US Century Series Aircraft - What Could Have Been

[SvenSvensonov]

F-109

The F-109 designation was initially assigned to what was to become the McDonnell F-101B. After the two-place version of the "Voodoo" was redesignated, there were published reports throughout the 1950s that the F-109 designation had been assigned to a vertical-takeoff aircraft designed by the Ryan Aeronautical Company. However, this aircraft was actually designated X-13 (a designation in the X-for-experimental series). The X-13 was strictly experimental and was never intended as an operational fighter aircraft, and it never actually bore the F-109 designation.

In February 1958, the Bell Aircraft Corporation requested that the USAF assign the designation XF-109 to the D-188A project. The Air Force had no interest in the proposal and turned down the request. Consequently, the D-188A never, in fact, received a USAF designation, although the USAF serial numbers 59-2109 and 60-2715 have been associated with this project.

The Bell Aircraft Corporation Model D-188A project, sponsored by both the USAF and US Navy, called for a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) interceptor capable of speed in excess of Mach 2. This was a late 1950s private venture proposal by Bell. This Mach 2+ V/STOL fighter called for a high-winged aircraft.

Although the aircraft never got beyond the mock-up stage, it had some unusual design features. The aircraft was to have eight General Electric J85-GE-5 turbojet engines; a pair of engines was mounted on each wingtip in a rotating nacelle, the other four engines were mounted in the fuselage, two horizontal in the aft section and two vertically in the forward fuselage to provide downward thrust for hover and low speed flight. The twor J85 engines mounted vertically in the fuselage behind the pilot's cockpit were shut down for ordinary horizontal flight. The wingtip nacelles were designed to rotate through a 100 degree arc; horizontal to 10 degrees past vertical, allowing the aircraft to fly a backwards hover. The pods were rotated into a vertical position for vertical takeoff and landing, then were rotated horizontally for level flight.


Specifications

• Crew: 1
• Length: 62 ft (18.90 m)
• Wingspan: 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m)
• Height: 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
• Wing area: 194 ft² (18.02 m²)
• Empty weight: 13,800 lb (6,260 kg)
• Loaded weight: 23,917 lb (10,849 kg)
• Powerplant: 8 × General Electric J85-GE-5 turbojets, 2,600 lbf (11.6 kN) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 2.3
• Range: 2,000 nmi (2,300 mi, 3,900 km)
• Combat radius: 1,350 mi ()
• Service ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,000 m)
• Thrust/weight: 0.87

Armament

• Guns: 4× 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon
• Rockets: 108 × 2.75 in (70 mm) rockets
• Bombs: 4,000 lb (1,800 kg)

F-108

It was going to be the biggest, fastest and most heavily armed fighter in the air. The North American F-108 Rapier, designed in response to a U.S. Air Force preliminary study of Oct. 11, 1955, was going to be the heaviest fighter of its era, weighing even more than the Soviet Union’s huge Tupolev Tu-128 “Fiddler.” It was also going to be quite numerous: the Air Defense Command (ADC) wanted 480 of them.

It was not to be. Instead of becoming the most spectacular warplane of the 1950s, the F-108 Rapier became a “might have been,” an aircraft that was never built, never flown, never tested.

“Nothing was wrong with the design,” said Richard Schmidt, an engineer who worked on the project. “It was simply the wrong time.”

The F-108 was in part a direct reaction to the appearance of the Soviet Union’s Myasishchev Mya-4 “Bison” bomber at the May 1955 Tushino air show in Moscow. The U.S. air attache telephoned Washington to report that the Soviets had enormous numbers of the new bomber. In fact, the Soviet were simply flying the same three airplanes around in circles and having them appear repeatedly over the audience. To counter this threat, ADC would need an interceptor that could travel far from U.S. cities and engage attacking bombers in the distant north.

By January 1959, North American had completed a full-scale mock-up of the F-108, which would have been capable of intercepting a bomber 1,000 miles from its target. The finished aircraft would be ready for a first flight in March 1961 and would join ADC squadrons in July 1963. The F-108 was to supplant the shorter-legged F-106 Delta Dart by operating autonomously far beyond the limits of the existing SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) air intercept system. The F-108 would carry three big GAR-9 Falcon missiles, later called AIM-47s, on a rotary launcher in an internal weapons bay. The GAR-9 missile was to be powered by a Lockheed storable liquid-propellant rocket motor capable of driving the missile to hypersonic speeds of up to Mach 6 and out to a range of 115 miles. The Rapier (the popular name assigned officially on March 15, 1959) was to employ a large and complex air-to-air AN/ASG-18 radar system developed by Hughes.

