Bell "Venus Project"

[Antonio]

Just finishing "The Jet Race and the Second World War" by Sterling Michael Pavelec. I enjoyed the story very much and I've learnt a lot.

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-Race-Second-World-War/dp/1591146666/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277485918&sr=1-1


On page 137 I found a great surprise: Bell "Venus Project"

I've attached the description published in the book to ask members for more info about Army Air Forces specifications R-1800-E, rival designs if existed and Bell Venus drawings

Thanks in advance

Antonio

 

[Stargazer]

Wow. This comes as a complete surprise to me. Seems like we have here a potent new contender for Bell's unknown "Model 31" slot... unless of course the "Venus" was strictly a "D-something". Thanks for sharing!

 

[Johnbr]

Cool Love this site.

 

[Steve Pace]

Wow. This comes as a complete surprise to me. Seems like we have here a potent new contender for Bell's unknown "Model 31" slot... unless of course the "Venus" was strictly a "D-something". Thanks for sharing!

Could it be that Bell Model 31 was in contention with the Curtiss XA-43 which became the Curtiss XF-87?

Steve Pace

 

[Clioman]

Might it be possible to see what the two footnotes (56 and 57) look like?

 

[Antonio]

Might it be possible to see what the two footnotes (56 and 57) look like?

Ups, I didn't noticed that notes in my reading. And that's important:


Chapter 6. Notes. (Pg 209 and 210)

55. Bell Aircraft Museum, "Venus Project" documents, unmarked box, dated March 10, 1945.

56. "Venus Project" p.3.

57. Literally!. I found this proposal in an unmarked box at the Bell Aircraft Museum, Mentone, Indiana;...The proposal was dated March 10, 1945 and an accompanying note stated that "Bell [Georgia Division] was advised unofficially by Wright Field that we had won the competition. Award was refused by Larry Bell at a meeting in Marietta!". The Army...ultimately cancelled tha contract on Setember 13, 1945. Only a wind tunnel test model was constructed.


Mr Sterling Michael Pavelec teaches airpower history at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. If anybody knows him we possibly could learn more about this unknown project.


PD: Please let me recommed again the book "The Jet Race and the Second World War" because I found it exciting and fascinating.

 

[Dynoman]

Here is the Bell Venus Project, courtesy of Bell Aircraft Museum curator, Tim Whetstone.

 

[Stargazer]

Awesome!!! Thank you so much for this!

 

[Orionblamblam]

Here is the Bell Venus Project, courtesy of Bell Aircraft Museum curator, Tim Whetstone.

Neat! Any word on the status of the documentation, especially whether any design drawings & data exist?

 

[Dynoman]

Orionblamblam...I made a request for additional information, but haven't heard anything back yet. I'll post something as soon as I know.

From the basic configuration it reminds me of the XB-48 (minus the swept wings and one piece nacelle).

 

[Steve Pace]

More like the Curtiss XF-87 to me... Except for the sweptback flying surfaces of course.

 

[Antonio]

Many thanks Dynoman!

and also thanks to Mr Whetston at Bell Museum for sharing this treasure.

A truly awesome design representative of the early designs at Bell. Is that me or it looks to be an swept-wing design?. The engine arrangement suggest to me axial turbojets, probably Allison J35. Any idea about powerplant?

I'll wait for that additional info

 

[Dynoman]

Thanks again to Tim Whetstone, he has provided us with some additional photos and documents below:

 

[Stargazer]

Amazing stuff. You've gotta love the Venus! The fact that so much material can remain about such a secret and early program gives me hope that there may be more similar gems still hiding somewhere out there...

One thing bugs me here though: the funds breakdown for Contract W33-038 ac-6636 includes the following: "Plus necessary allotment to complete Project MX-674...". Now the latter was the VB-13 Tarzon, a 12,000 lb. controllable bomb (also designated as YASM-A-1 / YASM-A-1A).

How could funds for such a different program be allocated within the frame of this contract? I would appreciate any clue.

 

[Steve Pace]

I played with the artist concept a bit...

SP

 

[Steve Pace]

Could it be that the Bell Project Venus program was the competition won by the Martin XB-51 "Panther"?

SP

 

[Dynoman]

Bell documents on Venus from Bell Museum.

 

[edwest4]

I think it's quite well documented that monies for different secret projects were hidden in the budgets of other, less secret projects.

 

[quellish]

I think it's quite well documented that monies for different secret projects were hidden in the budgets of other, less secret projects.

Is it?

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

That's new one for me!

 

[theponja]

That's new one for me!

Me too. I love this site, you know

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Russian article on the Venus Project

http://youroker.livejournal.com/74446.html

 

[Scott Kenny]

Picture of the plane showed up on FB, so I searched this forum for more details.

16x forward .50cals (or 8x .60cals) for the ground attack version!

Amazing stuff. You've gotta love the Venus! The fact that so much material can remain about such a secret and early program gives me hope that there may be more similar gems still hiding somewhere out there...

One thing bugs me here though: the funds breakdown for Contract W33-038 ac-6636 includes the following: "Plus necessary allotment to complete Project MX-674...". Now the latter was the VB-13 Tarzon, a 12,000 lb. controllable bomb (also designated as YASM-A-1 / YASM-A-1A).

How could funds for such a different program be allocated within the frame of this contract? I would appreciate any clue.

Bomber variant of the Venus intended to drop the Tarzon. So there's some aircraft interfaces to be designed.

Plus it helps keep the MX-674 from going over budget.

The effort is called "Creative Accounting", where you see what programs are benefited by a given project and by roughly how much, then assign budget monies accordingly.

 

[riggerrob]

….. PD: Please let me recommed again the book "The Jet Race and the Second World War" because I found it exciting and fascinating.

The book must be out of print because Amazon is asking $189.
Indigo is asking $89.
Thrift Books are asking $78.

 

[Jemiba]

Attached is an attempted reconstruction, please note that pages two and three are highly speculative.

 

[Dynoman]

The book must be out of print because Amazon is asking $189.

His dissertation paper of similar title is at the Ohio State University website

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=osu1082396007&disposition=inline

 

[Airborne2001]

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Here is a post from plane_historia on Instagram that talks a bit about the project. The post talks about the armament a bit too. For people like me, 50cal = ~12.7mm and 60cal = ~15mm.

 

[TomcatViP]

I am surprised that the aerodynamic descriptif of the configuration in the secret doc does not mention the swept wing*. That in March 1945 (Overcast hadn't happened yet).

*but then the reproduction quality is fairly low.