Fairchild FX fighter project (rival to the McDonnell-Douglas F-15)

Deadline Nears For Proposal On AF Fighter

Farmingdale—With the detailed and comprehensive second F-15 Program Review successfully completed, the hundreds of engineers, management and design specialists who comprise Fairchild Hiller’s F-15 team are totally engaged in finalizing details of the company’s proposal.

June 30 is the deadline for submission of the company’s bid to design and produce the new air superiority fighter which has been given the highest priority by the Air Force. Supporting cost data must follow by July 31.

The Air Force SPO (System Project Office) team headed by Col. Robert White conducted the Program Review May 13 through 15 at Republic Aviation Division, focal-point of Fairchild Hiller’s company-wide involvement. The Review was termed “successful and on track” by company officials.

Challenging Requirement

Magnitude of the demanding requirement challenging the technical publication specialists on the F-15 design team is the sheer physical volume of the complex proposal.' There are 375 separate, bound documents comprising 22,000 pages in one complete proposal. Each includes approximately 5,400.000 words with 18.000 pages of text and 4,000 pages of illustration. Some 3,300 individual documents, each of which is a part of the total proposal, will be distributed to the .Air Force specialists who have the evaluation responsibility. Evaluation will take several months. The Air Force has announced it will select a contractor by the end of the year.
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Fairchild Hiller News June 1969
 

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So we now know that Fairchild Hiller (Republic Avation division) worked with Grumman on the F-14, and Grumman in turn helped on the Fairchild Hiller F-15.

You can see similarities.

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Grumman's own FX design was Model 399.

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Robert Sanator interview about Republic is interesting. He briefly discusses the F-15 program and the belief within Republic that they had technically the better plane, and McDonnell-Douglas came in at the last minute and won on Air Force confidence in their management and company to deliver.

View: https://youtu.be/4YdG7A8sJpU
 
overscan (PaulMM) said:
Robert Sanator interview about Republic is interesting. He briefly discusses the F-15 program and the belief within Republic that they had technically the better plane, and McDonnell-Douglas came in at the last minute and won on Air Force confidence in their management and company to deliver.

View: https://youtu.be/4YdG7A8sJpU
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Robert Sanator also co-authored "Investigation of Airframe-Inlet Interaction for Supersonic Tactical Fighter Aircraft", where the FX-8 configuration that the Fairchild F-15 was based on was shown. (DTIC AD0512542)

Defense Technical Information Center

apps.dtic.mil apps.dtic.mil
 
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Thanks Overscan, an awesome find and contribution!!

Regards
Pioneer
 
I wonder how well Fairchild's design fare against McDonnell's in the wind tunnel testing. I assume it would have higher drag since it has a separate engine location but drag is not the only factor to consider no?

Also, I must say that the cranked delta wings on this plane looks really good.
 
Adm_von_Abrams said:
I wonder how well Fairchild's design fare against McDonnell's in the wind tunnel testing. I assume it would have higher drag since it has a separate engine location but drag is not the only factor to consider no?

Also, I must say that the cranked delta wings on this plane looks really good.
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The podded engines would have caused lower aft end drag, which was a significant issue with the McDonnell-Douglas submission.

It's a shame we don't have more technical information (e.g. wing sections, planform dimensions) so drag calculations could be done somewhat accurately.
 
If anyone can get this ?.
 

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Stargazer said:
There is a three-view arrangement in Reply #35 ("FX-6").
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The FX-6 is not quite the same. The model I'm referring to (post #1) shows double vertical stabilizers but no horizontal stabilizers. The second drawn picture seems to confirm the lack of horizontal stabilizers.

Overscan (paulmm), do you still have this model? Would you be willing to take more pictures or even part with it for some amount of money?
 

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The picture is from an article by Tony Buttler ('Steps to the Big League') in Air Enthusiast November/December 2005. I seem to have mislaid my copy.

His book American Secret Projects - Fighters and Interceptors 1945-1976 has 3 black and white photos on page 177 and another colour view with wings swept back on page 221. Unusually, the pictures aren't credited.

I can ask Tony - he normally credits the owner of the model, so possibly these were just scanned photos.
 
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The model has no horizontal tails, and it doesn't show any signs that it used to. This is pretty unusual for a VG design, though there were a few British VG designs with no horizontal tails. It does seem to have two flaps between the engines and possibly wingtip devices of some kind?
 
Very interesting, thank you for posting the pictures. I really appreciate it. And all the information guys.
 
Rear flap=Camber Variation = moment shift.

Move the flap down, the camber is increased, the moment shift forward. The nose goes down
Move the flap up, the camber is decreased, the moment shift backward, the nose goes up.

