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Sorry for that, but I had only this model photo with the description, saying that
"Convair tested the blended-hull concept with this scale model of the Skate.Later
studies added swept wings, then finally the delta was adopted".
The Flight article mentioned studies, which used the XB-46, but without drawings or
model photos. But with hindsight the similarity to the XB-46 is obvious ... :-[
Nevertheless, I dare to present the next Skate design :
_______________________________________________________________________________
The third design is the one, I’ve got most informations about, a cut-away and several photos
of the surprisingly well detailed hydrodynamic models. Probably this design is the one, usually
associated with the term “Convair Skate”. The fuselage basically resembles its predecessor,
but the intakes were moved forward and astonishingly low, I think, and the crew isn’t housed
in a tandem cockpit anymore, but is located in stepped side-by-side seating, similar to the british
Canberra or the DH Sea Vixen, where the navigators/radar operators seat usually was called the
“coal hole” ! Straight wing and tail surfaces have given way to swept ones, the lower part of the
tail housing a combined dive brake/water rudder. Again the position of the armament isn’t clear,
although it seems quite probable, that it would have been in the wing roots, as some details in
the cut-away seem to indicate. But we know for sure, that no turreted guns were envisaged .
(Cut-away and model photo from Mendenhall, "Delta Wings, Convair's High-Speed Planes" )
"Convair tested the blended-hull concept with this scale model of the Skate.Later
studies added swept wings, then finally the delta was adopted".
The Flight article mentioned studies, which used the XB-46, but without drawings or
model photos. But with hindsight the similarity to the XB-46 is obvious ... :-[
Nevertheless, I dare to present the next Skate design :
_______________________________________________________________________________
The third design is the one, I’ve got most informations about, a cut-away and several photos
of the surprisingly well detailed hydrodynamic models. Probably this design is the one, usually
associated with the term “Convair Skate”. The fuselage basically resembles its predecessor,
but the intakes were moved forward and astonishingly low, I think, and the crew isn’t housed
in a tandem cockpit anymore, but is located in stepped side-by-side seating, similar to the british
Canberra or the DH Sea Vixen, where the navigators/radar operators seat usually was called the
“coal hole” ! Straight wing and tail surfaces have given way to swept ones, the lower part of the
tail housing a combined dive brake/water rudder. Again the position of the armament isn’t clear,
although it seems quite probable, that it would have been in the wing roots, as some details in
the cut-away seem to indicate. But we know for sure, that no turreted guns were envisaged .
(Cut-away and model photo from Mendenhall, "Delta Wings, Convair's High-Speed Planes" )
) snippets is all I can safely do.
