fighter – Page 15 – Aerospace Projects Review Blog

Curtiss-Wright XP-71

Aug 112012

The XP-71 was a sizable Curtiss-Wright design from 1941 for a long range escort fighter. Irritatingly little has been publicly revealed about it. This is assuredly not due to the XP-71 being such an incredibly advanced design (although it was incredibly complex), but rather due to it having been a failed concept. Armed with two 37mm and one 75mm cannon, the XP-71 was bigger and substantially more expensive than a medium bomber such as the B-25, and would likely have been less nimble than a smaller fighter. While the armament would have packed a mighty whollop, targeting an Me 109 or a Zero would have been a matter of great luck or incredible skill. The XP-71 effort lasted from 1941 to 1943.

While I’ve recently been clued in on a Curtiss-Wright report with some good drawings of an oddly swept-wing version of the XP-71 (release of further info currently embargoed), very few decent quality drawings seem to have been released. One of the very few “official” three-views is a rather small diagram from a NACA report describing a great many spin-tests. I’ve not yet located the specific test reports dealing with the XP-71.

D188A Artwork in Hi-Rez

bomber, fighter, hi-rez, VTOL No Responses »

Aug 022012

A Bell Aircraft illustration of the D188A VTOL strike fighter. This design was described in detail in Article 34, available for both download and printed.

You can download a 5.5 megabyte version of this diagram; the link is HERE. To access it, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 6 of APR issue V1N4. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 14 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.

F-111 evolution part 3

bomber, fighter No Responses »

Jul 282012

A three-view of the April 1962 configuration of General Dynamics’ TFX entry. This is very clearly the F-111, but with a few minor differences. The most obvious are the different inlets and the tail “cone.” Here, it appears that at least for the USAF version, the tail cone was meant to angle downwards… presumably forming a ventral fin to aid in stability (or perhaps aid in maneuverability).

Other design features that would change include the profiles of the dorsal and horizontal stabilizers.

F-111 evolution

bomber, fighter No Responses »

Jul 232012

The F-111 was one of those aircraft for which a *vast* number of designs were put forth. While General Dynamics won the contract, they went through a long design development for their final design. As of December 1961, the design was clearly *almost* the F-111 as it would eventually be built, but not quite:

Bell TAC VTOL

fighter, VTOL 2 Responses »

Jul 192012

I have this artwork… and nothing else. It depicts a VTOL aircraft that apparently uses augmenter technology for vertical thrust, and has an air cushion landing system. These would seem to place the design in the late 1960’s, maybe early 1970’s. That was when Bell was pushing air cushion landing systems hard… and before the spectacular failure of the augmenter-wing XFV-12.

It seems to be armed to the teeth with guns, but doesn’t seem to have space for much of anything else.

APR Corner: Space Fighter

fighter, hypersonic, rockets, spacecraft, spaceplane 8 Responses »

Jul 132012

The AIAA-Houston chapter newsletter “Horizons” has published an article I wrote on a 1963 concept for a variable geometry spaceplane capable of both space station logistics and combat missions. You can download the May/June 2012 here: http://www.aiaahouston.org/

Hydrogen fueled supersonic interceptor

fighter No Responses »

Jun 252012

A 1955 NACA concept model of a supersonic interceptor fueled with liquid hydrogen. Similar in design to the JP-5 fueled design, but with a ceiling of 80,000 feet and engines of shorter length due to the faster combustion of hydrogen.

Supersonic interceptor concept model

fighter No Responses »

Jun 242012

A 1955 NACA concept model of a supersonic interceptor powered by JP-5 burning turbojets. With a gross weight of 25,000 pounds, it would be capable of combat at Mach 2.5 to 3.0 with a ceiling of just over 60,000 feet.

Kinda-high altitude interceptor concept model

fighter No Responses »

Jun 222012

A similar design to the high altitude interceptor shown two days back, but optimized for a lower altitude. Generally similar layout, but smaller engines.

High altitude interceptor concept model

fighter 2 Responses »

Jun 202012

A poorly reproduced copy of a photo of a NACA-Lewis concept model of a high-altitude supersonic interceptor, circa 1955. Little data is available, apart from the engines having 55% of the weight of the craft, with the rest composed of structure and payload… almost no fuel. Makes an interesting comparison to the Lockheed “Suntan.”

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