It's a bit counterintuitive (if you don't fly) but something we've got the get used with the 6th Gen tailless fighters (if they indeed end up looking like the renders).
 
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It's definitely a very different looking aircraft, I wonder if underside looks much different from the other variants that we've been able to see.
 
Scott Kenny said:
The first thought through my mind was, "oh, Macross Veritechs!"
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That's kind of what started me down this path. The distinct lack of horizontal stabilizers and over all shape definitely gave off veritech vibes. But also the fact that my grandpa may have helped out in some way, just makes it that much cooler.
 
overscan (PaulMM) said:
Who was your grandpa? Did he work at Republic / Fairchild?
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Ben Rudnick, he worked at Republic Aviation long before the merger and my dad's birth, at the long Island site. My dad (born in 45) can remember watching with a crowd as a young boy that could only be the Gatling gun from the A10 warthog was being fired at a shack and exploding with only a small "burp" sound. The patent drawing I found for his process of photo engraving templates for body panels has him listed as Benjamin but that's actually not his name. He also pioneered a recording method with mirrors to watch pilots train with the cockpit instruments as well as the pilot's face in view.

He was a cool dude. I wish I could have met him more than a handful of times.
 
cogashuko said:
Overscan (paulmm), do you still have this model? Would you be willing to take more pictures or even part with it for some amount of money?
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overscan (PaulMM) said:
I can ask Tony - he normally credits the owner of the model, so possibly these were just scanned photos.
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Tony Buttler says "I am pretty sure it was in the collection at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. The photos are my own, taken in 2005".

He says he may have some more pics he could share.

Or you could contact https://www.cradleofaviation.org and see if you can take your own photos.
 
overscan (PaulMM) said:
Tony Buttler says "I am pretty sure it was in the collection at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. The photos are my own, taken in 2005".

He says he may have some more pics he could share.

Or you could contact https://www.cradleofaviation.org and see if you can take your own photos.
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I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to Tony Butler, I will try to contact the cradle of aviation museum through the email you gave me. If I get a lead on anything or more pictures I will post them here of course.
 
@cogashuko Tony Buttler rummaged around in his archive and came up with these awesome photographs he took.

Model span is 12in swept, 17.5in forward, length is 25in.

Thanks, Tony!
 

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overscan (PaulMM) said:
@cogashuko Tony Buttler rummaged around in his archive and came up with these awesome photographs he took.

Model span is 12in swept, 17.5in forward, length is 25in.

Thanks, Tony!
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OMG thank you again for contacting him. And thank you Tony for finding that stuff, I'm know going through old archive stuff can be hard to find what you need. Speaking of which, I'm going to look for my grandfather's patent and find a good place to post it here on the forums. I kept hearing from my father about the shack being destroyed by what I can only imagine is an A10 warthog. But for the longest time I thought he said he saw an old real/8mm of it. Unfortunately I believe he was just there in person so I don't think I can dredge up any old footage. Sorry about that one guys.
 
Hey all. So my father worked for Fairchild Hiller Republic Aviation at the time of the F-15. My mother had mentioned that there was an article written about him in a paper on Long Island (or nearby) as he was the youngest designer to work on such a project(?) In any case, his name is Thomas M McCarthy. If anyone happens to run across anything about him I would appreciate it so much if you could pass it along to me. Thank you!
 
babyaligators said:
Hey all. So my father worked for Fairchild Hiller Republic Aviation at the time of the F-15. My mother had mentioned that there was an article written about him in a paper on Long Island (or nearby) as he was the youngest designer to work on such a project(?) In any case, his name is Thomas M McCarthy. If anyone happens to run across anything about him I would appreciate it so much if you could pass it along to me. Thank you!
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Had a quick look, couldn't find anything.
 
babyaligators said:
Hey all. So my father worked for Fairchild Hiller Republic Aviation at the time of the F-15. My mother had mentioned that there was an article written about him in a paper on Long Island (or nearby) as he was the youngest designer to work on such a project(?) In any case, his name is Thomas M McCarthy. If anyone happens to run across anything about him I would appreciate it so much if you could pass it along to me. Thank you!
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Welcome aboard,

and please if you have a drawings or early concepts to this design,you can share it.

Unfortunately,these's nothing about him in Google's books ?.
 
Hi,

sobchak.wordpress.com

Fairchild F-X

La Fairchild, in congiunzione con la Republic, negli anni settanta partecipo’ senza successo al programma F-X con questo interessante progetto di caccia da superiorita’ aerea. L’a…
sobchak.wordpress.com sobchak.wordpress.com
 

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That's just a fan-made colouring of a previously posted drawing from this topic, and the linked "article" seems to think Fairchild and Republic were two different companies.
 

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