Bell tail-sitter aircraft of 1944 ?

Hi,

I know the first Bell tailsitter aircraft patent of 1941,but in 1944
Bell studied a real design for a twin engine jet-propelled tail-sitter
tactical aircraft,does anyone hear about it ?.

In USSR, on a Bell P-39 basis was completed 1946 a tailsitter, according to the Unicraft model:
http://www.geocities.com/unicraftmodels/on/kit1/kit1.htm

Thank you my dear Tophe,

but I think it was different design.

hesham said:

Hi,

I know the first Bell tailsitter aircraft patent of 1941,but in 1944
Bell studied areal design for a twin engine jet-propelled tail-sitter
tactical aircraft,does anyone hear about it ?.

Click to expand...

This was the Bell Model 50, which was called the Convert-O-Plane. I don't know the patent which you are referring to, but it is likely a close design; three years sounds reasonable to go from design of such a complicated aircraft to the allocation of a proper project number. It is possible that it might have looked something like the old Popular Mechanics-type illustration attached, which was said to represent a Bell VTOL of the same period.

The apparently later D-109 design (1951), submitted to the same US Navy specification as the Convair and Lockheed tailsitters, carried the same name and may have been a rework of the same aircraft, but as I have no pics or detailed info on any of the above I just cannot say.

However, it seems that Scott Lowther's online publication describes D-109 in a two-part series about Bell's Convertiplane/Vertiburner fighter designs (along with D-118, D-139 and D-188/A). If it has any pics of it, it could be of great interest to solve the mystery.

May I humbly suggest that if you are interested eAPR V2N3 and V2N4 would be a worthwhile spend of $17.50. The two part D-188 article is 14 and 52 pages respectively with a plethora of images.

The Douglas Rolfe illustration is an artist impression
of the Arthur Young patent 2,382,460 filled January 8 1941
for the VTOL tailsitter.

What made you think Stargazer that it should be the Bell Model 50 Vert-O-Plane ?

lark said:

What made you think Stargazer that it should be the Bell Model 50 Vert-O-Plane ?

Click to expand...

Did I say anything of the sort??? Read again:

It is possible that it might have looked something like the old Popular Mechanics-type illustration attached, which was said to represent a Bell VTOL of the same period.

Click to expand...

:

This was the Bell Model 50, which was called the Convert-O-Plane. I don't know the patent which you are referring to, but it is likely a close design


What is the Model 50 than ?

Lark, I don't know what it is, but it seems there is a gap in communication between us, although I think I made it all pretty clear above...

1°) Arthur M. Young was the engineer who introduced Bell to rotorcraft with what became the Model 30.
2°) He was in charge with all the helicopter and VTOL projects at Bell throughout the 1940s.
3°) He filed a patent in 1941 for an "Aircraft" which was a jet convertible helicopter exactly similar to the artist's view pictured above.
4°) In 1944 the patent was approved.
5°) In 1945, Young was in charge of a Bell project called the "Model 50 Convert-O-Plane", which is said to have been a tailsitter VTOL.

It sounds therefore pretty reasonable to imagine that the Model 50 may have looked somewhat like the 1941 patent submission!

The Model 50 is not to be mistaken (as I once did) for design D-109, also called Convert-O-Plane, which was an early 1951 contender for the VTO fighter competition against the better known submissions such as the Convair Model 5 Pogo-Dart, the Lockheed Model 81 Rising Star, the Northrop N-63 and the Martin 262.

Patent drawings here...

Thanks for the explanation Stargazer the 'gap' is almost closed...

Main reason for my doubt is these text:

....Bell Aircraft , on it's way to becoming a premier helicopter manufacturer
performed -Tiltrotor- design studies as early as the 1940's.One of their
earliest concepts was the Model 50 Convert-O-plane followed by the D-76 'rotor plane'
for a single occupant....

source : Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey-Aerofax Series - page 13.

"Illustration of engineer's proposed Gyroplane" by D. S. Dawson, showing a very similar configuration:

Good, interesting stuff! -SP

As stated above Bell Model 50 was a Convert-O Plane design by A. Young - could be same, -SP

Hi,


from Le FANA No 521,and by the member "Mirage 4000",here is the Bell tail-sitter aircraft
of 1940s.