Northrop F-89 Competition

[hesham]

Hi,

we know that,on March 23 1945,the USAAF's Requirement Division announced a competition
for an all-weather fighter-bomber to guard the northern most zones of the United States,the
main tenders were; Northrop F-89,Curtiss-Wright F-87,Bell D-36,Goodyear GA-17,Convair
and Douglas Model-1011.

Northrop submitted a four version,the N-24 Type A,B,C & D.

Le Fana 9/2015

 

[Nico]

My dear Hesham:
thank you for your excursus on the ever-fascinating theme of US Army requirements of 1945.
The one for an all-weather fighter is particularly interesting. The various book quote different dates but probably, as you said, there was a pre-solicitation on March 23 and an RFP on August 28. I failed to trace any deisgnations or code for the requirement.
As you said, Northrop submitted four configuration of its Model N-24 (A, B, C and D) and the other contestants were Bell, Condolidated Vultee, Curtiss-Wright, Douglas and Goodyear, for a total of nine designs from six manifacturers.
Bell proposal, diversely from what I thought, was'nt the Venus (a project very close to the P-87), but a kind of contraption (no picture found) with two General Electric TG-100 turboprops and two Westinghouse 24C turbojets.
Consolidated Vultee submitted a derivative of Model 112 (aka XA-44/XB-53) with forward swept wing.
Curtiss-Wright proposal was the CW-29A (there is a little typo on your post as the aircraft became the F-87 or, better, the XP-87 as the F for Fighter mission symbol arrived later).
There was also a Douglas design from Santa Monica Division. It was the Model 1011, based on XA-42/XB-42, and not as often referred (also by myself) an iteration of the XF3D1 Skyknight.
Goodyear project is not known and not seen but it could be related to the shipborne night fighter GA-13/GA-13A or the GA-16 penetration fighter.
Will be a great pleasure if our experts can found some artist's impressions or drawings of the various never-seen projects.
The rest of the story is wellknown: selected projects were XP-87 and XP-89, pitted again other aircraft like the Skyknight and the Northrop one won.
Nico

 

[hesham]

My dear Nico,

there is a CAD drawings to Bell D-36 and Goodyear GA-17,and as you expected for
Goodyear,but for Bell,it was developed from D-31,here it is;

http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=1490
http://www.militaryfactory.com/imageviewer/ac/pic-detail.asp?aircraft_id=1491&sCurrentPic=pic1

 

[Stargazer]

there is a CAD drawings to Bell D-36 and Goodyear GA-17,and as you expected for
Goodyear,but for Bell,it was developed from D-31,here it is;

Nice. I do not necessarily question the fact that these beautiful images could be based on the actual projects, but I'd much rather see some original drawings, however sketchy, rather than an interpretation, so as to identify what was in the real proposal and what was the artist's invention or re-creation.

 

[hesham]

My dear Skyblazer,

unfortunately the real drawings I can't display them,because they mention in a recent book,
and it is still available;

http://www.amazon.com/Early-Jet-Fighters-Proposals-Prototypes/dp/1902109309

 

[KJ_Lesnick]

Does anybody have dimensions on the initial swept-wing proposal for the F-89? I'm not talking about the 1949 proposal, but the initial one they rejected in favor of the swept wing?