Lockheed Jet

Alright, so anyways, I had watched a while back Secret Allied Weapons of WWII on the History channel and I found the Lockheed concept for the first American jet fighter very interesting, however I forgot it's designation and I was wondering if there was any other information out there that the History channel failed to produce.

This aircraft was to have been the very first American Jet Fighter and it has canards and it is a tailless design with two jet engines.

Pretty advanced considering what the first american jet actually turned out to be, the P-80.

Can anyone help me out?

Shattered OUT...

Shattered, it was called the L 133 and I agree, it was a remarkable design, if impractical for those days, hence the P-80 looking more conventional.

I remember seeing a programme about this too (maybe the same one?) and I thought it was funny how the USAAC basically told Kelly Johnson to go away and stop being silly, then, when they learned of the He 178, Gloster E.28/39, Me 262 and Meteor, went back and said 'umm, we've had a rethink'

You can buy a kit of this if you want to model it, theres a picture of the box here





[edit on 8-6-2006 by waynos]

I think that if we revamped that design, gave it a V-tail, we might be able to make a stealth out of it.

Of course the shape of the fuselage might change because of the engine layout, so it might make it a whole new aircraft, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to use for inspiration.

Shattered OUT...

Yeah, Lockheed design a plane AND an engine for it. An axial turbojet, before anyone else in to US thought of one. Too bad they didn't get to built either. Though another company built the engine, the XJ-37. It didn't run as well as claimed, putting out about half the thrust calculated.

Even so, had the L133 been built it might have been flying with imported whittle engines before the end of 1941. I do love a good 'might have been'.