The North American FJ-1 Fury was the first operational jet aircraft in United States Navy service, and was developed by North American Aviation as the NA-135.
The FJ-1 was an early transitional jet of limited success which carried over similar tail surfaces, wing, and canopy derived from the piston-engine P-51D Mustang.
The evolution of the design to incorporate swept wings would become the basis for the land-based XP-86 prototype itself originally designed with a very similar straight-wing platform to the FJ-1 airframe of the United States Air Force’s enormously influential F-86 Sabre, which in turn formed the basis for the Navy’s carrier-based North American FJ-2/-3 Fury.
Variants
XFJ-1
Prototype aircraft, powered by a 3,820 lbf (17 kN) General Electric J35-GE-2 turbojet engine, three built.
FJ-1 Fury
Single-seat fighter aircraft, powered by a 4,000 lbf (17.8 kN) Allison J35-A-2 turbojet engine, armed with six 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns, 30 built a further 70 were cancelled.
FJ-2 & FJ-3
The North American FJ-2 and FJ-3 Fury are a series of swept-wing carrier-capable fighters for the United States Navy and Marine Corps.
The FJ-2 resulted from an effort to make a carrier suitable version.
These aircraft feature folding wings, and a longer nose landing strut designed to increase angle of attack upon launch and to accommodate a longer oleo to absorb the shock of hard landings on an aircraft carrier deck.
Although sharing a U.S. Navy designation with its distant predecessor, the straight-winged North American FJ-1 Fury, the FJ-2/-3 were completely different aircraft.
(The later FJ-4 was again, a complete structural redesign of the FJ-3).
The FJ-2 was one of the aircraft used to evaluate the first steam catapult on a US Navy aircraft-carrier.
FJ-4
The North American FJ-4 Fury is a swept-wing carrier-capable fighter-bomber for the United States Navy and Marine Corps.
The final development in a lineage that included the Air Force’s F-86 Sabre, the FJ-4 shared its general layout and engine with the earlier FJ-3, but featured an entirely new wing design and was a vastly different design in its final embodiment.
