National Geographic : 1950 Sep
O National Geographic Society 289 Kodachlrome by Rudy Arnold Tailless, with Swept-back Wings Far Aft, Navy's Twin-jet Cutlass Carrier Fighter Shows the Eerie Shape of Things to Come So strange in appearance is this "new look" plane that some bewildered newspapers printed its picture upside down. Speed is given by the Navy guardedly as "in the over 600-mile-an-hour class." Fuel sprayed into special stainless-steel tail pipes called "afterburners" gives bursts of superpower for quick take-offs and combat. That the Cutlass, or F7U-1, is designed to fly at or near the speed of sound is shown by its knifelike slanting wings, so far back they seem almost an afterthought. At such tremendous speeds the turbulent wake of the wings may buffet the tail, so Chance Vought engineers omitted it completely. Instead, fins rise from the wings' trailing edge. Slats on the leading edge add lift for take-off and landing. Wheels nest in fin stubs under the wings. The swordfish nose spike of this prototype is a boom carrying test instruments; spikeless are production models now roaring up from Chance Vought's Dallas, Texas, plant to join the Nation's first line of defense.