Sabres for the US Navy: the FJ-2, FJ-3, and FJ-4

When I made my first visit to the Yanks Air Museum back in July 2016, it was a blessing for me that the museum has on display the only surviving example of the first jet fighter for the US Navy built anywhere in southern California, the North American FJ-1 Fury, whose straight wings happened to be the original wing design for the F-86 Sabre before captured wartime German aeronautical research prompted North American to redesign the Sabre with backswept wings. On my visits to the Planes of Fame Museum, I got to see in person for the first time one of a handful of variants of the F-86 Sabre for the US Navy, the FJ-3, and as has been noted before, the FJ-2, FJ-3, and FJ-4 were swept wing aircraft unlike the FJ-1, which is quite odd because the FJ-2/3/4 should have been designated F2J. Even though the FJ-2, FJ-3, and FJ-4 were manufactured by North American in Ohio rather than California, I am including the navalized F-86 Sabre variants for convenience on this blog as they were derived from the Sabre. 

Two FJ-2s of Marine Corps squadron VMF-235 in flight in 1954

In late 1950, the US Navy's first generation of jet fighters were recognized as inferior in performance to the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 six months into the Korean War, and although the Vought F7U Cutlass was the first swept wing jet fighter for the Navy designed from scratch, it was not yet operational. Thus, on January 30, 1951, North American Aviation envisaged a navalized variant of the F-86E Sabre, the NA-181, which had the slatted wing of initial production F-86Fs but differed in having folding wings, a modified cockpit canopy, catapult attachment points and arrester gear, a General Electric J47-GE-2 (a navalized version of the F-86F's J47-GE-27), the wheel track widened by 8 inches, and strengthened landing gear, and armament comprised four 20 mm cannons with 600 rounds. The NA-181 proposal was submitted to the US Navy on February 6, and the Navy expressed considerable interest, signing a contract on February 10, for 300 production NA-181s (BuNos 131927/132126) to be built at a newly opened North American factory in Columbus, Ohio. Although the NA-181 was a navalized F-86E and thus different from the FJ-1, the Navy instead designated it FJ-2, perhaps hoping that Congress would approve of an aircraft which was a "logical extension" of an existing type. On March 8, the US Navy ordered three XFJ-2 prototypes (BuNos 133754/133756), which were to be built in Inglewood due to the Columbus plant not yet being ready for manufacturing operations. The first two XFJ-2s (company designation NA-179) differed from the F-86E-10 in having a V-frame arrester hook, catapult points, and a longer nosewheel to raise the angle of attack during takeoff and landing. The third XFJ-2 (BuNo 133756), designated NA-185 by North American, retained the F-86E's nosewheel and lacked naval equipment, and it was armed with four Colt Mk 12 20 mm cannons with 150 rounds and designated XFJ-2B (B stood for special armament). The XFJ-2B was actually the first of the three XFJ-2s to fly, making its first flight on December 27, 1951, before being flown to Inyokern, California, for armament tests, and the first XFJ-2 prototype took to the skies on February 14, 1952. The three prototypes were accepted by the Navy from June to December 1952, and the XFJ-2s underwent carrier qualification tests aboard the USS Midway and USS Coral Sea in the second of half of 1952, but problems surfaced during those tests, such as the new landing gear and arresting hook bumper being too weak for carrier landings, and poor handling of the aircraft during carrier approaches and landings. Nevertheless, the Navy had chosen to go ahead with the start of FJ-2 production, and the first production FJ-2 was flown on November 22, 1952 and delivered to the Navy on December 12. Whereas the horizontal stabilizer of the FJ-2 prototypes had dihedral, the production FJ-2 had a flat horizontal tail. After the Korean War, production orders for the FJ-2 were reduced to 200 aircraft, and deliveries of the FJ-2 to the Navy and US Marine Corps were completed by September 1954. By this time, the Navy deemed the Grumman F9F-6 Cougar to be better at operations from carrier flight decks despite its slightly slower cruising speed given the FJ-2's increased weight compared to the F-86F, and thus only a few FJ-2s saw Navy service, even though the FJ-2 entered service with US Marine Corps units in January 1954. In USMC service, FJ-2s operated with squadrons VMF-122, VMF-232, and VMF-312 of the Atlantic Fleet Marines, and squadrons VMF-235, VMF-224, and VMF-451 of the Pacific Fleet Marines, and even though most of their operations were carried out from land bases, the FJ-2 Furies went to sea aboard the USS Coral Sea and a few other carriers. Even so, the FJ-2's carrier handling characteristics weren't really satisfactory, and it was retired from frontline service in 1956 and phased out by reserve units in 1957. 

