swampyankee said:
The FJ Fury was a close sibling to the F-86 Saber. Given that this was early in the development of jet aircraft, and the handling of swept wing aircraft at low speeds was still being learned about, how well did the FJs operate from carriers?
Firstly: The FJ Fury wasn't really a close sibling to the F-86; it was more of an ancestor.
The FJ-1 was based on the P-51 of all things: The forward fuselage was shorter because it had no inline and lacked a radiator on the bottom for the same reason; it was fatter because it had a hole running though the middle of it to feed a jet-engine (J35), as well as the fact that the guns were not mounted in the wings, which were also thinner and a little smaller for high speed flight; the canopy was redesigned for streamlining and possibly to stuff an ejection seat in it (the USN was keen to adopt that), and the tail-surfaces were redesigned either due to speed requirements, the shape of the fuselage, or both.
The aircraft had a tricycle landing-gears, as had become a trend (and now practically universal) on aircraft, and an interesting kneeling gear. This in theory, allowed for the removal of the folding-wings, as the nose-gear could be lowered without raising the main landing-gears, and the kneeler would be brought down, allowing the nose to rest upon it: The tail would be sticking up in the air, the nose of one plane could be parked under another aircraft, and reduce parking space on the carrier-deck (The idea was entertained in a Grumman fighter known simply as "Design 71", and early drawings of the F7U also had it, though it was deleted before the plane was built).
As for the ability to operate off carriers: It's takeoff run was a little long and it might have dropped off the deck a little (not enough to hit the water); then started climbing at a relatively high AoA initially until it accelerated a little: For the most part, the catapults were to be used by in large when launching this aircraft off the deck.
The F-86 started from an evolutionary offshoot of the FJ-1 design, which was built to a USAAF specification: They wanted a bomber-escort and a fighter-bomber in their plane. It was already different in a number of ways (not including the lack of the kneeler and arrester hook). For starters: The nose already looked like the F-86 did, it had a longer fuselage, wings with a higher aspect-ratio, and larger tip-tanks.
As time went on, the decision was made to add swept wings to the design. Other additions included stabilizer trim, and an automatic slat system similar to the Me-262, and power-boosted flight-controls.
The FJ-2 was proposed initially as an F-86E with a wing-fold, but developed as an F-86F with 20mm cannon in the nose. It should have been called the F2J-1, but it was a political decision as Congress usually is more willing to approve an evolution of a design than a new design altogether. There had been some thought of calling it the "Sea Sabre" but they went with Fury instead.