Bell D188 Jet VTOL Fighter for the USN (1956)

I recently put up an article at RetroMechanix.com on the Bell D188, a VTOL fighter proposal for the USN that preceded the D188A/XF-109:




The article is accompanied by an image gallery with 160 images reproducing the original proposal brochure and color photos of the desktop model. Many high resolution drawings and illustrations are featured throughout, along with a detailed technical description of every aspect of the aircraft, an unusual beast powered by 11 jet engines(!) More documents on this design will be featured in Part 2 of this article in the near future. Enjoy!

-Jared

Jared, you are the best!!! Thank you so much.

Nice scans

I have attempted to reconstruct a three-view of the Model D188 using the graphics on page 21 as a basis (Drawing No. D188-960-100). I hope I got the lines right (it's really not easy to make out the real lines of the aircraft from all the measurements).

Please anyone let me know how accurate this is and if it's of any help.

Thanks again Jared for providing us with so much inspiring material!

Looks quite good to me Stephane! I have more material to share on this design in the second part of the article, which I hope to have up soon. Then I will start presenting material on the D188A, some of it not seen before. Stay tuned!

The second part of the article on the Bell D188 is now up at RetroMechanix.com:





It covers a wind tunnel report on the design and features 18 images, including several nice photos and general arrangement drawings of the model, which differs slightly from the finalized design in the proposal brochure.


Continuing the Bell VTOL aircraft theme, I also have an article up on Bell VTOL Aircraft Projects of October 1955:





This summarizes a brochure highlighting various Bell VTOL aircraft studies and features excellent general arrangement drawings and artist's impressions of several projects, including the Bell D139 shown above.


Finally, there is a short article on the Bell Aircraft Corporation Twenty-First Annual Report of 1956:





It's accompanied by several nice color photos and illustrations excerpted from the document.


I've also made some improvements to the site, removing a couple ads and de-cluttering the right hand sidebar a bit; hopefully this will also help improve site performance. I hope you enjoy the material; there's plenty more to come!


-Jared

Jared, you're my hero!! LOL

These Bell VTOL designs are just what I needed to go walking with a wide smile on my face for the rest of the day!!!

Keep up the fantastic work my friend.

Glad to oblige; if anyone can ID the studies shown in the annual report, that would be great.

The four-duct assault transport study was the D-181.

I've noticed a boo-boo even in the official 1955 document from Bell. The project that became the X-14 is labelled "D174" in the article but "D147" in the plan. I believe the former is correct.

The two-engined tilt-jet fighter is an updated version of the D-109.

Stargazer2006 said:

The project that became the X-14 is labelled "D174" in the article but "D147" in the plan.

Click to expand...

Also shown as D-174 here:
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=9759

Thanks guys, will update the article accordingly.


According to Miller's "The X-Planes" book the X-14 was designated as the Model 68 within Bell. How does the D174 fit into this - is it an improved X-14? It certainly looks better than the article as built.

jzichek said:

Thanks guys, will update the article accordingly.


According to Miller's "The X-Planes" book the X-14 was designated as the Model 68 within Bell. How does the D147 fit into this - is it an improved X-14? It certainly looks better than the article as built.

Click to expand...

Check the diagram on Scott's page (link above): the D174 (NOT 147!!!) and D179 (which both appear in the VTOL brochure you scanned) came first; the X-14 was the demonstrator to validate the technology so it was a lot more basic.

Tailspin Turtle also featured this image in the D188A topic:

According to the plaque on this desk model, it was the lift engine concept (two J79s with a line of lift engines between them)

Click to expand...

Large version here: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1139.msg49841.html#msg49841