Douglas XFD

History

Today, the famous Douglas Aircraft Company (DAC) name is buried as part of the Boeing-owned brand McDonnell Douglas. DAC went bankrupt in 1967 as part of a merger with the McDonnell Aircraft Company, but before that the company was responsible for various designs that spanned various aircraft types and attempted to meet various U.S. military requirements.

The company is associated with designs such as the classic A-4 Skyhawk, A-26 Invader, C-54 Skymaster, Skystreak/Skyrocket Experimental Program, various DC passenger/cargo carriers, and SBD Dauntless. Before the company's many contributions to aviation, its first foray into a military fighter jet was the short-lived and ultimately aborted "XFD."

XFD is a product of the intervening period between the two world wars. It was developed for U.S. Navy (USN) service as a carrier-based aircraft using a traditional fixed-gear winged biplane configuration. Two crew members (tandem) sat amidships under a long-running greenhouse-like canopy with the wing members mounted forward. As usual, the engine was placed in the nose, driving a simple two-bladed propeller arrangement.

The main legs are fixed under the front mass of the aircraft, and a single tail wheel pulls the tail upwards, with the aircraft nose up when stationary due to its "smearing" shape. The structure of the aircraft is metal and fabric for the skin.

Douglas suggested that his XFD be armed with 2 x .30 caliber machine guns, one fixed, forward-firing and controlled by the pilot, the other controlled by a second rear-firing crew member in the aft cockpit (gun mounted on a trainable stand). Additionally, the aircraft is designed to carry bomb loads of up to 500 pounds and can carry ammunition externally.

To drive their new development, Douglas engineers selected a Pratt & Whitney R-1535-64 Twin Wasp Junior 14-cylinder 700 hp air-cooled radial piston engine. This will be used to drive the twin-blade propeller unit on the nose, and the air-cooled unit is favored by U.S.

Navy service for its inherent performance and survivability.

This aircraft is set up to comply with USN Specification #113, which requires two-seat fighters to be able to use the service's existing flat-top inventory. The U.S. Navy ordered three designs for further development, the Curtiss XF12C, the Vought XF3U, and of course the proposed Douglas XFD.

Douglas flew the XFD-1 prototype for the first time in January 1933, and in June of that year the aircraft was handed over to Naval Air Station Anacostia for formal testing. Testing continued until mid-1934, at which point U.S. naval authorities stopped looking for a two-man fighter and abandoned interest in the XFD and its rival, the Vought.

This led to the complete end of the XFD program, and the Curtiss XF12C evolved into the SBC Helldiver reconnaissance bomber and produced 257 of them, a production line that ran until 1943.

When flying, the XFD has a top speed of 204 mph and a flying speed of 170 mph. Range is 575 miles, while service is capped at 23,700 feet. Climb rate is 1,670 feet per minute.

The XFD marked one of the last attempts to build a two-seat carrier-based fighter jet for the U.S. Navy during the interwar period.

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