XFL Airabonita
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| FL Airabonita | |
|---|---|
| Type | Fighter |
| Manufacturer | Bell Aircraft Corporation |
| Maiden flight | 1940-05-13 |
| Status | Cancelled |
| Number built | 1 |
| Unit cost | 125,000[1] |
The Bell FL Airabonita was a United States experimental shipboard interceptor aircraft developed for the United States Navy. It was similar to and a parallel development of the land-based P-39 Airacobra, differing mainly in the use of a tailwheel undercarriage in place of the P-39's tricycle gear. It first flew on May 13, 1940. Only one prototype was manufactured.
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[edit] Design and development
The FL-1 was powered by a single Allison XV-1710-6 piston engine installed amidship behind the pilot and driving a three bladed propeller in the nose through a 10.38 foot (3.16 m) extension shaft. The aircraft had provisions for 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) or 37 mm cannon firing through the propellor shaft and two 0.3 inch (7.62 mm) machine guns in the fuselage nose.
Delivery of the prototype to the Navy was delayed due to difficulties with the Allison engine until February 1941. Following Navy tests the aircraft was returned to Bell for modification in December 1941, but before the modifications were completed the Navy decided that the XFL-1 was not suitable for further development.
One possible reason for the rejection was the often-stated Navy position during that era that all its aircraft should use air-cooled engines (while the Allison was liquid-cooled).
Another possible reason was that the Allison engine had only a single-speed supercharger, so its altitude performance was much inferior to other Navy fighters of the period like the F4F Wildcat (the Army's P-39 and P-40, which used the same engine, had the same difficulty; the P-38 used the same engines but incorporated exhaust-driven superchargers to achieve good altitude performance).
Lastly, the Airabonita had to compete against the considerably faster F4U Corsair, the first US Navy fighter to exceed 400 mph. in level flight.
The XFL-1 was later used for non-flying arnament tests, and later destroyed. For many years its remains wwere visible at the dump at Naval AirStation Patuxent River, Maryland.[2]
[edit] Specifications (XFL-1 Airabonita)
General characteristics
- Crew: One
- Length: 29 ft 9 in (9.07 m)
- Wingspan: 35 ft 0 in (10.67 m)
- Height: 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
- Wing area: 232 ft² (21.6 m²)
- Empty weight: 5,161 lb (2,341 kg)
- Loaded weight: 6,651 lb (3,017 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 7,212 lb (3,271 kg)
- Powerplant: 1× Allison XV-1710-6 V-12, 1,150 hp (858 kW)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 307 mph (464 km/h)
- Range: 1,072 mi (1,725 km)
- Service ceiling 30,900 ft (9,421 m)
- Rate of climb: 2,630 ft/min (13.4 m/s)
- Wing loading: 29 lb/ft² (140 kg/m²)
- Power/mass: 0.17 hp/lb (280 W/kg)
Armament
- 2 x 0.30 cal (7.62 mm) machine guns
- 1 x 0.50 cal (12.7 mm) machine gun or 37 mm cannon
[edit] See also
Related development
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
[edit] Bibliography
- Dorr, Robert F. and Scutts, Jerry C. Bell P-39 Airacobra. Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire: The Crowood Press Ltd., 2000. ISBN 1-86126-348-1.
- Green, William. "Bell XFL-1 Airabonita". War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Four: Fighters. London: Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 1961 (6th impression 1969), p. 13-14. ISBN 0-356-01448-7.
- Green, William and Swanborough, Gordon. "Bell XFL-1 Airabonita". WW2 Aircraft Fact Files: US Navy and Marine Corps Fighters. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd., 1976, p. 3. ISBN 0-356-08222-9.
- Kinzey, Bert. "XFL-1 Airabonita". P-39 Airacobra - in detail. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications Inc., 1999, p. 8. ISBN 1-88897-416-4.
- Tomalik, Jacek. Bell P-6 Kingcobra, XFL-1 Airabonita, P-39 Airacobra (Monografie Lotnicze 59) (in Polish). Gdansk, Poland: AJ-Press, 2001. ISBN 83-7237-034-6.
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