Ball-Bartoe Jetwing

[robunos]

The "Jetwing" concept was conceived by Mr. 0. E. Bartoe
while he was Vice President and General Manager of Ball Brothers
Research, a division of the Ball Corporation. Mr. Bartoe felt so
strongly about his ideas that he was able to convince the management
of Ball Corporation that they were worth spending corporate
funds to develop. This led to the formation of a separate company,
called Ball-Bartoe Aircraft Company (with Mr. Bartoe as its
President), to develop the "Jetwing" idea into a proof of concept
research aircraft.
Development started on the Jetwing research airplane in
1973. The airplane was completed and ready for testing by
December of 1976.
Full scale testing started in December of 1976 in the NASA
Ames Research Center 40' x 80' wind tunnel. A large matrix of
aircraft configurations were tested in the full scale wind tunnel.
Other data from these tests are also available for comparison with
flight test data and with data from other USB concepts.
The first flight was conducted at Mojave, California on July
11, 1977, by Mr. H. R. Salmon.
Forty seven flights were flown at Mojave for a total of 34 hours.
Upon completion of testing at Mojave, the aircraft was
ferried to the Ball-Bartoe Aircraft Company facility at Boulder,
Colorado, where some testing and demonstration flying continued.
An additional 44 flights and 32 flight hours were accumulated upon
the aircraft during the ferry trip and test flying at Boulder.
In December of 1978, the Jetwing research aircraft and its
conceptual patents were donated to the University of Tennessee
Space Institute.
On February 19, 1980, the University of Tennessee received
Contract N00019-80-C-0126 for the flight and ground testing which
is described in the report entitled :-

"A FLIGHT TEST EVALUATION OF THE BALL-BARTOE JETWING
PROPULSIVE LIFT CONCEPT"

http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA103579

This report contains the following conclusion :-

"That strong consideration be given to continued development
of such technology for application to future military aircraft."


In 2007, the Jetwing was donated by UTSI to the
Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado.


Sources :-

"Jetwing from Colorado", Air International, February 1978, pp.69-71

"Whispering Jetwing", Aeroplane Monthly, July 1978, pp. 367-369

http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/Oldies-and-Oddities-Blown-Away.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/landoni/sets/72157605295788377/

http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA103579



cheers,
Robin.

 

[robunos]

In pages 15-23 of the report referenced above, is a section entitled :-

"SECTION III - POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS OF JETWING CONCEPT"

This summarises the advantages of the Jetwing concept and briefly describes
some potential future applications.
These are various permutaions of a canard fighter/attack aircraft and a transport
aircraft, see below.

Regarding the use of the canard configuration for the fighters, page 104 of the report says this :-
"When the change in downwash with change in angle of attack term (dl/da) approaches one, the tails
contribution to stability approaches zero.
This relation seems to indicate that upper surface blowing concepts, such as that employed on the Jetwing,
may be better adapted to Canard configurations which only depend upon the horizontal surface for balance
and control, and not for longitudinal stability."

And from page 118 :-
"As was stated earlier upper surface blowing concepts such as this might be more effective as Canard configurations.
If conventional tail configurations are used they should have special treatment such as camber, increased thickness
and a large leading edge radius."


cheers,
Robin.

 

[Stargazer]

The Jetwing is new to me, I must say... Fascinating aircraft! Looks like some Italian design, kind of an offspring of a Sagittario aircraft!

 

[cluttonfred]

This aircraft and specific application of the blown surface are new to me, thanks very much!

Here is a link to Bartoe's original patent, which also notes that reducing noise compared to some other concepts was one of the goals.

It's too bad this wasn't developed further. I can can easily imagine, for example, a small subsonic attack jet for close air support able to operate from improvised forward fields or from amphibious assault ships without catapults or arrestor gear and at a fraction of the cost of the complex Harrier.

 

[circle-5]

The first flight was conducted at Mojave, California on July 11, 1977, by Mr. H. R. Salmon.

Is that "Fish" Salmon of Lockheed?

 

[cluttonfred]

Yes it is.

 

[UpForce]

I came across the Jetwing in the Smithsonian Air&Space mag a little more than a year ago, when trying to look a bit more deeply into boundary layer energizing, circulation control and things of that nature. A very endearing little plane to which I took a liking, but didn't know if there were follow-up projects specifically. I have seen some contemporary papers available on the web exploring similar ideas with CFD programs (can't remember if I saved them, or the exact links). It's not that delaying separation by "blowing" a surface that diverges from the flow is a new or unexplored area I think, but what's more exotic - perhaps - about this project is that it's a "hybrid" thrust arrangement as well. I don't know if that configuration is nearly as well explored; what I've seen of the future USAF heavy lift contenders, they're perhaps exploring ideas along those lines?

 

[cluttonfred]

Adding to the documents already listed, here are a couple more.

First is a link to a follow-up 1982 study titled "A Flight Test Evaluation and Analytical Study of the Ball-Bartoe Jetwing Propulsive Lift Concept Without Ejector"

Second is "Synergistic Airframe-Propulsion Interactions and Integrations: A White Paper Prepared by the 1996-1997 Langley Aeronautics Technical Committee" which includes about three pages on the nature and pros and cons of augmenter and jet wing concepts.

Cheers,

Matthew

 

[robunos]

Mole, thanks for the extra references, I never was able to find any more. ;D

UpForce, as far as I know, the Jetwing is unique in using the whole of the exhaust flow
to blow across the wing. The nearest I can find to this is the UK's Hunting H.126, see here :-

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,12324.msg120559.html#msg120559

However, in this case, not all of the flow was passed over the flying surfaces.


cheers,
Robin.

 

[cluttonfred]

This whole jetwing thread has my imagination running wild. My latest concept is a very light jet without the auxiliary ejector wing and trap-door jet slots that remain closed in cruising flight. Two forward-mounted engines could be on pylons above or below the wings or perhaps on either side of the forward fuselage like the forward engines of the Martin XB-51. In cruising flight the engines would operate normally, but for STOL operations the efflux would be diverted to ducts, mixed in a common plenum and ejected over the wing. The horizontal stabilizer would be oversized to handle the full speed range to avoid the complexity of ducts to the tail. The extra weight of the ducts and stabilizer would be a fair trade for being to be able to operate from small and unimproved airstrips but still cruise at jet speed.

 

[Orionblamblam]

It's on display at the Wings Over The Rockies air museum near Denver, Colorado. Nice and shiny, it's surprisingly small.

 

[siplt2]

i love this plane i went to see it irl it was really cool

 

[Justo Miranda]

Hi