The F-108 design featured a large “cranked” delta wing (the wing size and shape was redesigned several times) and two afterburning General Electric J93-GE-3AR turbojets engines, the same powerplants that would later appear on North American’s XB-70 Valkyrie bomber. The big interceptor was designed with a pilot and radar operator seated in tandem in individual ejection capsules, and was intended to have a maximum speed of Mach 3 at altitude (1980 miles per hour at 75,550 feet).

But the price tag of the F-108 kept going up.

More importantly, U.S. officials soon learned that the Soviets were giving top priority to intercontinental ballistic missiles – bypassing the bomber as a strategic nuclear weapon. Very belatedly, U.S. experts learned that only 34 “Bisons” were built and that they lacked true intercontinental reach; other Soviet bombers were produced in small numbers only.

Mostly because of cost and perhaps only serendipitously because the Soviets didn’t have a large bomber force, the Pentagon abruptly canceled the F-108 Rapier project on Sept. 23, 1959.

The Rapier was the last fighter design from North American, the maker of the P-51 Mustang, F-86 Sabre and other legendary air-to-air warplanes.

The work on the Rapier was not wasted. The work Hughes did on the radar was later transferred over to the Lockheed F-12 interceptor, a derivative of the SR-71 Blackbird, and when the F-12 was cancelled, the radar evolved into the AWG-9 later carried by the Grumman F-14 Tomcat. Likewise, if the F-12 had become operational, it would have used the version of the Falcon missile intended for the “might have been” F-108 Rapier, which also become the base from which the AIM-54 Phoenix was developed. The Phoenix became the Tomcat’s principle armament, and so the U.S. Navy became the principal beneficiary of the Air Force’s investment.

Specifications

Manufacturer: North American
Span: 57.4 ft.
Length: 89.2 ft. (not including nose boom)
Height: 22.1 ft.
Tread: 11 ft.
Weight: 102,000 lbs. maximum design gross weight
Armament:

• Four 20mm cannons,

• 108 2.75 in. rockets and

• up to 4,000 lbs. of bombs

Engines: Two General Electric J93-GE-3 turbojets of 30,000 lbs. thrust each with afterburner.
Crew: Two
Maximum speed: approximately Mach 3
Range: 1,150 miles


The F-108 was to be the escort to the XB-70

With research and development studies beginning in 1955, the XB-70 was a large, long-range strategic bomber was planned to be the replacement for the B-52. As in the B-58 program, the Air Force wanted new technology advances. To this end, the Air Force gave the prime contractor total weapon system responsibility. Competition between Boeing and North American for the contract occurred during the design phase. In 1958, the North American design was chosen and a development contract awarded. The Air Force requirement was for a Mach 3, high-altitude, long-range bomber capable of carrying nuclear and conventional weapons.

Although there was a technology breakthrough in 1957 that made Mach 3 possible, the XB-70 never went into production. The continuing emergence of new SAMs was the key factor in the demise of the XB-70, just as it affected the B-47 and B-58.

The XB-70 had a length of 196 feet, a height at the tail of 31 feet, and an estimated maximum gross weight of 521,000 pounds. It had a crew of four: pilot, copilot, bombardier, and defensive systems operator. The delta wing had a span of 105 feet with six turbojet engines side by side in a large pod underneath the fuselage. The wing was swept at about 65 1/2o, and the wing tips were folded down hydraulically 25oto 65o to improve stability at the aircraft's supersonic speeds of up to Mach 3. At this speed the Valkyrie was designed to ride its own shock wave. A large canard foreplane near the front of the fuselage with a span of 28 feet, 10 inches was used for stability. In addition to its sharply swept delta wings, the XB-70s had two large vertical tails.

The aircraft was fabricated using titanium and brazed stainless steel honeycomb materials to withstand the heating during the sustained high Mach number portions of the flights. The propulsion system consisted of six General Electric turbojet engines (J93-GE 3) with two large rectangular inlet ducts providing two-dimensional airflow.

