FJ-2 Fury color schemes

The FJ-2 served during a transition time of paint schemes, from overall Sea Blue, to the Gull Gray over White. The silver scheme was incidental during that time period. Some aircraft such as the FJ and F7U wore it, some did not. 

Here is a link on that subject

http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2009/12/

This is separate from the Coroguard used on various aircraft from that era up thru the Tomcat era

http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2012/01/corogard.html

But your paint scheme would depend upon the time of service career. New build, NMF. Later in service life, Gull Gray over White. So you’d have to check which squadrons were still using them. It’s a bit time consuming, but fun too. At least the image searches can be fun. You never know what you will stumble upon.

This is very true. It would be late in the FJ-2's service with the active duty squadrons, but before the were replaced by FJ-3's or -4's. More research is needed. I'll share what I find.

Thanks,

Tom

I’m curious now. At that time, aircraft types were being introduced and phased out at a rapid rate. Squadrons changed from type to type within a few years, unlike the past 30-40 years. Nowadays you have some units that have been flying the same type (with modifications or improvements) for decades.

Only 200 FJ-2's were built, down from the originally planned 300. There were carrier suitability problems with the XFJ-2's ( broken nose gear forks and arresting hook bumpers) so a decision was made to give them to the Marines. All the production aircraft were delivered in natural metal. I need to look up when the change from Glossy Sea Blue to Lt. Gull Gray and White took place and then see when the various squadrons replaced their -2's with whatever came next. Then start looking at photos. Of course, reality was never this neat, and exceptions will exist, and maybe abound. But it will be fun.

Tom

Right! Looking at pictures of aircraft and flightlines  always enjoyable. Although of course it often involves more questions than answers. The FJ-2 sounds a lot like the F4U-1... “unsuitable” for carrier ops, so handed off to the Marines.

"Were getting brand new airplanes, before the Navy gets them". We must have died and gone to Heaven, thought the Marines.

Tom

Air Classics had an article on the Fury in Volume 10 Number 10 by Robert Trimble.  I scanned the FJ-2 section and made a pdf.  It's a big file (35mb) and I don't want to leave it up permanently so download it soon if you want it.  There is an example of a gray over white airplane.

http://goldeneramodel.com/fsmforum/airclassicsvol10n010fj2.pdf

Thank you ! That's an excellent article on what is, to me, a beautiful airplane. The 200 production aircraft were all delivered to the Marines in an "experimental" natural metal finish. Other aircraft delivered in this finish include the F7U-3 Cutlasses and 100 F2H-2 Banshees. The order to change from the Glossy sea Blue scheme to Lt. Gull Gray over White was issued in Feb. 1955,with instructions that all aircraft being issued from NARF (Naval Air Rework Facilities) be in the new scheme from July 1955.( Source for this is the Official Monogram US Navy and Marine Corps Color Guide by John Elliot. The NARF instructions would not, of course, affected the the FJ-2's, but it gives an indication of the desired time frame for the change. AT the active duty squadron level it would have taken much longer than that to affect.

There's one of two FJ-4s at the Tyler HAMM museum:  http://www.tylerhamm.com/planes.html

Paint has faded from being out in the sun for too long.  Check the link for how the paint looked fresh.

Gary

Thanks ! The -4 Furies are also good looking airplanes. The Hobby Boss FJ-4 Builds up nicely and looks good. With the KH FJ-2 out now and their FJ-3 coming sometime next year, we're finally going to be in pretty good shape on Furies.

Tom

It's time for an update. I've looked at a lot of FJ-2 photos in the past few days, and enjoyed it immensely. However not too sucessfully, since I was looking for gray and white FJ-2s. The only ones I found were in VMF-232, the ones illustrated in Steve Ginter's book. All others that I found were unpainted aluminum. That surely doesn't mean that there weren't others, just that I haven't found photos of them in active Marine service. The reserve squadrons did have a mix of both gray and white and red/orange and white schemes.

Tom

The Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola has a -2 in overall Glossy Sea Blue. Here's a link. I thought I had uploaded pics to my Fotki account, but I was mistaken.

https://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/aircraft/fj-2-fury/

Yes, it's an FJ-2 painted up as an XFJ-2, which were the test aircraft. The 3 XFs had higher bureau numbers than the 200 production aircraft. The XFs were, to a large extent modified F-86Es, and varied in their equipment from each other.

Thanks,

Tom