Westinghouse j34 combustion chamber series#

The aircraft was built in Convair's San Diego facility at Lindbergh Field and was taken to San Diego Bay for testing in December 1952. The program only reached the 'writing on a napkin' stage, for two problems were not addressed: the hole for the elevator would have seriously weakened the hull and the load of a laden elevator would also be difficult to transmit to the hull structure. Stored in pressure chambers that would not protrude from the hull, they would be raised by a portside elevator just aft of the sail and set to take off on their own on a smooth sea but catapulted aft in a higher sea. In the 1950s, the US Navy considered the internal arrangements of a submarine aircraft carrier that could carry three of these aircraft. The Saunders-Roe company of the United Kingdom, which had already built an experimental flying boat jet fighter, first flying in 1947 the SR.A/1, tendered a design for a ski-equipped fighter, but little came of it. The US was not the only country to consider the hydroski. Testing with several other experimental ski configurations continued with the prototype through 1957, after which it was placed into storage. The prototype was fitted with an experimental single ski, which proved more successful than the twin-ski design of the second service test aircraft. The F2Y demonstrating its position in the water at rest When these engines were not ready for the prototypes, twin Westinghouse J34-WE-32 engines of just over half the power were installed. Required power was put up by a pair of afterburning Westinghouse XJ46-WE-02 turbojets, fed from intakes mounted high above the wings to avoid ingesting spray. The skis were not extended until the aircraft reached about 10 miles (16 km) per hour during its takeoff run. When stationary or moving slowly in the water, the Sea Dart floated with the trailing edge of the wings touching the water. The aircraft was to be a delta-winged fighter with a watertight hull and twin retractable hydro-skis for takeoff and landing. Four of this order were redesignated as service test vehicles, and an additional eight production aircraft were soon ordered as well. No armament was ever fitted to any Sea Dart built, but the plan was to arm the production aircraft with four 20mm Colt Mk12 cannon and a battery of folding-fin unguided rockets. Twelve production aircraft were ordered before a prototype had even flown. The worry had some foundation, since many supersonic designs of the time required long takeoff rolls, had high approach speeds, and were not very stable or easy to control-all factors that were troublesome on a carrier.Р”В¬onvair's proposal gained an order for two prototypes in late 1951.

During the time, there was much skepticism about operating supersonic aircraft from carrier decks. Navy contest for a supersonic interceptor aircraft. The Sea Dart began as Convair's entry in a 1948 U.S. The four surviving planes were retired in 1957, but some were kept in reserve until 1962. Richbourg was killed when the Sea Dart he was piloting disintegrated in midair.

Westinghouse j34 combustion chamber series#

The program was canceled after a series of unsatisfactory results and a tragic accident on 4 November 1954, when test pilot Charles E. It was created in the 1950s, to overcome the problems with supersonic planes taking off and landing on aircraft carriers.

It is the only seaplane to have exceeded the speed of sound.

It flew only as a prototype, and never entered mass production. The Convair F2Y Sea Dart was an American seaplane fighter aircraft that rode on twin hydro-skis during takeoff and landing.