Most difficult or worst? Almost certainly the Voight F7U Cutlass.

25% of the production run was lost to landing accident. Carrier Captains started ordering them off their ships they were so ungodly dangerous.

As for easiest to land? actual pilots would have a better opinion than me, but from what I heard from the old Grumman test pilots back in the day they always felt the A-6 Intruder was a nice easy landing plane. It did low and slow well.

Keep in mind this was their opinion in the mid to late 80’s.

While I agree the F7U Cutlass was one of the worst, second place in my opinion based on my research goes to the A-5 Vigilante.

While not the largest aircraft to operate off a carrier (that honor goes to the A-3 Skywarrior), it was large and difficult to land owing to a high approach angle of attack and high approach speed.

Combined with its size it had a very narrow margin for error. As John Chesire points out, the Vigi was an “Ensign Killer” too. So much so that the Navy started restricting the Vigilante pilot seat to experienced Naval aviators to cut down on accidents.

Its approach envelope was so narrow it was only 18 feet of height between a ramp strike and the 1 wire. On a pitching deck a Vigi on approach would go from a good landing to a potential fireball in seconds and the slow reaction time of its engines, its size and relatively poor visibility over the nose in its approach made bringing it aboard a harrowing experience for any pilot. For an inexperienced nugget it was often a deadly one.

Despite this, the A-5, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful aircraft to every fly off a carrier deck. Not the bulk, brute aggressive lines of an F-4 or F-14 but a sleek, smooth and amazingly proportioned aircraft that shows it was built to go fast and high.

Short lived in nuclear bomber service due to its messed-up internal bomb bay, remade into the RA-5C recon version it was a fabulous camera platform and could outrun most of what was sent up against it.

The A-5 is on my list of the top 5 most beautiful aircraft ever built on my personal list of favorites.