The entire mission (including return) was to be flown at Mach 3, but even then the aircraft was vulnerable to SAMs of the 1960's vintage. A high altitude, Mach 3 penetrator cannot maneuver well; its straight and level trajectory would have been an easy course to plot and intercept. Further, the technology that made Mach 3 possible yielded an airframe with a large RCS that added to the effectiveness of SAMs against the XB-70. The airframe was not adaptable to low level penetration to avoid SAMs because the delta wings were very thin and did not lend themselves to the structural modifications necessary for sustained, low level flight.

The XB-70 design had payload flexibility but not mission flexibility. In 1959, the XB-70 concept was changed to a recon/strike RS-70, making it a reconnaissance aircraft with a bomber strike capability. However, its reconnaissance capability would not have been as good as the super high altitude aircraft designed to fill the reconnaissance role. The XB-70 was an aircraft which fulfilled the criteria it was designed to meet, but whose mission had been eliminated by defensive threat technology.

The high drag of the Mach 3 airframe required a fuel load comparable to the B-52 but limited the range to about 5,000 nm. It was capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons internally, but due to its design and Mach 3 mission profile, it could not carry external ordnance.

In 1961, President Kennedy announced that the XB-70 program was to be reduced to research only, citing high cost (over $700 million per prototype) and vulnerability. The Kennedy administration felt ICBMs were more cost effective because they were less vulnerable and were cheaper operationally. Although two XB-70 prototypes were built, with the first flight in 1964, the program terminated in 1969. The XB-70 had speed, range, and adequate payload, but it was expensive, not suited to low level penetration, and thus did not compete with ICBMs for strategic funds.

During the early 1960s, the NASA Flight Research Center was involved in support of the national Supersonic Transport Program (SST). Two prototype Mach 3+ high altitude bombers, built by North American Aviation for the Air Force, became available for SST research with the cancellation of their intended military program. Aircraft No. 2 (serial # 62-0207) with its improved wing design, was capable of sustained Mach 3 flight at altitudes around 70,000 ft. This highly instrumented vehicle was destroyed in a mid-air collision with NASA F-104N (N813NA) on 8 June 1966. An attempt to substitute the slower No. 1 aircraft (serial # 62-0001) into the research program met with limited success. Ship #1 was flown by the NASA Flight Research Center (now NASA Dryden), Edwards, Calif. from March 1967 through early 1969. The XB-70A program produced a significant quantity of information about supersonic flight up to Mach 3 speeds. In many areas, such as noise (including sonic boom runs), clear air turbulence, flight controls, aerodynamics and propulsion system performance and operation problems, it related to SSTs.

Specifications

Span: 105 ft.
Length: 185 ft. 10 in. without boom; 192 ft. 2 in. with boom
Height: 30 ft. 9 in.
Weight: 534,700 lbs. loaded
Engines: Six General Electric YJ-93s of 30,000 lbs. thrust each with afterburner.
Maximum speed: 2,056 mph. (Mach 3.1) at 73,000 ft.
Cruising speed: 2,000 mph. (Mach 3.0) at 72,000 ft.
Range: 4,288 miles
Service Ceiling: 77,350 ft.


F-107

On Sept. 10, 1956, test pilot Bob Baker took off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to complete the maiden flight of the knife-like YF-107A. Baker reached Mach 1.03. The flight met all its goals and officials from planemaker North American whooped it up. They were certain their new fighter would soon roll out of factory doors in great numbers for the U.S. Air Force. As if to signal a bright future, officials soon dropped the “Y” prefix, which meant “service test.”

But the F-107 became a “might-have-been,” a solid performer that didn’t quite make the grade – described by one observer as “the best Air Force fighter never to go into production.” On the web site Suite 101, author Ivan Castro wrote that the Air Force’s “rejection of the F-107 … is considered one of the greatest military blunders of all time.”

The F-107 was conceived as a nuclear-capable, fighter-bomber version of the F-100 Super Sabre, with a recessed weapons bay under the fuselage. One requirement was to carry the 1,680-pound Mark 7 tactical nuclear gravity bomb as well as smaller nuclear bombs that were expected in the near future. When the centerline recess was not used for ordnance, an additional fuel tank could be carried.

The Air Force gave the go-ahead for 33 aircraft, at the time called F-100B models, on June 11, 1954. The designation was changed to F-107A on July 8, 1954, mostly to reflect changes from the Super Sabre design, including a longer fuselage, an all-moving vertical fin, an automated flight control system, and a system (a variable area inlet duct) that automatically controlled the amount of air fed to its 24,504-pound thrust Pratt & Whitney YJ75-P-9 turbojet engine.

