Aircraft Gallery
FJ-2/-3 Fury
SPECIFICATIONS:
Crew: 1
Length: 37 ft 7 in (11.45 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 1.5 in (11.31 m)
Height: 13 ft 7 in (4.14 m)
Wing area: 288 sq ft (26.7 m²)
Empty weight: 11,802 lb (5,353 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 18,790 lb (8,523 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × General Electric J47-GE-2 turbojet, 6,000 lbf (26.7 kN)
Aerial combat over Korea in the early 1950s renewed the Navy’s urgency in getting a swept-wing jet fighter for carriers. Swept wings offered superior performance in combat, but demanded higher landing speeds. Fortunately, the performance of the Air Force’s F-86 Sabre fighter offered an expedient means of producing a swept wing naval jet. The FJ-2 and -3 series differed from the Sabre in an all-cannon armament, a lengthened nose wheel strut to increase the angle-of-attack for take offs, and folding wings. Furies reached squadron service in 1954 just as a new generation of large deck aircraft carriers were commissioned. The Fury was one of the first naval aircraft equipped with the Sidewinder air-to-air missile in 1956. As supersonic carrier fighters like the Crusader arrived, the Fury was phased out of fleet service by the early 1960s.
