Gloster P.275 (F.3/48)

[Deltafan]

In early secret project smurf posted this about a delta :

I remembered this postwar Gloster F.3/48 counterpart :

http://www.insigniamag.com/glost.html

 

[Jemiba]

Split from the "British little known aircraft and projects post WW2" thread.

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

The book British Secret Projects: Jet Fighters Since 1950 gives the following specs for the P.275 on page 38 as follows:

Length: 48 feet (14.6 meters)
Span: 45 feet 7.24 in (13.9 meters)
Wing area: 750 sq ft (69.7 sq meters)
Weight: 18,500 lb (8,391 kg)
Powerplant: one 12,000 lb (53.3 kN) thrust turbojet with re-heat
Speed: 668 mph (1,075 km/h)
Armament: four 30 mm Aden cannon

 

[steelpillow]

An original drawing is reproduced in: Derek N. James; Gloster Aircraft Since 1917, Putnam, 1971, Page 388. The drawing posted by Jemiba is not a bad rendering.
Caption: "P.275. Gloster F.3/48 day fighter. 12,000 lb thrust engine. Four 30 mm guns. Rotating wingtip controls. 13 April, 1948."
I found a copy posted in a different thread: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/attachments/glosterp275blueprint001-jpg.148038/

It is curiously off Gloster's main Javelin-style straight-edged tailed delta run of projects; looks a curious hybrid of the Lippisch P.13a and B&V Ae 607, with GTR Hill's wingtip elevons thrown in for luck.
Some explanation is found in James, pp.54-5:
"An important step in providing this new fighter was taken on 24 January, 1947, with the issue of specification F.43/46 which called for a single-seat fighter for the daylight interception and destruction of single high-speed, high-altitude targets." For this, Gloster drew up the P.234, basically a single-seat proto-Javelin with butterfly tail (Drawing on p.380).
But then,"In February 1948 [this was] superseded by specification F.3/48" ... "Gloster's' single engine Project P.276, in which the pilot was housed in the leading edge of the sharply swept fin of a classic delta-winged aircraft, was to meet Specification F.3/48" ... "About this time a good deal of information was forthcoming on the work done during the war by Lippisch and other German designers..."
Note that the design drawing is labelled P.275 but in the text James refers to the P.276. The text description is so apt, there has to be a close connection. It might just be be a misprint, or it might indicate a second iteration of the concept, there is no clue here as to which.
So there you have it; a single-engined interceptor heavily influenced by Lippisch et al, as a step beyond the tailed delta (which they were simultaneously developing into the heavier two-seat all-weather fighter that would become the Javelin).

It is interesting to note that the Martin-Baker MB 6 was of very similar configuration and appeared in the same year of 1948, indeed the linked discussion displays much confusion on our part between the two.