Four engine fighters

[Phantom Fanatic]

Hello all

I am wondering if anyone knows of any four engine propeller or jet fighter programs or designs. The only example I know of is the Swiss EFW-20 Aiguillon. Attached below are some reference photos of the Aiguillon in the Swiss air force museum in Dübendorf. I took the photos when I went to the museum last summer.

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[TomS]

There was the XP-87



And the Grumman G-75

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/grumman-xf9f-1.611/post-285219

 

[Phantom Fanatic]

There was the XP-87

View attachment 686606

And the Grumman G-75

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/grumman-xf9f-1.611/post-285219

Interesting. I have come across that aircraft before, but I always thought it had two engines with split intake ducts.

 

[TomS]

Interesting. I have come across that aircraft before, but I always thought it had two engines with split intake ducts.

XP-87? Nope. Four cruddy little J34s.

American Secret Projects Fighters also has a several big long-range interceptor candidates with four engines. And one -- the Northrop N176 -- with eight!

 

[Justo Miranda]

Boeing YB-40

The Boeing YB-40: how the B-17F strategic bomber was turned into a four-engined escort fighter - The Aviation Geek Club

The Boeing YB-40: how the B-17F strategic bomber was turned into a four-engined escort fighter

theaviationgeekclub.com

 

[publiusr]

The F-4 reminded a tad-of BSG's Vipers. I wonder if you could get away with a smaller top mount engine with some tweaking.

 

[Yellow Palace]

If you're including rockets, the Fairey Delta III (and I think several other F.177 projects) had two turbojets and two rockets. The AW.169 had five engines - four jets and a rocket!

 

[Justo Miranda]

Messerschmitt Me 328 A-2 & A-3 projects.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Me 262 Loring

 

[fightingirish]

Boeing YB-40
...

Likewise, a single Consolidated XB-41 Liberator was modified for the long-range escort role during WW2.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Focke-Wulf Super Lorin

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To solve the problem of the excessive landing speed of the Ta 283, the project team led by the Dipl.-Ing.von Halem sent to the OKL the dossier Baubeschreibung Nr.246 describing a short-span STOL variant of the Super TL with an auxiliary turbojet providing vertical lift, one bi-propellant rocket and two ramjets. This project has been commonly described in the literature as Focke-Wulf Super Lorin



Built in light alloy, the fuselage housed the pressurized cockpit with ejector seat, two MK 108/30 heavy cannons, the landing gear, one 270 litre tank containing the B.4 petrol for the turbojet, two K1 heavy kerosene fuel tanks of 650 and 845 litres for the ramjets, one C-Stoff rocket propellant tank of 345 litres, one T-Stoff rocket propellant of 575 litres, one HeS 8 turbojet with 720 kp static thrust and one bi-propellant rocket Walter 109-509 A-1 rocket with 1,700 kp peak thrust. The wings, spanning 7.6 m and with a 15 sq. m area, were built in wood/plywood/steel and housed six K1 fuel tanks with 150 litres each.



The tail planes were built of steel and served as support for two Pabst ramjets of 10,850 kp thrust each. The landing gear was of the same type than that developed for the Super TL. The exhaust nozzle of the turbojet was located on the fuselage belly to the purpose of generating lift thrust during take-off and landing. High altitude performances could also be improved, although a shorter wing span might make the airplane very fast at lower altitude, where the ramjets could produce the maximum thrust.

 

[Phantom Fanatic]

Messerschmitt Me 328 A-2 & A-3 projects.

Very Interesting, I have never heard of this aircraft before.

 

[hesham]

Hi,

also Curtiss P-1032-50 was a four engined fighter project.

 

[Phantom Fanatic]

Does anyone know of any four engine Soviet/Russian fighter projects?

 

[steelpillow]

If we are counting rockets, then there is the Supermarine Seafire with RATOG - rocket assisted takeoff gear. 1 Merlin + 4 rockets = 5 engines in all, for those few seconds anyway.

 

[Maveric]

Hi,

also Curtiss P-1032-50 was a four enmgined fighter project.

???

 

[hesham]

Hi,

also Curtiss P-1032-50 was a four enmgined fighter project.

???

It was a single seat penetration fighter project,based on XP-87,intended
to compete in 1945 contest,which later won by McDonnell Midel-36.

Also the Curtiss P-551 was a four engined fighter;

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/us-navy-outline-specification-os-112.9866/#post-546929

 

[F.L.]

There was also a four engined Gloster Meteor prototype.

 

[sferrin]

My favorite, the Northrop N-167 (4 J79s):

 

[Blueking]

In fact,china modefied at least one Tu-4 four engine bomber to an night fighter to intercept enemy night spy aircraft。

 

[steelpillow]

There was also a four engined Gloster Meteor prototype.

There was? It is not in any of my sources that I can find. Can you give any more details, or is it just another Internet myth?

 

[Arjen]

@steelpillow Meteor testbed with a Rolls-Royce Soar on each wingtip.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/gloster-meteor-special-one-of-a-kind-aircraft-and-unbuilt-variants.6088/page-2#post-400518

R-R Soar was intended for use in Red Rapier.

 

[steelpillow]

@steelpillow Meteor testbed with a Rolls-Royce Soar on each wingtip.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/gloster-meteor-special-one-of-a-kind-aircraft-and-unbuilt-variants.6088/page-2#post-400518

R-R Soar was intended for use in Red Rapier.

Ah, but that had only three engines. The second Soar was never fitted, just a dummy cowling.

 

[Arjen]

A dummy cowling on the port wing, that's what I found as well in Aircraft Profile #12, The Gloster Meteor F.8 by C.F. Andrews. Andrews goes on to write that 'this Meteor was in fact the only four-engined example of the Meteor to fly'. Curiously, in Gloster Aircraft since 1917 by Derek N James, Putnam 1987, Meteor F.8 WA982 is mentioned as 'one of the two Meteor airframes to have had four engines'.

I haven't been able to track down that second four-engined Meteor, though. Any thoughts on this, anyone?

 

[Justo Miranda]

Hi

 

[Rhinocrates]

VTOL aircraft might be cheating unless the engines used for lift are also used for forward flight, so there's the Avro TS-140, illustrated by Citrus. There's a terrific online resource by one of the regular contributors here but damn it, I haven't had my eighteenth coffee yet so it's still on the tip of my tongue... Help?

 

[Rhinocrates]

Also Avro. Some proposed Arrow variants had multiple engines.

 

[Rhinocrates]

The strange and strangely beautiful Vickers Supermarine Type 582 would qualify as a four-engined fighter if half of them broke down. Dual and single fuselage versions were considered for the Fleet Air Arm as interceptors.

 

[Rhinocrates]

Armstrong Whitworth AW 169. Contender for F.155T/OR.329 interceptor. Some of the other contenders had combined jet and rocket propulsion - the Fairey Delta III had two jets and two rockets while the Saunders-Roe P.187 had two jets and four rockets. AW's though had four jets that were to be used throughout the mission, not just in climb.

 

[Rhinocrates]

Once it shut down its dedicated lift engines, the EWR VJ 101 still had four left in tilting nacelles for forward flight.

EWR VJ 101 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Likewise with the very similar Bell D-188A

Bell D-188A - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Thos9]

The projected Arado Ar 234P-1 night fighter of 1944 with four BMW003A turbojets.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Arado Ar 234 C with air-to-air rockets

 

[riggerrob]

VTOL aircraft might be cheating unless the engines used for lift are also used for forward flight, so there's the Avro TS-140, illustrated by Citrus. There's a terrific online resource by one of the regular contributors here but damn it, I haven't had my eighteenth coffee yet so it's still on the tip of my tongue... Help?

That paint scheme reminds us of the Royal Canadian Air Force's "Golden Centenaires" formaiton aerobatic team that toured Canada during 1967. I saw them perform over the lake in the middle of Sherbrooke, Quebec that summer.
The team flew Canadair Tutor jet trainers which were later re-painted for the later "Snowbirds" formation aerobatic team who are still wowing crowds 'til today.

 

[Ravinoff]

Also Avro. Some proposed Arrow variants had multiple engines.

Is...that an Arrow with six engines? It's magnificent.

On topic, there's also the Republic AP-100 if we're allowing VTOLs. Six GE J85 jets with three ducted fans for takeoff...though it's cheating a bit as some sources indicate it was a strike aircraft that may have competed for the TFX program (that eventually cranked out the F-111).

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/republic-ap-100-vtol-fighter.542/

 

[Rhinocrates]

There's a terrific online resource by one of the regular contributors here but damn it, I haven't had my eighteenth coffee yet so it's still on the tip of my tongue... Help?

Retromechanix!

Retromechanix

Retromechanix is devoted to innovative and unusual flying machines from earlier decades, with special emphasis on US prototype and project aircraft from the 1920s through the 1950s. Featuring hundreds of previously unpublished high resolution photographs, drawings and artist’s impressions, along...

retromechanix.gumroad.com

 

[fightingirish]

If you count in missileers and interceptors, then we should incorporate projects when in the 50s bombers like the Boeing B-47, the Convair B-58 Hustler or the Martin P6M Seamaster would have been modified into long range (and high-speed) interceptors.
Later on, the Convair B-58D had only two J-58 jet engines.
The MIT project Lamp Light is a modified Boeing B-47E with an AWACS rotating dish and carrying up to eight AAMs, which is mentioned on pages 89-91 in the book "Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress" by Scott Lowther (aka OBB).
I haven't yet got his other newest bookazine "US Supersonic Bomber Projects".

 

[flateric]

Classic https://topwar.ru/34821-sverhtyazhelyy-perehvatchik-pvo-tu-4-d-500-kompleks-g-310.html

 

[Arjen]

@steelpillow Meteor testbed with a Rolls-Royce Soar on each wingtip.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/gloster-meteor-special-one-of-a-kind-aircraft-and-unbuilt-variants.6088/page-2#post-400518

R-R Soar was intended for use in Red Rapier.

Ah, but that had only three engines. The second Soar was never fitted, just a dummy cowling.

From Gloster Meteor by Barry Jones, Crowood 1998:

At the end of August 1954, Hucknall's fitters removed the ballasted engine casing from the starboard tip and replaced it with a new, fully working Soar just for the [1954 Farnborough] show. Bad weather restricted flying that year, also the organizers had one 'civil aircraft only' day, so that the actual number of flights made with both engines operating were very few. After the display, on the last day, 12 September, WA982 departed from Farnborough and went back to Hucknall, where both engines were removed for returning to Rolls-Royce for overhauling. When they came back, the new engine which had been installed on the starboard side for Farnborough, was refitted on the port side, ready for flight testing to be resumed. However, no production application for the Soar materialized, so the programme was gradually run down and the last Soar sortie was made on was made on 22 March 1956.

... so a four-engined Meteor flew after all, if only for a short while.

 

[HoHun]

Hi Justo,

Me 262 LoringView attachment 686669

I'd say the Messerschmitt Me 262C-2b (Heimatschützer II) with two BMW 003R engines, each consisting of a turbojet engine with a rocket engine mounted on top, might also count.

The rocket engines relied on the jet engines driving the rocket-fuel pumps though, so the engines weren't entirely independent.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

 

[Phantom Fanatic]

Classic https://topwar.ru/34821-sverhtyazhelyy-perehvatchik-pvo-tu-4-d-500-kompleks-g-310.html

A B-29 knock off with missiles, now thats something