Vought's F7U Cutlass Was Part Innovative Fighter And Part Safety Disaster

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: https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2012/12/cockpit-confusion.html News stories on the narrow escape of the Del: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sdut-day-hotel-dodged-a-bullet-2016may24-story.html https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sdut-del-runaway-jet-mystery-solved-2016jun21-story.html