where the famous P2V Neptune :Truculent Turtle" on display and a captured Japanese Emily fling boat preserved next to it. Confoundingly, the base commander at the time wanted them scrapped, thankfully he didn't get his way, and today the Emily is on display in Japan and the Turtle is in the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola. The Six is, to this day my, favorite century series fighter and I think the most beautiful jet fighter ever made. Our local museum has the very same Dart my dad was avionics crew chief on at his last duty station in the US military...

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