Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose

History

The Vultee XP-54 was one of the more distinctive aircraft designed during World War II. The XP-54 (later known as "Swoose Goose") was produced through the Army Aviation program's essentially "blank canvas/blank check" approach (the specification was called "R-40C Data Request") and was doomed to fail , thanks to a multitude of unproven systems, subsystems, design concepts, and other factors generally beyond Vultee's control.

Unfortunately, the single-engine, two-armed fighter of this extremely optimistic design will not have two "X" fighters. Instead, Swoose Goose became yet another multi-million dollar faux pas in the U.S. with no sign of the project being canceled.

Break the ice

In the 1930s, aviation design and production in the United States proceeded essentially at a snail's pace, with bombers often stealing the limelight from their fighter ("pursuit") opponents in terms of firepower and speed. Many aircraft design companies are quite content to offer fighter jet creations based on outdated but time-tested formulas from a decade ago.

This formula utilizes the simplest possible fuselage, a standard monoplane wing structure layout, and at least one simple twin machine gun configuration.

USAF program R-40C

The U.S. Army Air Corps wants to change all that and inspire the creativity of these design companies to produce the best possible aircraft with whatever engine and weapon configuration the company sees fit. The Army Air Force will then evaluate each submission (submissions may include mono- or bi-wing types) against other similar aircraft designs in a number of basic performance and weapons categories, with a total score of no more than 1,000. Now that various U.S. aircraft manufacturers have received designs in every way (everyone feels it's a potentially lucrative production deal), the Vultee XP-54 takes the top prize, scoring 817.9 out of 1,000 points point. Vultee named the winning design the Type 84 and worked with USAAF (United States Army Air Force) to improve the fighter.

It's important to note that none of the designs were biplanes, and all used the relatively new construction method of stressed all-metal skin. Vultee specified relatively optimistic performance specs of a top speed of 510 mph, a range of 500 miles, a ceiling of 37,000 feet, and a combined weight of 8,500 pounds.

The USAF signed a contract order for the Type 84 (??S/N 41-1210) on January 8, 1941.

Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose Walks

The

Vultee design features a twin boom arrangement with a central fuselage nacelle containing the pilot, cockpit, fuel, engines and weapons. The central cabin is sleek and slender, and the cockpit is positioned amidships. The engines were mounted in the rear of the nacelle in a counter-rotating "propeller" arrangement, while the weapons were built into the nose. Twin booms emanate from the trailing edge of the wing and are attached to the stern through a large horizontal plane.

Each boom is covered with a short vertical tail. The wings themselves are set up as inverted "gull wings". The wings will contain the intercoolers and radiators needed for the engine. The engine of choice was a liquid-cooled Pratt & Whitney X-1800 system driving a counter-rotating propeller mounted between the booms.

The landing gear consisted of a tricycle arrangement with two single-wheel main gear retracted forward of the outriggers and a long-handled single-wheel nose gear recessed under the forward fuselage.

The pilot's cockpit entry is done through a completely different method. The pilot activated the electric lift, which lowered the cockpit floor (seats and all) to a point where the pilot could climb into the plane.

Once the seat belt is fastened, the system restarts, taking the pilot upstairs and into the cockpit.

Armor Kit

Interestingly, the originally planned 6 x frontal weapons. The Browning 50 caliber air-cooled heavy machine gun features a rotatable arrangement that allows the machine gun to traverse 3 degrees and descend to 6 degrees. The idea behind this technology is to help a pilot with strafing while keeping his plane relatively level in flight. The weapon system will be managed by an equally sophisticated targeting system, calculating angles and ranges to further aid the pilot.

The entire system turned out to be fairly new and perhaps even unnecessary, not to mention the added weight cost. The addition of protective armor and self-sealing fuel tanks (standard on any fighter at the end of the war) barely offset the bloated total.

Goose Trouble

While Swoose Goose's life started off great, storm clouds began to form on the horizon. Pratt & Whitney discontinued support and further development of the liquid-cooled engine entirely, leaving the Vultee team to decentralize to a new powerplant to power their XP-54. The system of choice became the untested 2,300 hp Lycoming XH-2470, another liquid-cooled engine that was larger and heavier than the XP-54 airframe originally expected. The new engine also forced the elimination of the counter-rotating propellers in favor of standard four-blade Hamilton propellers. To give the XP-54 class-leading high-altitude performance, the XH-2470 has been turbocharged.

It also meant that high-altitude flight required a pilot's pressurized cockpitall of which added further weight to the XP-54's fuselage.

Vultee makes it worse

The Vultee team didn't want to let it go, they devised an attempt to increase the XP-54's lethality. With the Army ordering a second prototype (S/N 41-1211) on 11 March 1942, the 6 x 12.7mm machine gun arrangement was phased out in favor of twin 37mm/2x. 50 caliber machine guns were deployed. Cannons proved better against fighter and bomber targets, but had a slower rate of fire compared to machine guns.

So 2x . The 50 caliber machine gun will complement the slower rate cannon. The selected 37mm T-9 series gun was developed by Oldsmobile and had some success with equipment such as Bell's P-39 Airacobra.

This new weapon arrangement will still be housed in the nose of the same designated pivot assembly as before - again increasing the XP-54's weight over the original specs - and again detracting from the optimistic performance figures.

Goose show time

The Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose was finally completed and ready to be shown in January 1943. The plane was transported to the Mojave Desert for assembly and flight.

The first flight of the original XP-54 prototype took place on January 15, 1943, which lasted 30 minutes and was more or less successful. After moving to Letterfield on October 28, 1943, the Lycoming engine was beyond repair.

Inappropriate ending

That's where Swoose Goose's legacy effectively ends. In 1943, the USAF was already having success with Pursuits in its inventory. The XP-54 was doomed because of its new engine, heavy working weight and complex internals.

As a result, with only one prototype completed, the XP-54 gradually fell out of the USAF's attention in favor of existing fighters such as the North American P-51 Mustang, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and Lockheed P-38 Blitz. Despite the reduced effort on the part of the USAF, for some reason the initial prototype continued to undergo limited testing, at which point a second prototype was completed and available.

The US Army Air Force has now moved in and officially cancelled the entire XP-54 program.

The second prototype made its maiden flight on March 24, 1944, in another brief test flight, this time to Norton Army Air Force Base. Like the first prototype before it, the engine of the second prototype failed inexplicably, ending the XP-54's legacy -- it had little to do with the original. Since the two prototypes were basically worthless, the two airframes were dismantled and used for scrap (a common practice during WWII).

Apart from a few photos, some memoirs and text, there is no wreckage of the XP-54 Swoose Goose.

None of the official (or available) products are from the USAAF initiative, Request for Data R-40C.

Specification

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Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes