Air/Spacecraft

When we look at some of the fantastic new airplane designs, many of us don't realize that some of these designs came from much older planes. There have been many experimental designs over the years and we can see this, even when we go back as far as the early 1940s. It wasn't just the Germans that were experimenting with aircraft. While they beat us to the jet and rocket planes, we had some pretty remarkable air frames ourselves. Curtiss-Wright was a leader in advanced aircraft in those days. The Curtiss-Wright XP-55 had a futuristic body and was especially remarkable for a plane that flew in 1943. The plane had canards, something that many advanced jets use today to make them more maneuverable. The plane was known as the Ascender. It also had tricycle landing gear. It was fitted with a 1,275 horsepower Allison V-1710-95 engine. It eventually carried 50 caliber machine guns. The first plane crashed, but the pilot survived. Even though the plane had an advanced look, it proved to often be inferior to conventional planes and the project was cancelled.

Curtiss XP-55 Ascender
Photo Source: Public Domain

Did you ever hear of a medium bomber with just a pusher prop? Probably not. The idea sounds very strange and it would seem that a plane configured this way would just not have enough power to do anything, yet the Douglas XB-42 was such a plane. It was built in the early 1940s and made its first flight in 1944. It actually had two engines that mounted inside the fuselage and connected in such a way that they powered two in line propellers. The idea was to build a high speed bomber and designers thought that this might be the way. They thought that since the plane would have such clean lines that it would be able to have increased speed. It had 50 caliber machines guns that only fired toward the rear and was fired by the copilot. It turned out that when the plane flew, it did have excellent performance. It also had some problems, but it is believed that they could have been corrected, but the project was killed due to the availability of the new jet engines, which could make planes fly even faster. Two of these planes were built and the first crashed. The plane hit a speed of 410 miles per hour.

Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster
Photo Source: USAF

In 1939 Lockheed began designing a jet powered aircraft. It was named the L-133 and its design was so futuristic that it looked like a plane from today. The plane was described as a single seat, canard design that was powered by two L-1000 engines. The engine was being designed by Lockheed themselves. The United States Air Force was not interested. One of the designers was Clarence R. Kelly Johnson the designer of the SR-71 Blackbird. If this plane would have went into production, many say that the United States would have had a clear lead over the Germans. To see more about the plane and a photo, click on this link, http://tanks45.tripod.com/Jets45/Histories/Lockheed-L133/L133.htm

I always liked to talk about firsts and the first jet fighter that this country had developed was the Bell P-59, which was also known as the Airacomet. It made its first flight interestingly enough in 1942 and yet was not produced. It seems that the US Army Air Force was not happy about its performance and cancelled the contract after fewer than half of the planes were built. Only 66 planes were ever built and they were divided between the United States Army Air Force, The United States Navy and the Royal Air Force. When this plane was tested it was fitted with a dummy propeller to disguise the fact that the US was testing a jet plane.

Bell P-59 Airocomet
Photo Source: Public Domain

the Bell YFM-1 Aircuda was a very strange plane. It looked like it had three parallel cockpits. It just happens that this was the first military aircraft produced by the Bell Aircraft Corporation and I guess that they wanted something a little different from the others. The first flight of this interceptor bomber destroyer was in 1939. By the time 1942 came around, the plane had been retired. The plane was touted as a mobile anti-aircraft platform. It was supposed to be able to intercept enemy bombers at a distance that was far beyond that of ordinary single seat fighter planes. Up to the time of its design, no other plane had ever looked like it. Only 13 were ever built. There was a forward compartment in each of the two engine nacelles. Each was to contain a person to load the cannon that was in the front of each of the nacelles. A fire control officer actually controlled the firing of the weapons. Unfortunately the plane had many problems. The plane was very heavy for its size and because of this was slower than most of the bombers it would attack. The plane was not very maneuverable, it could only carry 600 pounds of bombs and the cannons filled the front nacelles with smoke when fired. If an emergency bailout was needed, both propellers would have to be stopped first. The engines were underpowered for this plane. Many other problems also existed.

Bell YFM-1 Aircuda
Graphic Source: US Air Force

The XP-56 Black Bullet was a strange looking plane. It was a fighter interceptor and was built by Northrop. It reminded one of half a plane. It was extremely stubby looking and had a rudder under the body, like a boat. Its first flight was in 1943. The plane was produced without a tail, using an experimental engine and unusual metal for a plane. It had pusher propellers rotating in opposite directions. Pratt and Whitney had discontinued the engine before it could be put into the plane in 1940 and a different engine was substituted. One problem was the newer engine, which put out 200 more horsepower, was larger and had to be fitted into the fuselage and this delayed the program by 5 months. The plane was abandoned and deemed too hazardous to fly.

Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet
Photo Source: US Air Force

It turns out that over the years airplane designers tried almost every combination of designs imaginable. The P-51 Mustang was fitted with ram jet engines on the wing tips to fight the German jet fighters. Some old conventional prop planes were given swept back wings, much the same as those on some of our advanced jets. Some planes, such as bombers, even had a configuration very much like a stealth bomber. Canards were used for better maneuverability and even one engine on a two engine plane could be slowed down to allow the plane to make tighter turns. Many of the design features we see on planes today are based on some of these older design trials. They have been perfected over many years.