6 engine, 6000 mile range, 2000 mph cruise.
Posted on 08/15/2008 3:31:20 PM PDT by valkyry1
I have been wanting to get this topic on airplanes going for awhile. I hope some of you find an interest also.
Aircraft like the Republic XF-12 Rainbow. A 4 engine reconnaissance bomber which could fly at over 400 mph at over 40,000' for a range of 4,000 miles, or rather 'flying on all fours'. In testing it went at over 470 mph in level flight.
IMO We were going to win the entire WW2 on our own.
ping
Trivia question;
On a large engine such as the PW Wasp R4360, why would it be desirable to have supercharging and turbo charging?
If, if if..
Sea-level performance at altitude.
//That could be accomplished with one method or the other//
That could be accomplished with one method or the other.
Momentum Recovery at its finest. And it was only tested at 80% 85% its potential I read once.
To my eyes that is still the most beautiful plane we ever built.
I remember the news cast the day #2 fell out of the sky.
More trivia questions. Did the Valkyrie benefit more from compression lift or reduced trim drag when it dropped the wing tips?
I thought John Wayne won WW2 all by himself. It wasn't until I was 25 that I realized that the Germans had that minor distraction on the Eastern Front.
F-108 RAPIER
The North American F-108 was designed as a very high speed (mach 3) interceptor and escort fighter for the B-70 "Valkyrie" bomber under development at the same time. The delta wing Rapier, in its pre-mockup phase, was to have a canard (forward-mounted pitch-control surface), and three vertical stabilizers: one on the fuselage centerline a a pair at the halfway point on the wing trailing edge for high speed stabilization at speeds above mach 2. The aircraft design was changed during the mockup phase. The canard was removed and the upper portions of the wing-mounted vertical stabilizers were removed. The wing was changed from a standard delta to a double-delta; the winglet incorporated a droop and 45 degree sweep (the main wing had about a 65 degree sweep). The F-108 program was canceled on 23 September, 1959 never getting past the mockup phase.
XB-70...
Definitely in the top 10 of my candidates for “Coolest Plane Ever”.
Okay oakay I get you!
I bet if they had made it, they would have went with 2 vert stabs too.
The F-108 RAPIER sure had a lot of wing area on it.
The systems developed for it went to the YF-12 and later aircraft.
The B-36 was the next bomber in the works after the B-29. First flight in 1946. It dwarfed the B-29.
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