Defence Advanced Research Project XF-20

[masher47]

Can anyone shed light on either the aircraft or the organization? Is this the early version of DARPA?? Model is about 18" long and sits on a cluttered cabinet in the Alameda NAS Museum, CA.

 

[hesham]

Dear Masher47,

clearly it was from late 1970s or early 1980s,and I think it was DARPA,because it had this title
from 1972,but need a good search ?.

 

[DWG]

DARPA was ARPA before that, from 1958-72

 

[edwest4]

This model reminds me of the later, I believe, North American Rockwell NAR-349. It dates from 1972 but this design has late 1960s features.

 

[flateric]

obviously someone was kitbashing

 

[steelpillow]

obviously someone was kitbashing

Yep. It also has 2D vectored thrust, which was not studied until many years later. Another giveaway is the early lack of area-ruling combined with post-Viggen close-coupled canards - mounted forward of the fuselage carry-through box! A real mish-mash. Had it been passed off as 1990s Chinese I might have been less sure, as they had not yet shaken off that 1960s Russian needles-and-straight-tubes look.

 

[edwest4]

If so, this museum has lost a bit of credibility.