The second and third F-107s made their initial flights on Nov. 28 and Dec. 10, 1956. The third plane introduced the fully automatic variable area inlet duct, the one feature of the F-107 that retained “bugs” throughout tests. Pilots reported an annoying “buzz” in the variable-geometry duct at high altitude.

In flight trials, the F-107 performed well. It achieved Mach 2.0 on Nov. 3, 1956. Pilots praised the aircraft and, contrary to its appearance, were not worried about being swallowed up by its engine: Because of the unusual location of the air intake, it was necessary for the canopy to open straight up rather than in clamshell fashion. But the F-107 was not “ejection unfriendly.” In an emergency, the pilot could eject right through the canopy without having to jettison it first.

Rather than ailerons, the aircraft used spoilers, which enabled it to roll with ease at supersonic speeds.

The F-107 was armed with four, single-barrel Pontiac M39E 20 mm. cannons (not installed on the No. 1 aircraft) and had six under-wing ordnance points in addition to its fuselage center station. This recessed weapons point was semi-conformal, meaning it was partly external, and it became what the Air Force considered the most important difference between the F-107 and its competitor, the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, which had a fully internal weapons bay.

In aviation literature today, the F-107 is often called the Ultra Sabre. Observers who recall the aircraft during the 1950s don’t remember this name ever being coined or used. North American flirted with the idea of calling the F-107 the Super Super Sabre, but this did not catch on.

While the sleek F-107 turned heads and thrilled aviation enthusiasts, the less glamorous and more trouble-prone F-105 Thunderchief was being developed by Republic. The planemaker needed the business. Its F-84 series of fighters was at the end of its production run. Many observers believed the Air Force would purchase the F-107 but would arrange for hungry Republic, rather than busy North American, to manufacture the latter company’s aircraft. Besides, North American was expected to win a handsome contract with a separate project, its XF-108 Rapier long-range interceptor.

Henry Crescibene, a Republic test pilot who performed early work on the F-105, remembers being told to prepare for the F-107.
“Our perception was that the Air Force liked North American and liked North American’s design better than ours,” Crescibene said in a telephone interview.

In March 1957, in an announcement that astonished many, the Air Force chose the F-105 in preference to the F-107. Although prototypes had been flying since Oct. 22, 1955, the first two F-105 variants had lacked the intended J75 engine and both made crash landings in March 1956, with their pilots unhurt but the aircraft mortally damaged. Although a J75-equipped version flew on May 26, 1956, the Thunderchief had a wide range of teething troubles. A direct fly-off competition with the F-107 had to be cancelled because the F-105 was not ready.

Once it became clear the F-107 would not be produced, the first and third airframes were transferred on Dec. 1, 1957, to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). With the Soviet Union’s first satellite already placed into orbit, the space age was arriving and NACA became NASA seven months layer.

Test pilot Scott Crossfield severely damaged the No. 3 F-107 in a crash landing and it was later scrapped.

The Air Force order for 33 planes was reduced to three. The No. 1 aircraft in the series is now an artifact at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz. The No. 2 F-107 is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. As for the F-105, the “Thud” achieved fame in missions over North Vietnam, where its all-important internal weapons bay never carried anything more lethal than a 365-gallon fuel tank.

Specifications

• Crew: one
• Length: 61 ft 10 in (18.85 m)
• Wingspan: 36 ft 7 in (11.15 m)
• Height: 19 ft 8 in (5.89 m)
• Wing area: 376 ft² (35 m²)
• Empty weight: 22,696 lb (10,295 kg)
• Loaded weight: 39,755 lb (18,033 kg)
• Max. takeoff weight: 41,537 lb (18,841 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney YJ75-P-9 turbojet, 24,500 lbf (109 kN)

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 2+
• Range: 2,428 mi (2,109 nmi, 3,885 km)
• Service ceiling: 53,200 ft (16,220 m)
• Rate of climb: 39,900 ft/min (203 m/s)
• Wing loading: 106 lb/ft² (516 kg/m²)
• Thrust/weight: 0.62

Armament

• Bombs: 10,000 lb (4,500 kg)

F-103

he XF-103 was developed as a high-speed high-altitude aircraft specifically designed to intercept incoming enemy bombers. The XF-103 was proposed in the same contract competition that resulted in the Convair F-102 -- Project MX-1554 Interceptor Fighter Airplane. The Republic design, Model AP-57, underwent a design performance evaluation conducted by the Air Material Command. The results showed an estimated top speed of 1,438 knots. A limiting Mach number of 3.0 was quoted due to excessive (estimated) turbine inlet air temperature. The Republic AP-57 design was ranked eighth out of nine entries for design. The only aircraft scoring lower (as a design) was the Consolidated-Vultee (i.e. initial F-102 design) entry.

