The Vought FU was a

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

in service during the late 1920s.

Design and development

Pleased with the company's VE-7, in 1926 the Navy gave

Vought Vought was the name of several related American aerospace firms. These have included, in the past, Lewis and Vought Corporation, Chance Vought, Vought-Sikorsky, LTV Aerospace (part of Ling-Temco-Vought), Vought Aircraft Companies, and Vought ...

a $459,709 contract for 20 convertible land/sea fighters. Vought already had a two-seat observation plane, the UO-1, basically a VE-7 with additional fuselage streamlining and a Wright J-3 radial engine. This was made into a fighter simply by covering over the front cockpit of the observation plane, mounting machine guns in that area, and upgrading to a Wright R-790 Whirlwind with a

supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement (engine), displacement. It is a form of forced induction that is mechanically ...

. With the help of the supercharger, the newly designated FU-1 was able to reach a speed of at . The FU-1s were delivered to VF-2B based in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. With their float gear mounted, one was assigned to each of the

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

s of the Pacific Fleet, where these observation seaplanes were launched from

catapult A catapult is a ballistics, ballistic device used to launch a projectile at a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden rel ...

s. They spent eight months in this role, but as the squadron went to

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

operations, the further-aft cockpit proved to have a visibility problem when maneuvering around a carrier deck. In response, the forward cockpit was re-opened, the resulting aircraft being designated FU-2. By this time they were obsolescent, and the two-seaters served primarily as trainers and utility aircraft.

Operators

; *

Peruvian Air Force The Peruvian Air Force (, FAP) is the branch of the Peruvian Military of Peru, Armed Forces tasked with defending the nation and its interests through the use of aerial warfare, air power. Additional missions include assistance in safeguarding i ...

- Two aircraft. *

Peruvian Navy The Peruvian Navy (, abbreviated MGP) is the branch of the Peruvian Military of Peru, Armed Forces tasked with surveillance, patrol and defense on lakes, rivers and the Pacific Ocean up to from the Peruvian littoral. Additional missions include ...

- Two aircraft. ; *

Specifications (FU-1)

Vought_UO-1_3-view_Aero_Digest_July_1926

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Jones, Lloyd S. ''U.S. Naval Fighters''. Fallbrook CA: Aero Publishers, 1977, , pp. 53–54. * Swanborough, Gordon and Bowers, Peter. ''United States Navy Aircraft since 1911''. London:Putnam, Second edition, 1976. . {{USN observation aircraft F01U Vought F01U Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Floatplanes Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear