This was made of balsa that was sandwiched between two thin sheets of aluminum. The most unusual feature of the aircraft was its use of "Metalite" for its skin. The jet engine was mounted in the rear of the fuselage and was fed by ducts in each wing root. This raised the tail up so that it could overlap the nose of the aircraft behind it. In order to fit more aircraft into crowded hangars, the nose gear could be retracted and the aircraft's weight would rest on a small wheel attached by the ground crew. The wings were short enough that they did not need to fold. The XF6U was a small aircraft with tricycle landing gear and with straight wings and tail surfaces. Chance Vought was awarded a contract for three V-340 (company designation) prototypes on 29 December 1944. None were ever issued to operational squadrons and they were relegated to development, training and test roles before they were withdrawn from USN service in 1950.Ī specification was issued by the US Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) for a single-seat, carrier-based fighter powered by a Westinghouse24C (later J34) axial turbojet on 5 September 1944. Although pioneering the use of turbojet power as the first naval fighter with an afterburner and composite material construction, the aircraft proved to be underpowered and was judged unsuitable for combat. The Vought F6U Pirate was the Vought company's first jet fighter, designed for US Navy during the mid-1940s.
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