The USAF canceled the XF-103 development contract on Aug. 21, 1957, when the aircraft was in the mock-up phase.

The Republic Model AP-57 has a Delta wing swept-back 55 degrees at the leading edge and incorporates a variable incidence feature. The horizontal tail is of the Delta configuration with a sweep-back angle of 60 degrees at the leading edge. The alighting gear is of the tricycle type and retracts into the fuselage. The turbo-jet is a Wright Aeronautical Corporation XJ-67-W-1 power plant with afterburner. A Ferri type two-dimensional engine air inlet is used. The thrust of the turbo-jet engine is limited at high Mach numbers by the allowable turbine inlet temperature. The air bypasses the engine compressor and turbine, and using the afterburner as a ram-jet combustion chamber, the available thrust is greatly increased above a Mach number of 2.0.

Six (6) MX-904 missiles and 36 2.75 in. FFA rockets internally stowed are proposed. The missile launching system is complex with six (6) individual tracks and actuating cylinders. Accessibility of all launchers for loading is adequate. Rockets and especially missiles are poorly located in the immediate area of the engine air scoop.

Most of the Electronic and Control system is located in a compartment adjacent to the radar equipment. Accessibility of the radar for checking in the airplane is not too good. A ladder is required for access to all components, unless the entire nose package is removed. This limits the use of test equipment and makes minor adjustments difficult. The entire collection of rack-mounted components may be removed in a detachable nose section along with the radar antenna and associated equipment for complete replacement or for major service.

Fuel is contained in five pressurized fuel cells. No self-sealing or armor is proposed for the fuel system.

The electrical system includes a 24-28 volt DC system and a three phase 4 wire 208 volt 400 cycle AC system. The electrical power source proposed will require the development of an alternator, constant speed drive and an air turbine.

Specifications

Span 35 ft. 10 in.
Length 81 ft. 11 in.
Height 18 ft. 4 in.
Weight In excess of 40,000 lbs.
Armament

• 36 unguided 2.75 inch "Mighty Mouse" FFAR rockets and

• six MX-904 "Falcon" guided missiles

Engine

• One Wright XJ67-W-1 rated at 15,000 lbs. thrust and

• one XRJ55-W-1 ramjet (afterburner section of the XJ67) of 18,800 lbs. thrust when operated at altitudes above 50,000 ft.

Crew One
Maximum speed Mach 3+
Combat speed Mach 2.2 at 75,000 ft.
Combat radius Approximately 450 miles
Service Ceiling Approximately 80,000 ft.

@AUSTERLITZ @Nihonjin1051 @Gufi @Slav Defence @WebMaster

 

[Gufi]

The thing I do not get is how America could churn out engines reaching mach 3 in the 1950s and so many nations are still unable to even now.. But wow some of these planes were awesome machines for their times...

 

[razgriz19]

The thing I do not get is how America could churn out engines reaching mach 3 in the 1950s and so many nations are still unable to even now.. But wow some of these planes were awesome machines for their times...

German scientists were mostly dealing with projects, plus these engines weren't exactly what you'd call reliable or efficient.
even Canada had Avro Arrow - 10 year ahead of anything US had in its arsenal.

 

[IrbiS]

I adore planes. But Valkyrie is the only one, I was almost terrified for the first few times when watched it. Don't know why

 

[MastanKhan]

The thing I do not get is how America could churn out engines reaching mach 3 in the 1950s and so many nations are still unable to even now.. But wow some of these planes were awesome machines for their times...

Sir,

The question need to be asked is how America could churn out engine doing supercruise with the late 50's technology---for the SR 71---the aircraft goes in to supercruise after take off nd all thru the flight it stays in supercruise mode except when it needs to be refueled in the air.

 

[Pangu]

Wow. Very impressive, those desigsn look so avant garde.