Grumman XP-50 (Skyrocket)

History

As an aircraft supplier to the U.S. Navy, Grumman Aircraft began an equally lucrative deal with the U.S. Army to produce hybrid platforms for high-speed pursuit fighters and light bombers. After developing the aggressive-looking XF5F-1 Skyrocket in the late 1930s, Grumman decided to take the concept further with some design changes to meet Army requirements.

These included adding a longer nose section to accommodate the nose landing gear and creating a landing system not dissimilar to the tricycle used by Bell and its "Airacobra" line. The resulting design was of enough interest to the U.S.

Army to contract for an airworthy prototype, designated the "XP-50".

The XP-50 shares many similarities with its predecessor. The pilot sits in a short, streamlined fuselage with an extended nose protruding above the engine nacelles. The engines are housed in low-mounted monoplane wings, all forward of the cockpit. The engines chosen were Wright branded R-1820-G205 bearing the military designation R-1820-67/-69, each rotating in opposite directions to counteract the unique naturally occurring torque effects of each engine. The ends of the wings are clipped (similar to the North American P-51 Mustang) and the tail is dominated by the twin vertical tails on the original XF5F-1.

The cockpit is located in the center of the fuselage and is covered with a glass-framed roof. Visibility was reported to be stable when looking forward and above, but the location of the wings and engines undoubtedly hindered downward visibility - a common design flaw in twin-engine fighter jets throughout the war.

During the development of the XP-50, weapon options were tossed around. Since large-caliber air-cooled machine guns were the standard for American aircraft design at the time, a makeshift weapon pack of 6 x 12.7mm Browning machine guns was released. This will have a set of 4 x 12.7mm guns in the nose assembly and an additional 1 x 12.7mm gun in the wings.

Considering a total of 500 rounds per gun, that's impressive. The second proposed weapon pack is more in line with the future of the basic dog fighter and includes a row of 2 x 20mm Hispano-Suiza machine guns and 2 x 12.7mm machine guns. The gun must fire 60 rounds. An additional 2 x 12.7mm machine guns were mounted on each wing.

All in all, any weapons formation makes the XP-50 an aircraft to be reckoned with. To make the Xp-50 a true hybrid fighter-bomber, a 165-pound drop bomb was fitted under each wing. In an interesting design note, a window was installed in the cockpit floor with the sole purpose of assisting the pilot in bombing.

Unfortunately for the XP-50, none of these weapons were incorporated into the design.

The XP-50 first flew in February 1941, and despite a relatively short 20-minute flight time, the system passed all critical performance tests. Successive flights were equally promising until April 14, 1941, when a catastrophic failure of one of the plane's turbochargers forced the pilot to eject the plane and crash in the waters off Long Island Sound.

This certainly left a dark mark on the XP-50, and the U.S. Army took steps to protect the Lockheed XP-38.

Despite the setback, the design was transformed into another new design - the G-51 model. This particular design would form the basis for the XF7F, which would later become the US Marine Corps' F7F Tigercat (completely missed WWII, but made a splash in the Korean War a few years later).

Regardless, the XP-50 was a solid design compared to other development aircraft in the war. Grumman would no doubt bounce back from the refusal to become one of America's most prominent aircraft companies, producing notable systems like the F6F Hellcat, F8F Bearcat, and the timeless F-14 Tomcat.

Specification

Basic

Production

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Performance

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Changes