text: The F7U's performance suffered due to a lack of sufficient engine thrust; consequently, its carrier landing and take-off performance was notoriously poor. The J35 was known to flame out in rain, a very serious fault. The first fleet squadron to receive F7Us was Fighter Squadron 81 (VF-81) in April 1954. Few squadrons made deployments with the type, and most "beached" them ashore during part of the cruise owing to operating difficulties. Those units known to have taken the type to sea were:
  VF-124, , August 1955 – March 1956. After pilot George Millard was killed in a Cutlass landing accident, the captain ordered every Cutlass off the ship and the squadron spent its Pacific cruise at the Atsugi naval air station in Japan
  VA-66, , November 1955 – August 1956; after a pilot was injured after a nose gear collapse, the captain summoned the squadron leader, confined both he and all his pilots to quarters, and ordered the squadron ashore at Naval Air Station Port Lyautey.
  VA-86, , January–March 1956 shakedown cruise
  VA-83, , March–September 1956
  VA-116, USS Hancock, April–September 1957
  VA-151, , May–December 1956
  VA-212, , August 1956 – February 1957
  Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 4 (VX-4),  and USS Lexington