Thursday, December 14, 2006

Lockheed XP-49

Lockheed XP-49


The Lockheed XP-49 was an advancement on the P-38 for a fighter in response to U.S. Army Air Corps proposal 39-775 that was equipped with the new Pratt & Whitney X-1800 twenty-four cylinder engine. Assigned model number 522 by Lockheed, this proposal, which was for an aircraft substantially similar to the P-38, was evaluated first place and was assigned the designation XP-49, while the Grumman Model G-46 was awarded second place and designated XP-50.

Ordered in October 1939 under a contract approved on January 8, 1940, the X-1800 powered XP-49 would feature a pressurized cockpit and armament of two 20 mm cannon and four 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) machine guns. However, after two months into the contract a decision was made to substitute the Continental XI-1430-1 twelve cylinder liquid-cooled inverted vee engines for the X-1800. The XP-49 first flew on November 11, 1942. But, after a crash landing in early January 1943 occurred when the port landing gear failed to lock down due to a combined hydraulic and electric failure. The XP-49 flew again on February 16, 1943 after repairs were made. The preliminary flight data showed that performance of the XP-49 was not sufficiently better than the then production P-38, and with a questionable future for the XI-1430 engine, to warrant disruption of the production line to introduce the new model aircraft. Consideration of quantity production was therefore abandoned.

The aircraft was flown to Wright Field, and after various problems further work on the XP-49 was halted.

P-49
Type Fighter
Manufacturer Lockheed
Designed by Clarence Johnson
Maiden flight 1942-11-11
Status Cancelled
Number built 1

Specifications (XP-49)

General characteristics

  • Crew: One
  • Length: 40 ft 1 in (12.2 m)
  • Wingspan: 52 ft (15.8 m)
  • Height: 9 ft 10 in (3.0 m)
  • Wing area: 327.5 ft² (30 m²)
  • Empty weight: 15,410 lb (6990 kg)
  • Loaded weight: 18,750 lb (8505 kg)
  • Powerplant:Continental XI-1430-1 inverted V-12s, 1,600 hp (1,193 kW) each

Performance

Armament

  • 2x 20 mm cannon
  • 4x 0.5 in (12.7 mm) machine guns

1 comment:

Ron said...

2 months?
The radial powered XP-49 Lightning was championed for 2 months, then abandoned.
Why fault the 2,000 hp P&W radial engines for making the fighter overpowered, without combat equipment?
It's no wonder the Air Corp lost interest.
A year later the loaded XP-49 flew with less powerful, vulnerable inline Continental engines.
Not only did its rivals not stand still, even the P-38J outperformed it.
The advantage of radials that can take battle damage like no Allison powered P-38, was long gone. The Conny inline engines proved worse yet!

A 2nd US 20mm HS cannon was added to the XP-49 nose battery. Good news!
Too bad they were not reliable RAF HS Mk II cannons.
That was all academic since the XP-49 was dropped.
By default the P-38 soldiered on with a single reject US HS M2 cannon in its gun suite.








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