Left: An FJ-3 Fury (BuNo 135867) at the Planes of Fame Museum, photographed by me on April 13, 2019. 
Right: Four FJ-3s of US Navy squadron VF-21 in flight in the late 1950s.

Shortly after flight tests of the XFJ-2 and XFJ-2B began, in March 1952 North American undertook design of a new Fury variant, the NA-194, to be powered by one Wright J65 turbojet (the American license-built version of the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire), which had greater thrust that the J47-GE-2 that powered the FJ-2. Viewing the NA-194 as having potentially enhanced performance, on April 18 the Navy placed an order for 289 aircraft (BuNos 135774/136162) to be built in Columbus and the designation FJ-3 was assigned to the NA-194. The fifth production FJ-2 (BuNo 131931) was chosen to serve as a testbed for the FJ-3, being fitted with a J65 and assigned the designation NA-196 by North American, and it first flew in this iteration on July 3, 1953. Despite retaining the FJ-2's slatted wings and hydraulic power-operated horizontal tail and ailerons, the FJ-3 featured a larger nose intake to encapsulate the J65's increased thrust, and cockpit armor including a 52-pound back plate and an 88-pound plate in front of the instrument panel. The FJ-3 made its first flight on December 11, 1953, and it reached operational deployment with US Navy units beginning in September 1954, with the first carrier landings aboard the USS Bennington on May 8, 1955. Even before deliveries of the FJ-3 to operational units had begun, the Navy felt so impressed with the performance of the FJ-3 during flight testing that on March 11, 1954 it ordered 169 more FJ-3s (BuNos 139210/139278, 139324/139423), designated NA-215 by North American; the second FJ-3 batch ordered on March 11 with BuNos 139324/139423 were cancelled. In addition, North American developed a missile-armed FJ-3 variant, the FJ-3M, which was armed with four underwing pylons for external stores, the inboard weapons pylons being capable of carrying 500-pound bombs or rocket packs, and the outboard stations fitted with either 1,000-pound bombs or launching rails for AAM-N-7 (later AIM-9) Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, On November 2, 1954, eighty FJ-3Ms (BuNos 141364/141443) were ordered, and 105 FJ-3s were modified to FJ-3M configuration as well, with operational deployment of the FJ-3M commencing in 1956. Deliveries of the FJ-3 and FL-3M continued until 1956, by which time a total of 538 FJ-3s had been completed. A few FJ-3s were converted in 1957-1960 to drone control aircraft, with FJ-3s modified to carry the Vought KDU-1 (a target drone conversion of the Regulus submarine-launched cruise missile) being designated FJ-3D and those used for handling control of F9F-6Ks and Ryan KDA-1 Firebee drones receiving the designation FJ-3D2. The Wright J65 had some severe lubrication problems that could cause it to seize up and lose all power during a catapult launch, forcing the aircraft to drop into the ocean, and it also suffered from occasional catastrophic turbine blade failures, which would cause the engine to shed its turbine blades and send them flying out the sides of the fuselage. Despite these mishaps, the FJ-3 was fairly popular with its pilots, with Captain James Powell of the Navy fighter squadron VF-142 describing the FJ-3 as taking off faster than the F9F-6 Cougar. The FJ-3 Fury never saw combat, although it carried out combat air patrols during the 1958 Lebanon crisis.

Left: The first FJ-4 prototype (BuNo 139279) in front of the North American plant in Columbus, Ohio before its first flight, October 1954.
Right: Four FJ-4B Furies of US Navy attack squadron VA-63 in flight, late 1958.

The last Fury variant to be manufactured, the FJ-4, was envisaged by North American in June 1953 as an all-weather interceptor with 50 percent more fuel capacity than the FJ-3, necessitating an extra fuel tank below the engine and a dorsal spine stretching from the rear of the cockpit all the way to the tail empennage. The FJ-4 also differed from the FJ-2 and FJ-3 in having a new, thin wing of slightly greater span and wing area with a six percent thickness-to-chord ratio and skin panels milled from solid alloy plates, tapering more sharply towards the tips, but also thinner horizontal stabilizers that lacked dihedral and had a slightly shorter span, and a taller vertical stabilizer. The new "thin" wing of the FJ-4 required the main landing gear design to be considerably modified to fold the wheel and strut within the wing's contours, and the track of the main wheels was increased and because they were closer to the center of gravity, there was less weight on the nosewheel, while wing folding was limited to the outer wing panels. On October 16, 1953, the US Navy ordered two FJ-4 prototypes (BuNos 139279/139280) and 107 production aircraft (BuNos 139281/139323, 139424/139530), known internally by North American as NA-208 and NA-209 respectively. The first FJ-4 prototype was flown on October 29, 1954, and deliveries of the FJ-4 to US Navy and US Marine Corps units began in February 1955 and continued until March 1956. Armament of the FJ-4 consisted of four Colt Mk 12 20 mm cannons with reduced ammunition to create space for extra armor on the nose as well as four AAM-N-7 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, and in its secondary role as a fighter-bomber the FJ-4 could carry 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) of bombs and six LAU-3/A pods containing 70 mm rockets while using its cannons for ground strafing. North American also developed a dedicated fighter-bomber version of the FJ-4, the FJ-4B (company designations NA-220, NA-229, and NA-244), which had a stronger wing with six underwing stations for carrying 6,000 lb (2,721 kg) of missiles, bombs, and rockets, reinforced landing gear, and extra aerodynamic brakes under the aft fuselage which made landing safer by allowing pilots to use higher thrust settings and were also useful for dive attacks. The FJ-4B was capable of carrying the ASM-N-7 (later AGM-12) Bullpup air-to-surface missile, which was usually fired from a shallow dive with the pilot putting his gunsight pipper on the intended target and guided to the enemy target by the pilot operating a miniature control stick and sending radio control signals to the missile to move the fins on the rocket, but it could also carry a nuclear weapon on the inboard port station, and it was equipped with the LABS (Low-Altitude Bombing System) for delivery of nuclear weapons. An order was placed for 25 FJ-4Bs (BuNos 139531/139555) on July 26, 1954, followed by a contract signed on November 2 for 46 more FJ-4Bs (BuNos 141444/141489), and the first FJ-4B made its first flight on December 4, 1956, with operational deployment in 1957. An additional 184 FJ-4Bs (BuNos 143493/143676) were ordered on April 5, 1956, but this was cut back to 151 aircraft, and a total of 222 FJ-4Bs had been built before deliveries were completed in May 1958. In all, 374 FJ-4s were built, but like the FJ-2 and FJ-3, the FJ-4 would never see combat. When the Defense Department introduced the Tri-Service aircraft designation system on September 18, 1962, the FJ-3, FJ-3M, FJ-3D, FJ-3D2, FJ-4, and FJ-4B were redesignated F-1C, DF-1C, DF-1D, F-1E, and AF-1E respectively. By this time, the FJ-3 and FJ-4 had been phased out of service with Navy and Marine Corps combat units, and they were transferred to Navy reserve units where they served until the mid-1960s, when they were retired. One retired FJ-4B with BuNo 143575 was later acquired by Flight Systems International in 1971 with the civil registration N400FS and operated on various military contract duties until 1982, when it was withdrawn from use, and it was eventually purchased by T-Bird Aviation in 1991 and given the new civil registration N9255. After years of restoration, in 2002, this aircraft reverted to its initial civil registration and once again became airworthy for a second time, and it remains the only FJ Fury still flying.

Left: One of two FJ-4Fs (BuNo 139284) in flight, early 1958
Right: A desktop model of the NA-295 ("AF-1E") light attack aircraft that lost the VAL competition to the A-7 Corsair II.

Before concluding this post, mention must be made of FJ-4 developments that either made it to the experimental stage or remained unbuilt. In November 1954, shortly after the FJ-4's first flight, North American Aviation explored the possibility of a rocket-augmented FJ-4 in response to US alarm at the USSR's deployment of the Myasishchev M-4/3M and Tupolev Tu-16 jet bombers and Tupolev Tu-95 turboprop bomber. The proposed rocket-augmented FJ-4 would have a search radar housed in a fairing above the nose and provisions for two Sidewinder air-to-air missiles or fifty 2 inch Gimlet unguided rockets (or alternately 168 1.5 inch NAKA unguided rockets) housed in internal weapons bay and four Sidewinder or Sparrow II missiles mounted below the underwing pylons. This initial proposal evolved into the NA-234 design study of August 1955 with a monopropellant rocket motor above the tailpipe of the FJ-4's J65-W-16A turbojet, and by late 1956 the NA-234 was superseded by the NA-248 which had an auxiliary 5,400 lb (24.02 kN) thrust Rocketdyne XLR36-NA-2 liquid-fuel rocket motor fueled by a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and JP-4. The US Navy showed immediate interest in the NA-248 and on July 3, 1957, it awarded North American a contract to convert the second and fourth production FJ-4s (BuNos 139282 and 139284) to NA-248 configuration, allocating the designation FJ-4F to the NA-248. (The NA-251 was an unbuilt FJ-4F proposal envisaged in 1957 with a variable-thrust rocket motor.) The FJ-4Fs not only utilized the auxiliary XLR36-NA-2 rocket motor but also had the enlarged fairing above the nose that would have house the search radar. The FJ-4Fs were delivered to the Flight Test Division of the Naval Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland on January 29, 1958, and the following day the FJ-4F made its first flight. A total of 22 flights were made with the rocket motor switched on, and the FJ-4F attained a top speed of Mach 1.3 during flight tests, its flight behavior similar to that of the FJ-4 although a deterioration of directional stability was noted above Mach 1.2 under positive load factor. After the conclusion of flight testing on May 10, 1958, the Navy issued published recommendations for further development of the FJ-4F to include a throttleable rocket motor, but the development of more powerful afterburning jet engines meant that the FJ-4F did not enter production. North American Aviation also worked out a handful of derivatives of the FJ-4B for the close air support role in the early 1960s. The FJ-4BF design proposed in late 1960 retained the FJ-4 wing but had a nose radome to house a terrain-clearance-and-search radar, a slightly bigger wingspan, seven store stations (six under the wings and one blow the centerline), and two General Electric TF37 turbofans on the sides of the fuselage. In response to the short-lived VAX requirement issued by the Navy in 1961, an FJ-4 derivative was conceived by North American as an interim design powered by one Pratt & Whitney TF30 turbofan (which necessitated a deeper fuselage) and a radome on the upper lip of the air intake for the APG-53A radar given that the VAX program was deemed too ambitious and therefore canceled in 1962. When the Navy announced the VAL requirement for an A-4 replacement with subsonic capability in early 1965, North American submitted a derivative of FJ-4 for the VAL competition, designated NA-295 by the company and unofficially called "AF-1F", which resembled the FJ-4 but had a radome protruding from the lower lip of the air intake that housed the APN-149 terrain-clearance radar, a TF30 turbofan, five stores stations with an option for two more, a length of 40 feet (12.04 meters), and a height of 16 feet 4.8 inches (5 meters). On February 11, 1964, the rival Vought V-463 design (based on the F-8 Crusader) was declared winner of the VAL contest and subsequently became the A-7 Corsair II, and thus the NA-295 was never built.

References:  

Buttler, T., 2021. American Secret Projects 4: Bombers, Attack, and Anti-Submarine Aircraft 1945 to 1974. Manchester, UK: Crécy Publishing.

Friedmann, N., 2022. U.S. Navy Attack Aircraft 1920-2020. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.

Kinzey, B., 2003. FJ Fury (Detail & Scale Volume 68). Carollton, TX: Squadron Signal Books.

Kinzey, B., 2021. FJ Fury in Detail & Scale, Part 2: FJ-4 and FJ-4B Variants. Detail and Scale Publications.