"In July 1 946, an FH-1 Phantom made aviation history aboard the USS FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, CVB-42, when it became the first jet fighter ever to take off from an aircraft carrier. This original Phantom was a twin-engine, straight wing design built by the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri. Although McDonnell had primarily been a sub-contractor during World War II, the development of the FH-1 Phantom allowed the fledgling company to get in on the ground floor when it came to designing and producing carrier-based jet fighters. But this may not have been much cause for celebration in the late 1940s, because the future of carrier aviation did not look very promising at that time......."

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