The United States Navy has a reputation for operating the best naval aircraft of all time, at least partly by waiting to join WW2 until they’d managed to sort them out. However, they’ve still managed to fly some aircraft that make the Blackburn Blackburn look like the F-4 Phantom of its day.

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10. A-5B Vigilante

The finest long range reconnaissance aircraft operated by any navy it’s important not to embarrass the RA-5C by asking it why it was built in the first place. Designed as a nuclear bomber it suffered the minor indignity of towing the bomb behind in its wake when dropped and the decision was made to keep it away from any weapons for its own safety shortly after the first production A-5B flew.

McDonnell F3H Demon

The first F3H-1N were so bad the USN didn’t even fly most of them, shipping them off to be used as ground instructional trainers. Things didn’t get much better when one flew around on its own for over an hour when the test pilot thought he was safer getting out mid-flight. Slightly redeemed by replacing the Westinghouse J40 for an actual jet engine, the later models were themselves redeemed by being replaced by F-8 Crusaders.

Ryan Fireball

Hedging its bets by asking for an aircraft with a jet and piston engine the USN got the Ryan Fireball. Fortunately for all involved the Japanese surrendered before it could get near a combat zone. With nose gear apparently made from one of the softer cheeses half its landings appear to involve it breaking off. Meanwhile the wings were in danger of coming away leading to a G limit being imposed and on at least one occasion the whole aircraft just broke in two on landing.

McDonnell FH Phantom ‘The Phantom menace’

The USN’s first all-jet aircraft the Phantom was an innocuous single seat monoplane. With performance only slightly better than existing propeller fighters its career consisted of conducting carrier trials before being given to the Reserves. Who were presumably supposed to be grateful for having something so new. Powered by two Westinghouse J30s it probably would have improved things if McDonnell’s engineers had installed the eight, they’d briefly toyed with.

Curtiss Helldiver

The Fleet Air Arm gratefully received a range of aircraft from the USA during WW2, even ones the USN wasn’t convinced could be operated off aircraft carriers. The Helldiver was not one of them. After equipping one squadron, 1820NAS, trials indicated its handling around the flight deck was so bad the Royal Navy decided it wasn’t that fussed about having a dive bomber squadron after all. A lot of USN pilots apparently agreed, dubbing the S2BC the Son of a Bitch Second Class.

Vought F6U-1 Pirate

Vought made many great naval aircraft; the Pirate was not one of them. A stubby straight winged monoplane it was powered by one of Westinghouse’s family of appalling jet engines, in this case the J34. First flying in June of 1949, the evaluation by VX-3 was complete by the following October and concluded ‘The F6U-1 had proven so sub-marginal in performance that combat utilisation is not feasible’. Only 33 were built before the programme was terminated some airframes being used to test arrestor gear and barriers, no one being particularly concerned if they got damaged.

Vought F7U Cutlass

Vought made many great naval aircraft, although their hit rate doesn’t seem that good considering this was a follow up to the Pirate. Looking like it had come from the pages of Dan Dare, the Cutlass was a captivating design let down by unreliable hydraulics and underpowered engines from Westinghouse, who by this stage it must be assumed were in fact, Soviet agents. Over a quarter of the 320 examples built were destroyed in accidents and the first two operational cruises saw the Cutlass squadrons ordered ashore.

Douglas TBD Devastator

First flying in 1935 the Devastator was a torpedo bomber that suffered from two main problems. The first was the rate of advance in aircraft development before it saw combat and the second was its primary weapon the Mk13 torpedo. This had the undesirable characteristic of being damaged when dropped into the water and then not working. By the time this was resolved the Devastator had already fought at the Battle of Midway where 35 of 41 aircraft were lost without hitting any ships and the USN immediately withdrew it from frontline use.

Brewster Buffalo

Everyone’s favourite Finnish fighter originally entered service with the USN in 1939 and was a light, manoeuvrable – if not especially fast – fighter. By adding things like guns and armour to make it operationally useful it became a heavy sluggish if not especially fast fighter. Brewster meanwhile so annoyed the USN with their inability to produce aircraft on schedule that they’d eventually be one of the few arms manufacturers to go out of business during a war. Everyone was presumably relieved when it was decided to buy Wildcats instead.

Curtiss SO3C Seamew

A relatively innocuous scout floatplane the Curtiss Seamew came with a range of problems it wasn’t possible to fix in wartime. Apart from an inability to take off from the water with a full fuel load, in heavy seas the prop could hit the centreline float. This required a cut out to be made which was then covered with balsa wood for aerodynamic purposes. The landplane version meanwhile could take off in an attitude where there was no aileron control or possibility of recovery. The USN withdrew them from service in favour of their biplane predecessor while the RN scrapped its after nine months of second line operations.

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