US Navy pre-JSF project

Following on from my Eurofighter post yesterday a further trawl through the archive has revealed what was, at the time, the US Navy's intended next new fighter to follow on from the F-18, which the USN believed would be its last CTOL catapult launched new fighter.

Looking at the different USN and USMC F-35 variants today it is surprising to see that in 1982 the USN was seriously looking to buy a supersonic VTOL fighter.

The Navy was demanding a speed of mach 1.6 or higher and a take off weight that could vary between 20,000lb for deck launched VTO intercept and 40,000lb for STO (possibly ski jump assisted) strike missions.

Four companies tendered designs for this project and these are they;

1 McDonnell Douglas

Falling back on their relationship with BAe with the Harrier (as well as that of P&W and R-R) the McDonnell Douglas 279-3 was a four poster vectored thrust PCB fighter with canards and a speed of mach 2



2 Rockwell

Although the XFV-12 was a dismal failure Rockwell firmly believed it had found the reason and solved it, therefore their (unnamed in this article) design was based around the same augmentor wing philosophy and it was also proposed to modify the XFV-12 as a demonstrator.




3 General Dynamics

The General Dynamics tender was a VTOL fighter based on the F-16XL that was also under development at the time and utilised a DHC developed 'ejector' system that was arranged along the root chord of the XL style delta wing. The system also incorporated elements of the Rockwell augmentor system to further boost lift in the VTO/ hover mode.



4 Vought

The Vought TF120 was felt to be the most ambitious of the four projects as it made use of the newly schemed 'tandem fan' arrangement that is not totally unlike that used in the F-35. It was also intended to be the fastest of the four with a top speed of mach 2.4.



Although this programme obviously died out it clearly points the way to a VTOL supersonic strike fighter such as the type which will be embodied in the F-35.

Waynos, most excellent data.

It is interesting to note that the Soviets at that time were developing the YAK-141, and none of these designs appear to resemble what the Russian eventually came up with - the world's first supersonic VTOL fighter.

Other than possibly linking the archived topics you referenced, excellent presentation and information, waynos.




seekerof

Thanks, although I couldn't give any links as it is from a paper archive.

Waynos:
Which one do you like?
To be frank I have to say the Rockwell plane look much like a interceptor more,and this ugly one almost have no manuverability of dogfight consequentially.
I considered that Vought plan is the best one in all of the plan, which all turbo as a part of engine will be effective in every flying situation.
The Vought project even was more advanced than JSF which we have seen,I thought.

[edit on 23-6-2005 by emile]

From a point of view of looks I prefer the Rockwell one, that side by side cockpit with a one piece canopy just does something for me

Not only for you, FOR you and your girlfriend! cheers!

It is interesting to note that the Soviets at that time were developing the YAK-141, and none of these designs appear to resemble what the Russian eventually came up with - the world's first supersonic VTOL fighter.

There is one US fighter that does bear a strong resemblance to the Yak-141 though - that being the X-35B. It's an open secret that Lockheed took a careful look at the Yak during the JSF design program.

As for the designs above - well the Vought is clearly the most advanced. Too bad it never made it past the paper airplane stage.


[edit on 6/23/05 by xmotex]

Wow Waynos, I am not so fast to respond on your topics. So very quickly:

McDonnell Douglas model 279 link.

Vought TF-120



I have also image of General Dynamics proposal, but currently I do not know where.

Solid digging there learn something new everyday

Good post

and here is the DR-3 lightweight supersonic ship-borne fighter


and the Lockheed Lift-Fan STOVL Fighter concept :

StealthSpy

Good finds, but I think the top was Grummands ATF proposal that the F-22 eventualy won.

I'm partial to the Vought design, I always liked those Vought planes.
Excellent post Waynos, and excellent additional info Matej and Stealth Spy.

Could you introduce some infor. of your new post that I am really interested in.
When this pro. was made esp.?What it is called?

[edit on 26-6-2005 by emile]

The Vought TF-120 is a nice jet but the way it launches is 'over the top' so i would still prefer conventional take off and landing(CTOL).

Whats happened to Chance Vought these days? They made some class Aircraft.

Originally posted by Browno
The Vought TF-120 is a nice jet but the way it launches is 'over the top' so i would still prefer conventional take off and landing(CTOL).

Whats happened to Chance Vought these days? They made some class Aircraft.

Northrop Grumman acquired Vought Aircraft in 1994.

If you look at my first post in the thread you will see that the TF 120 launched in exactly the same way as the Harrier or F-35. I'm not sure how it got lumped in with that other concept in Matej's image but if you look at the picture of the plane launching vertically from the ship you will see it is not the same plane at all.

Wey Hey!!!!!!!!! Chance Vought is now part of Northrop Grumman!, My favourite defence contractor!, Chance Vought also were specialists in naval aviation apart from Grumman.

Merged in 1994, my favourite year too!

Would have been nice to see the F-120 in service.

Here is another VTOL aircraft

images.google.co.uk...://www.g-unleashed.com/files/16_vehicle_hydra.jpg

Originally posted by Pyros
Waynos, most excellent data.

It is interesting to note that the Soviets at that time were developing the YAK-141, and none of these designs appear to resemble what the Russian eventually came up with - the world's first supersonic VTOL fighter.

Actually, the first supersonic VTOL aircraft was the Dassault Mirage IIIV (1966 - two built).

The design was based on the Mirage III series, and was intended to be a service fighter, but due to lack of fuel that was pretty optimistic. Due to the thirst of the 8 lift engines, and the fact that they took up most of the space normally reserved for fuel tanks, the aircraft could not do a vertical take-off and go supersonic on the same sortie. But it did carry out VTOL transitions, and it did go supersonic (M2.04 - making it the fastest VTOL aircraft built, thus far), just not on the same flight.

The proof of concept vehicle for the Mirage IIIV, The Dassault Balzac (again based on Mirage III aerodynamics - in fact the Mirage III prototype rebuilt with lift engines), might have been able to go supersonic, but all testing was aimed at proving the control system for the larger Mirage IIIV and it was destroyed before any high speed testing was undertaken.

The Winged Wombat

[edit on 5/7/07 by The Winged Wombat]

Originally posted by FredT
StealthSpy

Good finds, but I think the top was Grummands ATF proposal that the F-22 eventualy won.

Fred,

I think you meant Northrop! Grumman was at the bottom of the ATF compitition. Lockheed and Northrop where the top contenders. Northrop and Grumman merged later, which might have thrown you off.

Tim