In 1943, McDonnell Aircraft won a contract to develop the world's first carrier-based jet aircraft. The result was the 500-mph FH-1 Phantom. The McDonnell FH-1 Phantom was the first all-jet airplane ordered into production by the Navy and the Navy's first airplane to fly 500 mph.

On July 21, 1946, operating from the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, an FH-1 Phantom became the first jet-propelled combat aircraft to operate from an American aircraft carrier.

McDonnell built 62 Phantoms between 1945 and 1947, and by May 1948, the first all-jet squadron aboard a carrier was operational with FH-1 Phantoms on the USS Saipan. FH-1 Phantoms also became the first jets assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps. After 1949, Phantoms flew with Naval Reserve units around the country.

The FH-1 performed so successfully that a few years later the Navy ordered the bigger and faster twin-engine multimission F2H Banshee.