The Weirdest Looking Super Attack Aircraft Ever Seen

The Corsair II was a unique-looking aircraft that although lacking the capabilities of many planes of its time, its reliability and versatility allowed it to stay in service longer than its flashier, and more modern counterparts.

Despite earning the nickname SLUF or ‘short little ugly f***,’ there was nothing ugly about its performance, and it became an asset to the US Navy.

Origins

As the aviation industry continued to grow in the 1950s and the 1960s, the Navy needed an affordable and reliable strike warplane that could reduce development costs and centered on an outstanding range and superb strike performance.

To decrease costs even further, the new aircraft had to use the airframe of an already existing jet. In the 1960s, the Navy requisitioned a subsonic aircraft, instead of speed, they wanted range and the ability to carry a much bigger payload.

The new project’s goal was to build a warplane with specialized low-altitude dive attacks while shortening the development time by utilizing an already trusted airframe as its starting point.

Rising to the Challenge

Vought aviation engineer Russel Clark immediately rose to the unique challenge by assembling a team to take the reliable F-8U Crusader and transform it into a long-range low-altitude strike plane. As a reliable aircraft-launched plane, the new Corsair would have to be compact, sturdy, and able to land and take off in limited spaces.

Moreover, the plane had to be produced in mass numbers, contrasting to other flashier supersonic warplanes. For earlier tests, the Corsair II exceeded all expectations, with 8,800 miles of range, four times the operational range of the Skyhawk a much bigger payload capacity exceeding 20,000 pounds, and an increased top ceiling. Impressively, it’s also a lot quicker than its predecessor.

Inside the Machine

The original versions of the Corsair II were equipped with a single Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-6 turbofan engine. It was eventually powered by the Pratt & Whitney TF30-8 and Allison TF41-A-2 engines and a licensed model of the Rolls-Royce Spey engine.

Two cannons were mounted on the underside of the nose, and a mounting for AIM-9 Sidewinder on either side of the fuselage for self-defense against aerial threats. Later versions had the two cannons replaced with a single M62A1 Vulcan rotary cannon. The Corsair was often armed with a remarkable AGM-62 Walleye television-guided glide bomb and this unique fire-and-forget bomb would be aimed using a video screen inside the cockpit. All in all, the Corsair had an outstanding avionic system that surpassed most aircraft of its time.

Combat History

The A-7 Corsair II flew its first combat missions over Vietnam in May 1970. A total of 1,500 warplanes were built and became the backbone of aerial carrier-launched operations during the conflict with up to 854 models participating in over 97,000 sorties.

Most of these missions are low-altitude dive strikes that stood out for their reliability and bullseye accuracy. It continued to serve decades after its initial debut, undergoing several different iterations. It flew over 120,000 combat sorties in total.