Lockheed L-133 A & B

[XP67_Moonbat]

Referring back to the article, it does state that the L-133's wing was reused for the P-80. Guess between that and Wikipedia's statement about the P-38 wing, it threw me off.

Do check out that article though. It does have some nice CG artwork of the L-133 with and without nose intakes, plus the "Finnagler" variants (the name's explained in the article).

[J_Matthews129]

I haven't picked-up that magazine yet, but it's on my to-do list for the day.  Looking forward to reading the article. 

I've only seen one other set of drawings, other than the ones from Lockheed.  The artist had moved the guns from inside the intake to the upper and lower fuselage in the nose.  I'm thinking another part that may have been redesigned might have been the cockpit windscreen  (changed from the original one-piece "wrap around" to something more like other fighters with flat, bullet-resistant glazing in front). 

What would be the shape of egress tech around this time?  Can't imagine the pilot just jumping out of this.

Would this have proceeded further had Lockheed not been pushing the aircraft design and the L-1000 engine?  Designing and developing the aircraft and the engine was probably a bit too ambitious, even for a successful airframer like Lockheed.

[XP67_Moonbat]

It was somewhat of a tall order for that time.

[lark]

It's interesting to read in the article -which is one of the best I ever read about- that the
nose shape was still not definitive ,when the Lockheed concept was offered...

[XP67_Moonbat]

Yeah, it would have been interesting to see how the final nose configuration would have played out.

[circle-5]

Lockheed L-133 factory model

[Skyblazer]

Amazing. Thanks circle-5.

Can't help thinking that if such radical designs had made it to production then, the shape of current combat aircraft and even airliners might be radically different today...

[circle-5]

If I may suggest (with all due respect and without any intention of offending anybody) the Lockheed L-133 should perhaps be moved to the "Early Aircraft Projects" section. It was designed by Kelly Johnson and his colleagues between 1939 and 1942 and the whole project was rejected by the Air Corps and abandoned long before the end of WWII.

[fightingirish]

Lockheed's First Jet Design
The L-133 was Lockheed's initial design study for a jet propelled fighter. Design objectives included 600 mph top speed, 40,000-foot altitude, four 20mm canon, three hours endurance, no takeoff assistance, and one-pilot crew. Lockheed also designed the engine, designated L-1000. The final design evolved as the L-133-02 (shown here). It had a design takeoff gross weight of 18,000 pounds. In evolving the design, Lockheed built a similar, 3/4-scale, propeller-driven configuration. The design effort began in January 1942.

Picture: http://www.codeonemagazine.com/images/media/2013_L_133_web_1267828237_5688.jpg

[sienar]

From code one


Interesting bit of text with the first pic;


"The L-133 was Lockheed's initial design study for a jet propelled fighter. Design objectives included 600 mph top speed, 40,000-foot altitude, four 20mm canon, three hours endurance, no takeoff assistance, and one-pilot crew. Lockheed also designed the engine, designated L-1000. The final design had a takeoff gross weight of 18,000 pounds. In evolving the design, Lockheed built a similar, 3/4-scale, propeller-driven configuration (shown lower right). The design effort began in January 1942."


Does anyone know more about the demonstrator? Do any photos exist?

[KJ_Lesnick]

Sienar


I've never seen this model for the L-133, though admittedly it looks simpler than the other versions.  It still looks very advanced and honestly reminds me of the Cutlass (twin tails)

[Skyblazer]

From code one
Interesting bit of text with the first pic;
"The L-133 was Lockheed's initial design study for a jet propelled fighter. (...) In evolving the design, Lockheed built a similar, 3/4-scale, propeller-driven configuration (shown lower right). The design effort began in January 1942."
Does anyone know more about the demonstrator? Do any photos exist?

I was just as amazed by this piece of information as you are. Frankly, I'd never even heard of this before...
One can imagine that the work was done in high secrecy and that perhaps all information pertaining to that program has been lost.
Otherwise I cannot see why Lockheed wouldn't willingly share a pic or two of that demonstrator 70 years down the line...

[Apteryx]

A clue to the missing link here is provided in AAHS Journal Vol 44 no. 1, in "The Lockheeds that Never Were" by Bill Slayton. Two Lockheed drawings, labeled L-133-02 and L-133-5, are reproduced. Slayton writes re L-133: "To test the general configuration, a similar but smaller propeller-driven aircraft was built and successfully flown in late 1942." As you see, the "L-133-5" bears a certain resemblance to the Curtiss CW-24B. I'm thinking Lockheed bought data from Curtiss rather than build their own testbed.


--Ian

[hesham]

Great find Apteryx.

[Steve Pace]

The L-133-5 design is reminiscent to the Curtiss CW-29B flying mockup of the CW-29 or XP-55 Ascender. -SP