During May of 1922, the Lewis and Vought Corporation was reformed to become the Chance Vought Corporation and its first product of note became the two-seat "OU-1" naval floatplane platform. In 1926, with development of new floatplanes emerging from Boeing and Curtiss, the United States Navy (USN) commissioned Vought to produce an interim floatplane as a stopgap measure. These would serve aboard American capital warships and be launched via catapult, provide over-the-horizon reconnaissance and artillery spotting, and be retrieved by shipboard crane. The aircraft would be of a single-engine biplane design with floats serving as its undercarriage. Unlike the two-seat observation aircraft being worked on by Boeing and Curtiss, the Vought design would be a single-seat form. Its designation became OU-3.
The OU-3 featured equal-span, twin-bay wing elements with parallel struts and its construction was a mix of steel tubing, wood and fabric. The engine was fitted in the front of the fuselage and drove a two-bladed propeller unit. The pilot sat under and aft of the upper wing structure in an open-air cockpit, the cockpit slightly ahead of midships. A raised dorsal spine served as a headrest for the pilot and views out-of-the-cockpit were generally adequate - the bulk of the aircraft ahead of the pilot blocked much of the forward viewing. The tail unit was traditional in its general arrangement - a single vertical fin with low-set horizontal planes. Armament became 2 x 0.30 caliber machine guns synchronized to fire through the spinning propeller blades - a standard of fighter aircraft of this period. Dimensions included a length of 28.4 feet, a height of 10.1 feet and a wingspan of 34.3 feet.
The floatplane arrangement constituted a large central float under the forward mass of the aircraft and smaller underwing floats held outboard.
Twenty of its kind were on order from June 1926 and, in October, the product had its designation revised to "FU-1". Deliveries were all fulfilled by April of the following year and, for June 1928, the line was serving aboard U.S. naval capital ships as part of squadron VF-2B. However, their time in service was short-lived for the product was quickly superseded by the more modern Boeing F3B-1 carrier-based fighter-bomber biplanes introduced in August of 1928 - this coincided with VF-2B's shift from capital battleship service to aircraft carriers.
Vought FU-1s ended their days as two-seat trainers following conversion which reintroduced the second cockpit of the OU-1. In this guise they were designated "FU-2".
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AIR-TO-AIR COMBAT
General ability to actively engage other aircraft of similar form and function, typically through guns, missiles, and/or aerial rockets.
MARITIME / NAVY
Land-based or shipborne capability for operating over-water in various maritime-related roles while supported by allied naval surface elements.
INTELLIGENCE-SURVEILLANCE-RECONNAISSANCE
Surveil ground targets / target areas to assess environmental threat levels, enemy strength, or enemy movement.
28.4 ft (8.65 meters) Length
34.4 ft (10.50 meters) Width/Span
10.2 ft (3.10 meters) Height
2,083 lb (945 kilograms) Empty Weight
2,778 lb (1,260 kilograms) Maximum Take-Off Weight
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