Flying Turkeys
Jets capture nearly everyone’s imagination, and it’s not hard to see why. They’re fast and powerful, and they look really cool, so it’s no surprise that people are thrilled to see them. However, not every jet is an awesome airplane like the F-16. Indeed, hundreds of mediocre, if not outright terrible, jet aircraft have seen service. Here are 10 of the worst jets to take to the air. They failed for a variety of reasons, but the common thread is that nobody wanted to fly these turkeys.
10 Vought F7U Cutlass
When the Harrier Jump Jet entered British Naval service, other world powers saw the advantage of having a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) fighter. The US license-built the Harrier for the Marine Corps, while the Soviet Union had to design their own unique fighter. Produced by the famous Yakovlev design bureau, the Yak-38 bore an outward resemblance to the Harrier but was an inferior airplane in every aspect. In fact, the Yak-38 ended up becoming one of the most useless naval airplanes ever put into service.
Despite the cosmetic similarities to the Harrier, the Yak-38 used a different lift jet system. Yakovlev engineers placed two small thrust vector jets at the end of the fuselage and two lift jets behind the cockpit. Due to differences in engine design, the Yak-38 used much more fuel than the Harrier during takeoff. This significantly limited the combat range of the Yak-38 to only 1,300 kilometers (800 mi), and that was without any weapons. In hot weather, the total possible flight time dropped to only 15 minutes, making the airplane completely useless as a fleet interceptor.
Beyond the dismal endurance, the Yak-38 suffered from engineering flaws and an overly simple design. With only four weapon pylons, pilots barely had any armament. To save weight, designers elected to not fit the Yak-38 with any radar beyond a rudimentary range finder, a huge disadvantage in modern aerial combat. Even if those systems had worked, the Yak-38 was still an absurdly dangerous airplane to fly. The lift jets only had a working life of 22 hours before needing a complete overhaul and were prone to failure if the intakes ingested too much gas. Losing just one lift jet doomed the airplane. To limit fatalities, Yakovlev fitted the fighter with an automatic ejection seat that would fire if the airplane rolled more than 60 degrees to either side during takeoff or landing. That system got good use.
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