First flown in 1948, the F7U was ahead of its time and the capabilities of available power plants, being dubbed the "Gutless Cutlass". Plagued with weaknesses, over a quarter of the 320 F7Us built were lost to accidents. From 1954 this one flew with VF-83 (Oceana), VF-212 (Moffett), VA-151 (Alameda) and NARTU (Los Alamitos). Displayed in a Los Angeles park from 1960, it was restored from 1991. I was delighted to shoot this having recently acquired the wonderful new Crecy book on the Cutlass, co-authored by the owner of another F7U being restored for flight