USNavy Inflatable Plane

[Bruno Anthony]

USNavy inflatable airplane project from ~1960. Here are some newspaper articles:

 

[Stargazer]

Connected topics:

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,8145.0
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2978.0

 

[cluttonfred]

While related to the other inflatable aircraft threads, this does seem to be something new. The text describes a carrier-capable, turboprop aircraft with a 325 mph top seed and 1,100 mile range!?! The text also refers to an alleged breakthrough that allowed the deisgn to be modified for VTOL operations. As Mr. Spock used to say with a raised eyebrow, "Fascinating."

The plot thickens...here are links to two relevant patents by CPT Cooper B. Bright and his obituary as well as a teaser image.

https://www.google.com/patents/US3887146
https://www.google.com/patents/US2601756
http://www.obitsforlife.com/obituary/252625/Bright-Cooper.php

The VTOL breakthrough appears to have involved using the inflatable sections as a sort of compressed air reservoir to allow momentary VTOL operation, a bit like a jump-takeoff autogyro, as well as using bleed air from the engines for boundary-layer control at low speeds.

Neat!

 

[Jemiba]

While related to the other inflatable aircraft threads, this does seem to be something new. ...

That's why I was reluctant to merge those threads. It seems to be much more, than just an air droppable
flying life boat, as was the Ox-Cart proposal. As the conventional aircraft complement of a carrier of about
80 a/c is compared to about 1000 of the inflatable type, it should actually have been a kind of attack type,
although I'm honestly still a bit sceptical about the idea of something ballooned going to war !

 

[Stargazer]

It appears that the Wagmight project refered in fact to a cheap, collapsible Navy missile proposal, but the term was later used for a naval aircraft project that used inflated parts for VTOL performance.

Development of the inexpensive Wagmight inflatable cruise missile was stopped in 1961. This missile was intended for massed employment to disorganize air defense systems.

Source: CIA Memorandum, May 31, 1977

WAGMIGHT (Navy)
Inflatable vehicle capable of flying as manned aircraft, missile or drone. Has vertical take-off capability from "accumulator" compressed air principle. Goodyear.

Source: Missile and Space Projects Guide (Springer, 1962)

Inflatable Missile Made of Rubber
A cheap rubberized inflatable missile that could transform any ship into an aircraft carrier is reportedly under study by the Navy. Dubbed Wagmight it is an unmanned jet-powered missile-airplane capable of flying 1500 miles at 500 miles an hour. Except for its engines the Wagmight would be constructed entirely of tough rubber-coated nylon cloth. It could be stored in a small cylinder and be assembled inflated and launched from a catapult in minutes. Drawings show how this operation could take place on a submarine:

• Capsule containing missile is hauled up from storage hold
• Catapulted missile streaks out from the sub under jet power
• Deflated missile is removed spread out and filled with air

Designed by Goodyear Co. the inflated missile is about 39 feet long with a wingspan of 20 feet. Although slow and vulnerable to enemy fire Wagmight could be produced and launched in huge quantities, guaranteeing that some of the ground-hugging missiles would reach their targets.

Source: Ames Daily Tribune, Monday, February 8, 1960

The Navy has deflated the idea of using compressed air in inflatable aircraft as an aid to almost verticle take-offs and landings. The idea concerns the Wagmight principle for an inflatable airplane, Wagmight being a coined code word. The Navy previously had disowned the Wagmight missile principle as impractical. Its newest disavowal referred to a plan for the harnessing of compressed air in the inflatable wings of an aircraft, to drive down-turned propellers that would lift the craft directly off the ground. “The Navy has no money earmarked for this work, doesn’t consider it feasible, and has no intention to pursue it further,” a spokesman for the chief of naval information said. The application of Wag­might, or rubberized inflatable vehicle, techniques to verticle take-off aircraft was suggested by Navy enthusiasts. These officers privately conducted a study and prepared a pamphlet pointing out the advantages of such a craft. The pamphlet has been distributed among aircraft manufacturers. One company, Goodyear, has been pushing the idea enthusiastically, as it did with the previously Navy-disowned Wagmight missile. The Navy said the pamphlet has no Navy approval or authorization and is merely the expression of private opinion by individual officers. Add Extra Air. Advocates of the idea said wings of an inflatable aircraft, requiring pressure of 50 pounds a square inch to maintain shape in flight, could be safely overpressured to 150 pounds a square inch. This excess air, provided by the plane’s regular engines, could be released for fhe few seconds required for quick take-off or vertical landing, the advocates said. They said that inflatable craft could be kept folded aboard small ships, even submarines, and then inflated when needed.

Source: The Kansas City Times, 24 November 1960



Wagmight was initially proposed by Navy Capt. Cooper Bright, who "dramatically defended his brainchild behind closed doors (...) in defiance of his superiors who sat stiffly alongside him."
Source: http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/get/2041/42257/b16f10-0403zdisplay.pdf


A very interesting account of Wagmight development and cause for cancellation (and absence of documents) can be found in this 1961 article:

Congress is looking into charges that the Navy's carrier admirals torpedoed a revolutionary low- cost collapsible missile in a bitter intra-Navy fight. Informed Navy sources say that Sec. John B. Connally is under instructions to hold up on any "binding policy decision" on the so-called Wagmight II project until the House Armed Services Committee can investigate. Perjury? This committee has b een told that Capt. Cooper Bright, Wagmight project oficer, was:
1.--Asked to perjure himself a year ago before a House appropriations subcommittee to make his testimony conform to official Navy position.
2.--Officially silenced by the Navy last November to keep him from discussing the project with Congress or the press, and especially to keep secret the fact that a VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) system had been devised for Wagmight.
3.--Ordered to recall and destroy all booklets describing the VTOL Wagmight.
A number of congressmen and senators, have been kept quietly abreast of developments by Bright's friends in the Navy. Report asked Rep. Carl Vinson (D-Ga), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Sec. Connally requesting a personal report before a final decision is made on Wagmight. The legislators have been told that the opposition to Wagmight stems from the intra-Navy battle between "carrier admirals" and the rest of the fleet." The wide-scale use of Wagmight, according to reliable estimates, would make the big carriers virtually obsolete, as even small ships and submarines could carry these folded-up, nuclear-armed missiles. Wagmight II is a refinement of the original concept for a collapsible plane. It could be designed either as a manned aircraft or as a missile. Immune To Radar The advantages, as outlined by Capt. Bright before a congressional committee, a year ago, include:
--Dozens of the units could be stored on existing ships and subs. It will fold into a 23-foot long cylinder, 50 inches in diameter.
--Because it is made of a rubberized fabric, it is virtually immune to radar detection.
--Wagmight would be powered by existing long-range, high speed jet engines, requiring no additional research or development.
--Wagmight is cheap and highly mobile.

Source: Lincoln Evening Journal, 25 May 1961



Other online newspaper articles:

• New Rubber Missile Wins Navy Frowns Because Of Simplicity, St. Petersburg Times, January 12, 1960
• Navy Missile Squabble Probed, The Pittsburgh Press, May 24, 1961
• Muzzling Charged to Navy, Star-News, February 6, 1962

Other existing Wagmight references:

• Congressional hearings: page 8 | page 9
• F40: Administrative, Defense, Navy, Wagmight V/TOL, 1960 - June 1961 - Vertical take-off and landing, inflatable aircraft, Cooper B. Bright, Carl Vinson, John Brademas.
• F41: Administrative, Defense, Navy, Wagmight V/TOL, July 1961 -1962 - Vertical take-off and landing, inflatable aircraft, Cooper B. Bright, John B. Connally.
• Shepard, Tazewell: "Wagmight" proposal, October 1961-April 1962
• Whitney, Richard Y. , "Goodyear's Inflatoplane and Project Wagmight," Journal, American Aviation Historical Society, Summer 2000, pp. 104-110.