Republic AP-100 VTOL fighter

overscan (PaulMM) · 5 August 2006

Heres a somewhat unclear pic of a late 1960s Republic fighter design. It seems to connect back to the Republic F-108 but also shows some similarities to the Fairchild-Republic TFX submission. Anyone got more?

hesham · 5 August 2006

It seemed to Republic AP.100 nuclear powered aircraft.

lark · 5 August 2006

The model shown is the Republic AP-100 V/Stol fighter bomber.
Powerplants ; 6 improved General-Electric J-85 turbo jets plus
3 "Lift Fan" propulsion systems.
Span:35.5' Lenght:67'9'' Height:13'10''
gross w:38.000 pounds.

"A" version single seater "B" version two seater.

Source : Air Progress Spring 1961.

An illustration was send a time ago to my friend Pometablava who
was so kind to put it on this forum.

overscan (PaulMM) · 12 August 2006

More, thanks to lark.

overscan (PaulMM) · 29 May 2007

From NASA report (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19710070030_1971070030.pdf)

elider · 30 May 2007

I hope every gets as thrilled as I do when I see posts like this. This is fantastic. Thanks Overscan.

lark · 30 May 2007

Great find! Thanks.
(oh..sweet nostalgia)

Jemiba · 30 May 2007

Here the AP-100 from Aviation Week, August 1960 ...

overscan (PaulMM) · 5 October 2007

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19730065305_1973065305.pdf

More pics of the NASA model

Firefly 2 · 5 October 2007

6 engines, 3 lift systems, clean lines...
Where's the fuel?

Sentinel Chicken · 5 October 2007

A. It's in the fuel truck.
B. It's in the air-refuelling tanker.
C. It's in the external tanks but they made the plane too heavy for VTO.

Orionblamblam · 13 November 2008

AP-100 art/drawings.

elider · 13 November 2008

Thanks for the high quality post.

Orionblamblam · 13 November 2008

elider said:
Thanks for the high quality post.

You're welcome. I accept cash, checks, money orders, PayPal, gold, silver, blonds, brunettes, redheads and albinos.

Kim Margosein · 13 November 2008

Is that area behind the cockpit the fuel tank? Considering the efficiency of jets and VTOL in general, it would need it's first refueling around the time it transitions to horizontal.

Kim M

Orionblamblam · 13 November 2008

Kim Margosein said:
Is that area behind the cockpit the fuel tank?

Behind the cockpit, and part of the tailcone. It also *seems* to indicate that the wing and vertical tail are also fuel tanks, but since that includes the actual control surfaces, that must just be a trick of the shading.

reelarchives · 9 October 2009

Here are some pics of the AP-100 in development tests from one of my 16mm films - hope you enjoy!

Stargazer · 9 October 2009

Very interesting shots! Thanks for sharing.

reelarchives · 9 October 2009

Stargazer2006 said:
Very interesting shots! Thanks for sharing.

You are very welcome!

Matej · 9 October 2009

reelarchives said:
Hope you enjoy!

Yes, we do! Thanx.

flateric · 9 October 2009

incredible stuff, thanks for sharing these treasures!

any chances to see XF-103 stuff?

OM · 9 October 2009

Stargazer2006 said:
Very interesting shots! Thanks for sharing.

...Better still, any chance of capping the film and putting it on YouTube?

overscan (PaulMM) · 9 October 2009

Super cool stuff, thanks for posting these.

If you need helping id-ing other stuff just post some piccies

reelarchives · 10 October 2009

OM said:
Stargazer2006 said:

Very interesting shots! Thanks for sharing.

Click to expand...

...Better still, any chance of capping the film and putting it on YouTube?

I just purchased all these films about 2 weeks ago and believe me it takes a lot of time to go through them all. I will copy some of them and sell most of them eventually. All in all I have about 1,000 films to go through and most of them are on film cores of varying sizes from 25 ft to 2,000 ft! They belonged to a former employee of Republic Aviation who rescued them years ago from being tossed when they were shutting down the plant. Most of the films date from the late 1950's to the 1960's along with some footage of the last project they were working on called the T-46A. For now though I'll just share some pictures I come across which I think this forum might find interesting.

reelarchives · 10 October 2009

Here are some pics of the AP-100 from an animated film I looked at. I have yet to find anything else showing a real mock up of this fighter.

overscan (PaulMM) · 10 October 2009

I doubt it went any further than scale models, personally. Nice pics though, thanks for sharing, and enjoy digging through what you have

Triton · 25 June 2013

Republic Aviation AP-100 model testing.

View: http://youtu.be/33brA29FRDk

patvig · 25 June 2013

Other info at http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=1295

overscan (PaulMM) · 25 June 2013

Added to existing topic. Video was transferred from film and uploaded by forum member "Reelarchives".

Stargazer · 26 June 2013

Image quality is outstanding. Congrats to Reelarchives!

circle-5 · 25 February 2015

Republic AP-100A factory display model, ca.1957 (one of my favorite models!) This is the final configuration, with the little pitch fan in the tail.

Photo by Chad Slattery

sferrin · 25 February 2015

I wonder how speedy this thing would have been on the deck. B)

circle-5 · 26 February 2015

sferrin said:
I wonder how speedy this thing would have been on the deck. B)

With six J-85 turbojets and a L/W ratio >1, I assume Republic's Mach 2+ claim was easily attainable. But with those same six turbojets and little space left for fuel tanks, it's doubtful the AP-100's combat radius was anything to get excited about. Then again, the idea of a VTOL interceptor was to base it very near the front lines (i.e. the border between the GDR and the FRG).

Stargazer · 26 February 2015

circle-5 said:
Republic AP-100A factory display model, ca.1957 (one of my favorite models!) This is the final configuration, with the little pitch fan in the tail.

Omigod... Such a beauty!! Thanks A LOT for sharing this marvel.

xmotex · 28 February 2015

Mach 2 on the deck?
I imagine that would have made for a pretty bumpy ride

circle-5 · 1 March 2015

xmotex said:
Mach 2 on the deck?

Though not specified, I would assume Mach 2 performance was at altitude. Attached is another view of the Republic AP-100A, showing the scalloped turbojet exhaust, twin-fin layout and rear pitch-control fan (which replaced the earlier puffer jet arrangement).

I wonder if Alexander Kartveli also designed the 1960 Cadillac Eldorado ...

AP-100 photo by Chad Slattery

Firefinder · 22 May 2023

View: https://youtu.be/DRgKVfbqJlY

A video of this.

Scott Kenny · 25 May 2023

6x J85s... Today we could replace that with 6x afterburning Williams FJ44s, though I'd remove the middle lift fan to use as a bomb bay and just use a 3-bearing nozzle like the F35.

acegeek9992 · 25 May 2023

Scott Kenny said:
6x J85s... Today we could replace that with 6x afterburning Williams FJ44s, though I'd remove the middle lift fan to use as a bomb bay and just use a 3-bearing nozzle like the F35.

Well, where would the three-bearing nozzle be located?

Orionblamblam · 25 May 2023

Hmmm... blatant self promotion, ya or nah?

Republic AP-100 VTOL fighter

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