USAF Air Materiel Command Design 938A Penetration Fighter Study of 1948

[jzichek]

[font=verdana, sans-serif]Check out this article on the USAF Air Materiel Command Design 938A Penetration Fighter Study of 1948:

This was a study done to examine the pros and cons of stowing all fuel internally in a long range fighter aircraft. The image gallery reproduces the original memorandum describing the design and includes a high resolution three-view drawing.


-Jared[/font]

 

[Pioneer]

Wow another interesting find Jared!!

I'm looking forward to have a closer examination at RetroMechanix!!!!


Regards
Pioneer

 

[bigron427]

Very, very cool! Any idea if this underwent any further design development? I'd have to sit down and crunch some numbers, but in terms of wing loading, thrust loading, etc., I wonder how it would have stacked up against the XF-88A? The tip tanks of the XF-88 caused a lot of problems. In order to restore the fuel capacity lost with the deletion of the tip tanks, the fuel was relocated in a lengthened forward fuselage in succeeding McDonnell Model 36 derivatives, culminating in the Model 36W which became the F-101. This decision, in turn, led to many unintended consequences with the F-101. It will be very interesting to take a closer look at this concept. Thanks for posting! Do you have any other penetration fighter related stuff available to post?

 

[jzichek]

I'm not certain how much further this design was studied; of the thousands of Air Material Command studies done over the years, very few have actually reached the public. I unfortunately don't have any further penetration fighter material in my archive.

 

[Steve Pace]

This design is very reminiscent of the XF-88 which first flew 20 October 1948 or right after the time this study is dated... -SP