The powerplant of the Cutlass earned it the nicknamed “Gutless Cutlass,” as its two Westinghouse turbojets were not enough to fly the plane safely. Despite the plane’s strange design and underpowered engines, the Cutlass was picked to perform with the famed Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy’s aircraft demonstration team.
The Cutlasses that flew with the Blue Angels encountered numerous mechanical failures in flight, and were generally harrowing to fly, according to the pilots behind the flight stick. Aircraft carrier captains even refused to have the jets on their ships, as was the case with the USS Hancock after a pilot died during an accident when the front landing gear snapped.
Pilots hated the plane, and even the improved F7U-3 wasn’t much better, as well as being a mechanical nightmare to maintain. Despite all this, Oldsmobile decided to name a car after the plane; resulting in the Oldsmobile Cutlass, an icon of the muscle car world, according to Smithsonian Magazine. During the jet’s less-than-illustrious service, several pilots died in a total of 78 accidents, and a quarter of all Cutlass airframes produced were lost to mechanical failures or crashes.
The Cutlass only served for four years in naval aviation service, from 1953 to 1957.
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