A 6,000 Horsepower Aircraft That Nearly Killed Howard Hughes - The XF-11 and The D-2
視聴回数 19,625 回
0
0
Howard Hughes's controversial aircraft, including the 6,000 horsepower aircraft that nearly killed Howard Hughes and the Hughes D-2. The controversial aircraft also involved the President's son's influence and accusations of theft against Lockheed.
The Hughes D-2 was an American fighter and bomber project begun by Howard Hughes as a private venture. It never proceeded past the flight testing phase but was the predecessor of the Hughes XF-11. The sole D-2 was completed in 1942–1943.
Design and development
In 1937, Howard Hughes began the design of an advanced twin-engine, twin-boom aircraft. The D-2's early gestation is historically obscure because Hughes Aircraft and its corporate successors have never released archives regarding the D-2; however, Howard Hughes had recently set a global circumnavigation speed record in a Lockheed 14. Aircraft historian René Francillon speculates that Hughes probably initiated the project for another circumnavigation record attempt. Still, the outbreak of World War II closed much of the world's airspace and made it difficult to buy aircraft parts without government approval, so he decided to sell the aircraft to the U.S. military instead. The first documentary evidence of the project is a December 1939 letter from Hughes to the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) proposing procurement of the D-2 and describing it as a "pursuit-type airplane". The design was somewhat similar to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning that won the 1939 USAAC interceptor aircraft design competition. Hughes later testified to the U.S. Senate that Lockheed had stolen his design, although this has been refuted by many. Rather than abandon the project, as he later recounted in the 1947 Senate investigation, he "decided to design and build from the ground up, and with my own money, an entirely new airplane which would be so sensational in its performance that the Army would have to accept it."
Most of the airframe of the "DX-2" was made of Duramold plywood, plastic-bonded plywood molded under heat and high pressure. This material was advantageous from an aerodynamic and a metals-shortage standpoint, but was difficult to work, on and rejected as insufficiently robust by the USAAC. Initially, the aircraft was to have been equipped with a tail wheel but the landing gear was later changed to a tricycle configuration with the main undercarriage units retracting rearwards into the twin booms and the nosewheel retracting rearwards and rotating 90 degrees to lie flat in the small central fuselage. The powerplants were to have been a pair of experimental Wright R-2160 Tornado 42-cylinder, liquid-cooled radial engines. The D-2 was built in secret at the Hughes Culver City, California factory with a longtime associate, Glenn Odekirk, providing engineering inputs. The secrecy further alienated USAAC officers, especially when Hughes denied Materiel Command access to the plant. The USAAC had requested information about the project's progress but did not enter into a formal contract until 1944. Final assembly and flight testing occurred at the Hughes Harper Dry Lake facility in the Mojave Desert. The finished D-2 looked like a scaled-up P-38 Lightning but, on paper, promised better performance; the USAAC repeatedly compared it to the Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning.
Specifications
Data from McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920: Volume II
General characteristics
Crew: one pilot, crew of two (in bomber version)
Length: 57 ft 10 in (17.6 m)
Wingspan: 60 ft 0 in (18.29 m)
Height: 27 ft 4 in (8.3 m)
Wing area: 616 sq ft (57.23 m2)
Gross weight: 31,672 lb (14,366 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-2800-49 , 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 433 mph (697 km/h, 376 kn) at 25,000 ft (7,620 m)
Cruise speed: 274 mph (441 km/h, 238 kn)
Range: 1,000 mi (1,610 km, 870 nmi)
Service ceiling: 36,000 ft (10,975 m)
Rate of climb: 2,620 ft/min (13 m/s)
#aviationhistory #wwiihistory #aviation
The Hughes D-2 was an American fighter and bomber project begun by Howard Hughes as a private venture. It never proceeded past the flight testing phase but was the predecessor of the Hughes XF-11. The sole D-2 was completed in 1942–1943.
Design and development
In 1937, Howard Hughes began the design of an advanced twin-engine, twin-boom aircraft. The D-2's early gestation is historically obscure because Hughes Aircraft and its corporate successors have never released archives regarding the D-2; however, Howard Hughes had recently set a global circumnavigation speed record in a Lockheed 14. Aircraft historian René Francillon speculates that Hughes probably initiated the project for another circumnavigation record attempt. Still, the outbreak of World War II closed much of the world's airspace and made it difficult to buy aircraft parts without government approval, so he decided to sell the aircraft to the U.S. military instead. The first documentary evidence of the project is a December 1939 letter from Hughes to the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) proposing procurement of the D-2 and describing it as a "pursuit-type airplane". The design was somewhat similar to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning that won the 1939 USAAC interceptor aircraft design competition. Hughes later testified to the U.S. Senate that Lockheed had stolen his design, although this has been refuted by many. Rather than abandon the project, as he later recounted in the 1947 Senate investigation, he "decided to design and build from the ground up, and with my own money, an entirely new airplane which would be so sensational in its performance that the Army would have to accept it."
Most of the airframe of the "DX-2" was made of Duramold plywood, plastic-bonded plywood molded under heat and high pressure. This material was advantageous from an aerodynamic and a metals-shortage standpoint, but was difficult to work, on and rejected as insufficiently robust by the USAAC. Initially, the aircraft was to have been equipped with a tail wheel but the landing gear was later changed to a tricycle configuration with the main undercarriage units retracting rearwards into the twin booms and the nosewheel retracting rearwards and rotating 90 degrees to lie flat in the small central fuselage. The powerplants were to have been a pair of experimental Wright R-2160 Tornado 42-cylinder, liquid-cooled radial engines. The D-2 was built in secret at the Hughes Culver City, California factory with a longtime associate, Glenn Odekirk, providing engineering inputs. The secrecy further alienated USAAC officers, especially when Hughes denied Materiel Command access to the plant. The USAAC had requested information about the project's progress but did not enter into a formal contract until 1944. Final assembly and flight testing occurred at the Hughes Harper Dry Lake facility in the Mojave Desert. The finished D-2 looked like a scaled-up P-38 Lightning but, on paper, promised better performance; the USAAC repeatedly compared it to the Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning.
Specifications
Data from McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920: Volume II
General characteristics
Crew: one pilot, crew of two (in bomber version)
Length: 57 ft 10 in (17.6 m)
Wingspan: 60 ft 0 in (18.29 m)
Height: 27 ft 4 in (8.3 m)
Wing area: 616 sq ft (57.23 m2)
Gross weight: 31,672 lb (14,366 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-2800-49 , 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 433 mph (697 km/h, 376 kn) at 25,000 ft (7,620 m)
Cruise speed: 274 mph (441 km/h, 238 kn)
Range: 1,000 mi (1,610 km, 870 nmi)
Service ceiling: 36,000 ft (10,975 m)
Rate of climb: 2,620 ft/min (13 m/s)
#aviationhistory #wwiihistory #aviation
