Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum’s Larry Wood Profiles the FJ-3 Fury

Developed as a series of swept-wing, carrier-capable fighters, the North American FJ Fury series began as the United States Navy and Marine Corps equivalent to the USAF’s F-86 Sabre. 

The FJ-1, however, more closely resembles the F-86 Sabre (having a straight-wing design) than its successors; fundamentally different aircraft, the FJ-2 and the FJ-3 feature folding wings and longer nose landing struts to both increase the angle of attack upon launch and to absorb the shock of hard landings on a carrier deck.

On September 12th, 1946, pilot Wallace A. Lien took the North American FJ-1 Fury on its first test flight; after poor performance reviews, however, the Navy quickly determined that they needed an entirely new design for successful operations, ordering only 31 FJ-1 Fury’s into production.  In 1951, the Navy requested three prototypes of a swept-wing fighter design, designated as the FJ-2 Fury. 

The FJ-2 Fury, powered by a single General Electric J47-GE-2 engine, first took flight on December 27th, 1951; this design too, however, proved unsuccessful at meeting operational needs.  With only 6,000 pounds of thrust and a heavier empty weight than the F-86 (an increase to 11,800 pounds over the Sabre’s 11,125 pounds), the FJ-2 Fury was underpowered for carrier operations.

Even before the development on the FJ-2 Fury finished, engineers began work on an upgraded version powered by the Wright J65-W-4 engine.  Delivering about 28% more thrust than the previously used G.E. J47, the J65 engine provided 7,800 pounds of thrust with little additional weight.  In March of 1952, the Navy ordered 389 of these aircraft, named the FJ-3 Fury. 

Featuring a deeper fuselage than its predecessor, the FJ-3 Fury first flew in July of 1953.  Deliveries began in 1954, with a total of 538 FJ-3 Fury’s delivered by the end of 1956.  In 1955, several modifications were introduced to the fleet including the addition of two new under wing store pylons, color scheme change, and the replacement of wing slats by extended wing leading edges.  The wing leading edges added another 124 gallons to the fuel capacity and increased the wing area from 287.9 square feet to 302.3 square feet.  The last of the modified FJ-3 Fury’s, designated as FJ-3Ms, rolled out of the factory in August of 1956.

FMI: www.sprucegoose.org/, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews