Oddball, Experimental, or One-off

[red750]

Thanks Red, that one had escaped me. Here's the story.

 

The Bristol Type 138 High Altitude Monoplane was a British high-altitude single-engine, low-wing monoplane research aircraft developed and produced by the Bristol Aeroplane Company during the 1930s. It set nine world altitude records, with the maximum altitude achieved being 53,937 ft (16,440 m) on 30 June 1937, during a 2¼-hour flight.

 

A second aircraft, designated as the Type 138B, was ordered in 1935 but work was abandoned during 1937 without it having flown.

 

The Type 138 was built during a period of intense competition between aviation manufacturers. Prestige and useful technological progress came from breaking major aviation records, such as airspeed, distance and altitude but by the 1930s, the resources and development work necessary to achieve these records was beyond individual companies, and required government assistance.

 

Bristol found themselves lagging behind other companies from Germany, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Between 1929 and 1934, altitude records established by rival aircraft included those set by a Junkers W.34, a Vickers Vespa and a Caproni Ca.113 biplane, as well as the first flight over Everest by a pair of Westland Wallaces in 1933. All of these aircraft had been powered by Bristol engines. Between 1928 and 1938, the altitude record was broken 10 times, once using a Jupiter engine and five times using Pegasus engines which was seen as a major achievement for Bristol's engines.

 

In November 1933, having observed British Air Ministry interest following the success of the Everest flight, aeronautical engineer Frank Barnwell proposed a purpose-built high-altitude research aircraft. This proposal, designated the Type 138, was a large single-engine, single-seat monoplane, equipped with a retractable undercarriage and a supercharged Pegasus radial engine. Nothing came of this until Italian pilot Renato Donati achieved a new world record during April 1934 prompting public opinion to swing in favour of a government-sponsored record attempt. In June 1934, the Air Ministry issued Specification 2/34, for a pair of prototypes capable of reaching an altitude of 50,000 ft (15,240 m). Bristol was among the companies which were invited to tender proposal.

 

Barnwell revised the Type 138 proposal, producing the Type 138A whose size and configuration remained the same, but the retractable undercarriage was replaced with a fixed design to reduce weight and it would be powered by a two-stage supercharged Pegasus engine and provision for an observer was made. Using the Pegasus was expected to generate publicity and boost sales.

 

Considerable research was carried out by both the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) and National Physical Laboratory to fine tune the design of the aircraft, as well as to develop a reliable pressure suit to be worn by the pilot. Sir Robert Davis of Siebe Gorman and Professor J.S. Haldane were instrumental in developing the helmet. During tests, the pressure suit was tested to the equivalent altitude of 80,000 ft (24,384 m).

 

In early 1936, the airframe was completed and on 11 May 1936 the Type 138A was flown for the first time by Cyril Uwins, Bristol's chief test pilot, who had previously flown the Vickers Vespa on its world record flight. As the engine was not ready, it was powered by a standard Pegasus IV driving a three-bladed propeller for the early flights. Two additional flights were performed at Filton prior to the aircraft being delivered to the RAE at Farnborough where the pressure helmet was tested prior to the aircraft being returned to Filton for the installation of the special Pegasus engine and a four-blade propeller. On 5 September 1936, the Type 138A returned to Farnborough for more test flights.

 

For details of design. operational history, variants and specificatiions, click here.

 

 

 

 

[red750]

The Tairov OKO-1 (Opytno Konstrooktorskoye - experimental design section), was a passenger transport aircraft produced in the Ukrainian SSR in the USSR in 1937.

 

Late in 1935 V.K. Tairov helped form the OKO (experimental design section) in Kiev. In 1937 the OKO-1 was completed as a six-seat passenger transport, with all wood construction, this single engined monoplane demonstrated good performance with state-of-the-art systems. Electrically driven flaps, pneumatic wheel brakes, trimmers on all the tail surfaces, heated cabin, lighting and instruments for night or blind flying, full sound-proofing and full GVF(civil air fleet) equipment were all incorporated. The performance of the aircraft in flight tests was regarded as excellent but, for unknown reasons, production was not undertaken.

 

Status    cancelled (no production commenced). Number built    1

 

 

[onetrack]

It doesn't take much contemplation to see why the design didn't proceed. Not a lot of money to be made from an aircraft that size, that only carries 6 pax.

[red750]

The Fairchild T-46 was an American light jet trainer aircraft of the 1980s. It was cancelled in 1986 with only three aircraft being produced due to cost over-runs and budget cuts.

 

[red750]

The Breda-Zappata B.Z.308 was an Italian four-engined airliner produced by Breda.

 

It was conceived by the engineer Filippo Zappata in 1942, still in time war, with all the problems connected to the priorities of the moment, so much so that the September 8, 1943 only the fuselage of the prototype was built. In the period 1944-45 the work was blocked first by the Germans and, at the end of the conflict, by the Allies, whose Allied Armistice Commission prohibited the continuation of any aeronautical project until the beginning of 1946

 

The B.Z.308 was a four-engined civil transport developed in the late 1940s for operation over both European and transatlantic routes. A large low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, it was powered by four Bristol Centaurus radial engines driving five-bladed propellers. It had a large tailplane with endplate fins and rudders, and had retractable landing gear. The fuselage, oval in cross-section, accommodated a flight crew of five and 55 passengers in two cabins; a high-density model was planned with seats for 80.

 

In early 1946 the work resumed, also slowed down by British resistance to delivering the needed engines, so the aircraft was completed in June 1946 and the first flight took place on August 27, 1948. V.Meleca 

 

Construction began during 1946, under aircraft designer Filippo Zappata at Breda's Sesto San Giovanni works. The Allied Commission halted the work, which was not resumed until January 1947. Further delays in the delivery of Bristol Centaurus engines delayed the first flight, which was on 27 August 1948, piloted by Mario Stoppani. Although flight testing went well, the project was abandoned as a result of financial problems, anticipated competition from American airliners in the postwar market, and pressure (under the Marshall Plan) to close down Breda's aeronautical section. Breda subsequently stopped producing aircraft entirely. Only the one was produced.

 

Maximum speed: 573 km/h (356 mph, 309 kn)
Cruise speed: 441 km/h (274 mph, 238 kn) at 4,300 m (14,100 ft)
Stall speed: 135 km/h (84 mph, 73 kn)
Range: 7,700 km (4,800 mi, 4,200 nmi)
Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,000 ft)

 

[red750]

This one never made it off the drawing board. No prototype built.

 

The Nakajima G10N Fugaku (Japanese: 富岳 or 富嶽, "Mount Fuji") was a planned Japanese ultra-long-range heavy bomber designed during World War II. It was conceived as a method for mounting aerial attacks from Japan against industrial targets along the west coast (e.g., San Francisco) and in the Midwest (e.g., Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Wichita) and the northeast (e.g., New York City and Norfolk) of the United States. Japan's worsening war situation resulted in the project's cancellation in 1944.

 

The Fugaku had its origins in "Project Z (bomber project)", a 1942 Imperial Japanese Army specification for an intercontinental bomber which could take off from the Kuril Islands, bomb the contiguous United States, then continue onward to land in German-occupied France. Once there, it would be refueled and rearmed and make another return sortie.

 

Project Z called for three variations on the airframe: heavy bomber, transport (capable of carrying 300 troops), and a gunship armed with forty downward-firing machine guns in the fuselage for intense ground attacks at the rate of 640 rounds per second (i.e. 38,400 rounds per minute).

 

The project was conceived by Nakajima Aircraft Company head Chikuhei Nakajima. The design had straight wings and contra-rotating four-blade propellers. To save weight, some of the landing gear was to be jettisoned after takeoff (being unnecessary on landing with emptied bomb load), as had been planned on some of the more developed German Amerika Bomber competing designs. It used six engines,[1] as with the later Amerikabomber design competitors, to compensate for nearly all German aircraft engines being limited to 1,500 kW (2,000 hp) maximum output levels apiece.

 

Development was initiated in January 1943 and a design and manufacturing facility built in Mitaka, Tokyo. Nakajima's 4-row 36-cylinder 5,000 hp Ha-54 (Ha-505) engine was abandoned as too complex.

 

Flightsim image.

 

 

 

[johnm]

Nakajima G10N Fugaku - gunship (post above) Project Z called for three variations on the airframe: heavy bomber, transport (capable of carrying 300 troops), and a gunship armed with forty downward-firing machine guns in the fuselage for intense ground attacks at the rate of 640 rounds per second (i.e. 38,400 rounds per minute).

 

interesting concept - 40 downward firing guns

 

A .303 shell weighs 14 grams ? - In one minute:

       - 38400 x 14 = 537,600 grams

           = 1/2 a tonne

 

 

 

[Marty_d]

4 minutes ago, johnm said:

Nakajima G10N Fugaku - gunship (post above) Project Z called for three variations on the airframe: heavy bomber, transport (capable of carrying 300 troops), and a gunship armed with forty downward-firing machine guns in the fuselage for intense ground attacks at the rate of 640 rounds per second (i.e. 38,400 rounds per minute).

 

interesting concept - 40 downward firing guns

 

A .303 shell weighs 14 grams ? - In one minute:

       - 38400 x 14 = 537,600 grams

           = 1/2 a tonne

 

 

 

According to Wiki, .303 ball rounds (ie projectile only) weigh 11.3g and tracer 8.4g.
Not sure how much the shell casing and propellant would weigh but it'd have to be more than the bullet.   If you assume they're ejecting the casings out of the aircraft as well you could probably more than double that estimate.

(Having said that, a minute is a long time, and bombers lose much more weight than that quite quickly... a Lancaster carried up to 6.3 tonnes of bombs).

[johnm]

On 30/08/2024 at 7:20 PM, onetrack said:

It doesn't take much contemplation to see why the design didn't proceed. Not a lot of money to be made from an aircraft that size, that only carries 6 pax.

 

The Tairov OKO-1 (Opytno Konstrooktorskoye

................ it could have been a futuristic concept (sponsered by the great-grandparents of Messers MacDonald, Jack, Dinno and Hutt) - on the off-chance that the 1935 60 kilo person might evolve into  ..................

[red750]

English translation from Russian website airwar.ru:

In 1929 Chicago-Midwest Aircraft Co. released a light transport aircraft for 10 passengers, designated X-101. He was a highly mixed design, equipped with two Wright R-1750 Cyclone engines with a capacity of 525 hp, set tandemno. The wing for the plane was purchased from the company Fokker American.

 

Single copy (registration number X3094) successfully flew 80 hours, after which he crashed. At recovery he had changed engine position. To this time company changed its name to Dayton Aircraft Corp., and the plane received a new name - Dayton Overmount x. Noteworthy was the length of her run, which was only 68 meters.

 

 

Chicago-Midwest Aircraft Co. X-101

 

 

Dayton Overmount x

[red750]

The Waco Model W Aristocraft was an American four-seat monoplane, the last aircraft designed and built by the Waco Aircraft Company. It had an unusual configuration with an engine mounted at the front driving a pusher propeller at the rear.

 

The Aristocraft was an attempt by Waco to enter the post-war market for light aircraft. The prototype first flew in March 1947 powered by a 215 hp (160 kW) Franklin 6AL piston engine mounted at the front with a shaft driven pusher propeller at the rear.

Of all-metal construction it was a high-wing monoplane with twin fins and rudders, It had a partially retractable tricycle landing gear.

 

The company had orders for 300 aircraft but decided that the type would need costly development in a shrinking market and only the prototype was completed. Waco sold the design rights and in the 1960s efforts were made to market the type for home-construction.

 

The sole prototype was eventually purchased in the early 1960s and restored to flight.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Why??

[onetrack]

I hate to think about the level of unnecessary weight in the drivetrain to that prop.

[Red]

If they had only kept the prop on the front an redone the empanage it might have been a winner

[facthunter]

It's a safe and easy plane to get in and out of . Nev

[facthunter]

You'd be flat out keeping the engine cool on a long taxi.  Nev

[red750]

The Piper PA-35 Pocono was an American 16/18 seat commuter airliner developed by Piper in the late 1960s. Only one aircraft was built and the design was not developed.

 

Piper started the design work in 1965 for a twin-engined piston non-pressurized commuter airliner and the prototype first flew on 13 May 1968. It was a low-wing monoplane that was intended to be powered by two 475 hp (354 kW) Lycoming TIO-720-B1A piston engines then under development. It was planned that the aircraft would be built at the new factory at Lakeland Municipal Airport in Florida. Due to problems during development the tail area was increased, the fuselage stretched and the engines uprated to 520 hp (388 kW) variants.

 

Development was stopped in 1969 initially to let the company develop other aircraft, but the halt was also influenced by the lack of a suitable engine and a number of third-level airline operators in the United States going out of business. In 1970 the company proposed a four-engined and a turboprop version, but they were not developed.

 

In about 1978 a cooperation program between Piper and WSK Mielec (Poland) was planned. As part of this one fuselage with wings was transported from Florida to Poland and a team of designers was assembled at the R&D Center in Mielec. The program was named M-19, with designer Tadeusz Widełka as the team leader. The program was abandoned when the An-28 program was launched in Mielec and the PA-35 fuselage was moved to the Technical University in Rzeszów. Later, probably in 1994, the aircraft was moved to the city of Widełka.

 

 

 

[Red]

On 24/09/2024 at 1:23 AM, facthunter said:

You'd be flat out keeping the engine cool on a long taxi.  Nev

I would have thought cooling was an issue but apparently  it had the same fan cooled Franklin engine as the Republic seabee and was actually better cooled during taxi and ground runs than its conventional counterparts in tractor installations

[red750]

The Beardmore Inflexible, also known as the Rohrbach Ro VI, was a three-engined all-metal prototype transport aircraft built by William Beardmore and Company at Dalmuir, Scotland.

 

William Beardmore and Company had acquired a licence for the use of the Rohrbach principle for stressed-skin construction. Using these principles and drawings supplied by Rohrbach for the RoVI, the Beardmore company built a massive all-metal three-engined transport, the Beardmore Inflexible.

 

The aircraft was built in sections at Dalmuir between 1925 and 1927 which were shipped by sea to Felixstowe and from there delivered by road to the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Martlesham Heath Airfield where it first flew on 5 March 1928. It appeared at the Hendon RAF Display later in the year. The aircraft was structurally advanced for its time and had good flying qualities. It was also a very large aircraft for the time, having a wingspan of 157 ft (48 m) - around 16 ft (4.9 m) greater than the Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber of World War II. However, with an all up weight of 37,000 lb (17,000 kg) it was underpowered and, with no interest forthcoming from the RAF for a production contract, the aircraft was dismantled at Martlesham Heath in 1930. It was then examined for the effects of corrosion on light-alloy stressed skin structures.

 

One of the aircraft's wheels survives, and is on exhibit in the Science Museum, London.

 

[red750]

Martin SV-5J

 

After learning about a remark by Chuck Yeager that he would like to have some jet-powered lifting bodies for training purposes, Martin designed and built, on their own initiative, two examples of the SV-5J.

 

The SV-5J was a jet-powered version of the rocket-powered X-24A. The SV-5J had identical dimensions to the X-24A, but was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney J60-PW-1 jet engine of 1360 kgf, in place of the X-24A's Reaction Motors XLR-11-RM-13 rocket engine. Martin also manufactured a full-scale, unflyable, mock-up of the SV-5J. (Confusion over number built may be due to the mock-up being included in the production list.)

 

Martin were unable to convince Milt Thompson to fly the SV-5J, even after offering a $20,000 bonus. Both examples remained unflown.

 

As the original X-24A was converted to X-24B, one of the SV-5Js eventually was converted to represent the X-24A, for display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, beside the original X-24B.

 

[red750]

The Martin Marietta X-24 is an American experimental aircraft developed from a joint United States Air Force-NASA program named PILOT (1963–1975). It was designed and built to test lifting body concepts, experimenting with the concept of unpowered reentry and landing, later used by the Space Shuttle. Originally built as the X-24A, the aircraft was later rebuilt as the X-24B.

 

The X-24 was drop launched from a modified B-52 Stratofortress at high altitudes before igniting its rocket engine; after expending its rocket fuel, the pilot would glide the X-24 to an unpowered landing.

 

The X-24 was one of a group of lifting bodies flown by the NASA Flight Research Center (now Armstrong Flight Research Center) in a joint program with the U.S. Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California from 1963 to 1975. The lifting bodies were used to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land wingless vehicles designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an airplane at a predetermined site.

 

Lifting bodies’ aerodynamic lift, essential to flight in the atmosphere, was obtained from their shape. The addition of fins and control surfaces allowed the pilots to stabilize and control the vehicles and regulate their flight paths.

 

The X-24 (Model SV-5P) was built by Martin Marietta and flown from Edwards AFB, California. The X-24A was the fourth lifting body design to fly; it followed the NASA M2-F1 in 1964, the Northrop HL-10 in (1966), the Northrop M2-F2 in 1966 and preceded the Northrop M2-F3 (1970).

 

The X-24A was a fat, short teardrop shape with vertical fins for control. It made its first, unpowered, glide flight on April 17, 1969 with Air Force Maj. Jerauld R. Gentry at the controls. Gentry also piloted its first powered flight on March 19, 1970. The craft was taken to around 45,000 feet (13.7 km) by a modified B-52 and then drop launched, then either glided down or used its rocket engine to ascend to higher altitudes before gliding down. The X-24A was flown 28 times at speeds up to 1,036 mph (1,667 km/h) and altitudes up to 71,400 feet (21.8 km).

 

X-24B
The X-24B's design evolved from a family of potential reentry shapes, each with higher lift-to-drag ratios, proposed by the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory. To reduce the costs of constructing a research vehicle, the Air Force returned the X-24A to the Martin Marietta Corporation (as Martin Aircraft Company became after a merger) for modifications that converted its bulbous shape into one resembling a "flying flatiron"—rounded top, flat bottom, and a double delta planform that ended in a pointed nose.

 

John Manke was the first to fly the X-24B, a glide flight on 1 August 1973. He was also the pilot on the first powered mission 15 November 1973.

 

The X-24A was modified into the more stable X-24B with an entirely different shape in 1972. The bulbous shape of the X-24A was converted into a "flying flatiron" shape with a rounded top, flat bottom, and double delta planform that ended in a pointed nose. It was the basis for the Martin SV-5J. The X-24A shape was later borrowed for the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) technology demonstrator for the International Space Station.

 

X-24C
There were a variety of "X-24C" proposals floated between 1972 and 1978. Perhaps the most notable was a Lockheed Skunk Works design, the L-301, which was to use scramjets to reach a top speed of Mach 8.

 

X-24B

 

 

 

[red750]

Flying Ginny

 

Jess Dixon of Andalusia, Alabama (1886-1963), was a man continuously investigating mechanical or experimental fields, and he tinkered with almost anything mechanical. Even before receiving any formal flight training, he constructed and flew a glider of his own design that was flown successfully from Dixon airport. Tired of being tied up in traffic jams, he then devoted his efforts in 1936 to the development of a unique flying machine, a combination of automobile, helicopter, autogiro, and motorcycle. Dixon spent a lot of his spare time at the local airport with some of the early pilots and worked on gliders as well as his helicopter project. He did make a considerable contribution to the development of the machine and sought a patent on some of the apparatus that controlled the pitch of the blades. He then built a framework to hold a motor and provide a seat for the pilot.

 

The “Flying Ginny,” as Dixon liked to call it, was designed to allow for the transfer of engine power from the rotor blades to the wheels, which enabled its operation on surface roads. For flight and hover, it had two large lifting rotors in a single head, revolving in opposite directions, with cyclic and collective pitch control. Foot pedals actuated a hinged vane on the tail, counting on rotor downwash for yaw control. The undesignated machine could fly forward, backward or straight up, or hover in the air. It could run on road or fly across country. Although Dixon himself called it a "helicopter", it was just as much an automobile, and even required automobile license plates.

 

Powered by a 40 h.p. air-cooled angine, the Dixon helicopter could reach speeds to 100 m.p.h. and was supposedly test-flown in 1940-41. However, only one photograph of the type is known to exist, and although it appears that the machine is actually flying in that picture, no records have survived of the test flights. At times, Dixon would take ropes and tie the machine to the ground and the overhead blades would actually lift the machine. Initially, he had a big tail that was not enough to handle that torque, and that eventually brought about the tail fin motor.

 

[IBob]

The pic certainly looks to be doctored.......while at the same time having been taken from slightly below. Maybe this was one of the tethered hovers mentioned, with the tethers blanked out.
Nice hat, BTW.......)

[Red]

On the subject of lifting bodies, those of us of a certain age will remember the openiing sequence to Six Million Dollar Man that featured the Crash of a either a Northrop HL10 or M2-F2 (It remains an argued point and seems the fottage used is composits of the 2 types)

 

 

HL10 Below

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_HL-10

 

[red750]

4 hours ago, IBob said:

The pic certainly looks to be doctored

That has been suggested before, but the next para in the copied article said:

 

Claims that the photo was actually retouched have since been invalidated, but in the absence of any other piece of evidence, it is hard to know whether Dixon's helicopter was as successful as he hoped. Still, the "Flying Ginny" must have been good enough since it made an impression on the Twin Coach Company of Kent, Ohio, previously known only as builders of motor buses, who hired Dixon and his machine and asked him to improve on it.

 

For more information, 

Dixon helicopter photo was accurate - The Andalusia Star-News | The Andalusia Star-News

WWW.ANDALUSIASTARNEWS.COM

---

In November, I wrote an article for publication in the Star-News. The article was about Jesse Dixon and his helicopter. The article included a photograph of Jesse at the controls of his helicopter and airborne. I...