F7U-1 Cutlass, Blue Angels

I built the entire line of Hasegawa Blue Angel aircraft back in 1982 for a static display at an Air Show and Open House at Scott AFB, IL.  The Cutlass is paired with the F9F-2 Panther that the Blues main demo team was flying at the time they used the Cutlass for solo work.  The -2 Panther had a very thin polished aluminum leading edge while the later -5 version had a much wider polished area.  I am somewhat surprised at how large the Cutlass is compared to the Panther.

Darwin, O.F. 

I like the look of your Cutlass,  is it an early version?

Great job on an ugly bird, Darwin .

I refuse to add it to my BA project.  I might reconsider, far, far down the line, but not now.

-Fred

Nicely done Darwin .  Thanks for sharing.

Regards,  Rick

Nice looking Gutless Cutlass.  The Panther also looks very good.  Great job on both of them.  

Great looking, Darwin. Do you have more?

Borg R3-MC0

I like the look of your Cutlass,  is it an early version?

Yes.  Chance Vought made a small number of the -1 version.  After ironing out some serious problems, they made the -3 version which went operational with the Navy for several years.

Darwin, O.F. 

bondoman

Great looking, Darwin. Do you have more?

This is the whole group of Blue Angels that I built in 1982.  There is no F/A-18 in the picture because they were still using the A-4 at that time.

Darwin, O.F. 

Very nice build (and collection!) Darwin! Great recovery of the broken aircraft, too.

The "Team Picture" is great!

Hey Darwin,

Any plans to add the F9F-5 Cougar?  I believe it's hasegawa that makes a 1/72 -4/5 variant. 

Here's my line-up, so far.  I just finished the F9F-8 Cougar, but haven't uploaded the pics, just yet.  What get's me, is the F9F-5 looks like the -2, but shares a nam with the -8.  Them crazy folk at Grumman, LOL

BTW, is that a double seat Scooter, I see in the back left corner?

-Fred

Gigatron

Hey Darwin,

Any plans to add the F9F-5 Cougar?  I believe it's hasegawa that makes a 1/72 -4/5 variant. 

Here's my line-up, so far.  I just finished the F9F-8 Cougar, but haven't uploaded the pics, just yet.  What get's me, is the F9F-5 looks like the -2, but shares a nam with the -8.  Them crazy folk at Grumman, LOL

BTW, is that a double seat Scooter, I see in the back left corner?-Fred

Yes, the back, left plane is the TA-4J.  The 2nd plane from the right in the back row is my Cougar.  Any of the straight wing F9s were Panthers and any of the swept wing versions were Cougars.  I am working on a Hasegawa F6F Hellcat, but have never got around to building a BA Hornet.  I would also like to add the T-33/TV-2 to the lineup.

You have done very nice work so far on your BA fleet.  Keep up the good work and keep us posted with pictures.

Darwin, O.F. 

guys, these look great!

Interesting side-note...when the Blues were flying the F-11 Tiger, they put on an airshow performance in New Orleans.  One of the planes impacted gear-up on the runway during a low maneuver.  The Blues just left the plane at that airfield and moved on to the next performance.  This aircraft is now on display, mounted on a pole, in Reserve, LA, in front of a small general aviation airport.  They did only cosmetic repairs to it and put it on the pole.