page_title: Vought F7U Cutlass
section_title: Accidents and incidents
hierarchical_section_title: Vought F7U Cutlass / Accidents and incidents
caption_attribution_description: A U.S. Navy Vought F7U-3 Cutlass (BuNo 129595) of Fighter Squadron (VF-124) Stingrays suffers ramp strike on landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CVA-19) during carrier qualifications off of the California coast on 14 July 1955. Disintegrating airframe is seen spinning off to the port side. The pilot LCDR Jay Alkire, USNR, executive officer of VF-124, was killed when the airframe sank, still strapped into the ejection seat. Also killed were two boatswain's mates and one photographers mate, in the port catwalk by burning fuel.
context_page_description: The Vought F7U Cutlass was a United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter and fighter-bomber of the early Cold War era. It was a tailless aircraft for which aerodynamic data from projects of the German Arado and Messerschmitt companies, obtained at the end of World War II through German scientists who worked on the projects, contributed; though Vought designers denied any link to the German research at the time. The F7U was the last aircraft designed by Rex Beisel, who was responsible for the first fighter ever designed specifically for the U.S. Navy, the Curtiss TS-1 of 1922.
  Regarded as a radical departure from traditional aircraft design, the Cutlass suffered from numerous technical and handling problems throughout its short service career. The type was responsible for the deaths of four test pilots and 21 other U.S. Navy pilots. Over one quarter of all Cutlasses built were destroyed in accidents.
context_section_description: 26 July 1954 pilot Lt Floyd Nugent ejected from a Cutlass armed with 2.75 in rockets. The Cutlass continued to fly on and proceeded to circle the North Island of San Diego with its Hotel Del Coronado for 30 minutes, before it finally crashed close to shore.
  11 December 1954 during an air demonstration at the christening of aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, pilot Lt J.W. Hood was killed when his F7U-3 had a malfunction with the wing locking mechanism and the aircraft crashed into the sea.
  30 May 1955 pilot Lt Cmdr Paul Harwell's Cutlass suffered an engine fire upon takeoff on his first flight in the aircraft. Harwell ejected and never flew another Cutlass again. By the time he had landed on the ground, he had spent more airborne time in the parachute than the aircraft.
  When pilot Tom Quillin's Cutlass took off as part of a flight of four Cutlasses. Quillin's aircraft had an electrical failure which forced him to abort his training mission and return to base. At the airbase he had to wait in a landing pattern because two other aircraft in the flight also had aborted due to malfunctions in the aircraft.
  14 July 1955 pilot LCDR Jay T. Alkire was killed in a ramp strike on USS Hancock.
  4 November 1955, pilot Lt George Millard was killed when his Cutlass went into the cable barrier at the end of the flight deck landing area of USS Hancock. The nosegear malfunctioned and drove a strut into the cockpit which triggered the ejection seat and dislodged the canopy. Millard was launched 200 feet (61 m) forward and hit the tail of a parked A-1 Skyraider and later died of his injuries. The captain of Hancock ordered every Cutlass off the ship.
caption: Ramp strike of Vought F7U-3 Cutlass BuNo 129595, Modex 412, of VF-124 on the USS Hancock on 14 July 1955. LCDR Jay T. Alkire (XO of USN's VF-124 "Stingrays") was killed in the crash, and several deck crew were killed or injured.
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