Curtiss XF14 C
To replace the F4F
Wildcat, the U.S. Navy issued the 23 February 1941 Specification calling for a new carrier-borne interceptor designed for service aboard the 45,000-ton
Midway-class carriers.
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. proposed an extensively modified
Wildcat powered by one Wright XR-2600-10 radial engine without turbo-supercharger.
It was a design suitable to the needs of the U.S. Navy that was built and used with great success under the designation F6F
Hellcat.
The only way to compete with Grumman was to propose a fighter with superior performance. Curtiss decided to use a turbo-supercharged liquid-cooled in-line engine with the intention of surpassing Grumman's design in top speed and ceiling.
The U.S. Navy preferred to use air-cooled radial engines, but the F6F had been designed to defend the fleet against the attacks of low level torpedo-bombers and medium-altitude dive bombers and the existence of German bombers with 41,000 ft (12,500 m) ceiling could not be ignored.
On 30 June 1941 the U.S. Navy signed a development contract for a new high-altitude interceptor, under the designation XF14 C-1.
The airplane was powered by one 2,300 hp. Lycoming XH-2470-4, 24 cylinder ‘H’, liquid-cooled experimental engine, with turbo-supercharger, driving a six-bladed contra-rotating airscrew.
On 12 July 1940, during a series of aerial attacks by the Italians against the big and sluggish battleship HMS
Warspite, not even one of the 300 bombs dropped between 8:50 and 11:50 hit their target.
The situation was repeated in December 1941 when Boeing B-17 bombers of the 19th B.G. based in the Philippines attempted to stop the Imperial Fleet Japanese by attacking from 25,000 ft (7,620 m). The reality of the war showed that the danger of high-altitude bombers had been overestimated.
The development of the Lycoming engine was unsatisfactory and the XF14 C-1 was cancelled in December of 1943.
The Germans created guided missiles which could be launched from planes at a great distance of the warships without being exposed to the efficient naval anti-aircraft artillery.
At first they consisted of already existing bombs and torpedoes that had been tested in combat, fitted with wings and tailfins made them capable of gliding until their impact against enemy ships.
They were guided by a cable, a radio-link or by means of passive sensors of radar or infrared radiation installed on board.
On July 1943 entered service the German radio-controlled bomb
Fritz-X.
The new missile weighted 3,461 lbs (1,570 kg) and was used by the Dornier Do 217 K-2 of the III/KG 100 to sink the Italian battleship
Roma and seriously damage the British battleship HMS
Warspite and the Allied cruisers HMS
Uganda and USS
Savannah.
El
Fritz-X could be launched by the Do 217 K-2 and Heinkel He 177 A-5/R2 bombers flying between 24,600 ft and 26,250 ft.
Early 1944 the U.S. Navy recommended the installation of one 2,300 hp Wright XR-3350-16 turbo-supercharged radial engine in the XF14 prototype (Bu no.03183) and continue its development under the designation XF14 C-2.
The airplane was flown in July 1944 reaching only 398 mph versus the guaranteed 424 mph. The propeller produced an undesirable vibration and the pressurised cockpit was not yet installed.
At that time the Allied already had electronic jammers capable of interfering with the Radio-link
Kehl/Strassburg guidance system of the
Fritz-X and the Germans began using the new Henschel Hs 293B missiles, with the wire guidance system
Dortmund/Duisburg that would have been immune to the Allied jammers, but the Hs 293B should be released at just 4,500 ft (1,371 m) to prevent the control wires from breaking.
When Allied intelligence services discovered that the Japanese had serious difficulty building their own turbochargers, the tactical need for a naval high-altitude interceptor had failed to materialise and further development of the XF14 C-2 was cancelled.
Curtiss XF14 C-2 technical data
Power plant: one 2,300 hp Wright XR-3350-16 eighteen-cylinder turbo-supercharged radial engine driving a six-bladed contra-rotating airscrew, wingspan: 46 ft (14 m), length: 37.8 ft (11.5 m), height: 17 ft (5.18 m), wing area: 375 sq. ft (33.75 sq. m), max speed: 398 mph (640 kph), max weight: 14,582 lbs (6,606 kg), service ceiling: 39,500 ft (12,042 m), armament: four wing mounted 20 mm cannons with 166 rounds per gun.
