Vought XS2U

The Vought XS2U was a design for an all-weather, carrier-based anti-submarine warfare aircraft that Chance Vought Aircraft began work on for the United States Navy on 25 January 1950. It was a twin-engine, twin-tailed, mid-wing, propeller-driven aircraft with tricycle landing gear, the twin fins canted inward and the main gear retracting into the engine nacelles. Vought built a full-scale mock-up of the XS2U-1 and received a contract of intent for two prototypes, but construction of the fuselages and wings ran into trouble over how to fold the wings for carrier stowage, which needed a complicated double fold outboard of each radial engine. The contract was cancelled, neither airframe was completed, and the Navy bought the Grumman S2F Tracker instead. Vought also proposed an airborne early warning version, the S2U-1W, later renamed WU-1, with a large radome over the centre fuselage.