Scherrer Jet Propulsion Airplane Proposal of 1943

[jzichek]

Check out this new article at RetroMechanix.com about a NACA proposal for a jet powered research aircraft dating from September 1943:



From late 1942 through 1943, a young assistant aeronautical engineer at the NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory named Richard C. Scherrer made a series of jet engine and aircraft proposals, culminating in the September 13, 1943 proposal shown above. While his jet engine and aircraft designs never left the drawing board, Scherrer went on to have an outstanding career in the aerospace industry, as you will find out in the accompanying article. It features 42 images, including several drawings of the proposed engines and aircraft. Would make for an interesting scratchbuilding exercise!

-Jared

[PR19_Kit]

That's a VERY odd-shaped wing indeed!

It's half a rhomboid, half a delta and half a plank. Yes, I know that makes 1.5 wings but there's a LOT of it! 

[TsrJoe]

a really interesting find, thats what im going to make on my easter break methinks, many thanks for sharing your archive discovery, i really like early jet proposals 

[RussC]

The wing is like what was used in the Tsybin series of research fliers in the USSR, although this design is tip to tail in chord! The fuselage is reminiscent of the Kayaba Katsudori ramjet fighter from Japan so recently Mistelled here on What-if. It does look like a centrifugal turbine and thrust chambers were in there.

  I am just blown away by the fact that the industry back then was progressive enough that they read and advanced to a design stage an idea that was presented to them hand scripted on journal paper freehand with a dull pencil. The modern minds of today with their Gerbil-lian attention spans- if in control back then would have bounced the thing without finishing page one reading by the logic of "What am I doing wasting my time reading something from a loser who doesn't own a typewriter?"