Fokker D.XXIII, Marton X/V & Other Push-Pull Aircraft

[Mossie]

I mean between the two radiators on the mid to forward fuselage, there's a definite hump.  If you look at profiles I've provided immediately above, the underside in this area is a straight line.  It could just be a mistake in the profiles, or it might be there for a reason?

[redstar72]

Redstar, is there any explanation in the book as to the ventral hump that's been included in those profiles?

No, there is no explanation. Maybe it was done for some aerodynamical reasons, and maybe simply for providing enough space to retract the nose gear. All these engines were bigger than the Sagitta, and there were radiators below them - so, the free space reduced.

I tried to make a comparison of the main version with Sagittas and the Kestrel version. The result is here. It seems that tail booms were a little bit longer with alternative engines... (Of course it can be only the drawing mistake, as I don't know the accurate length of Kestrel version).

[Mossie]

I've just got hold of Japanese Secret Projects & in addition to the Mitsubishi TK4/Type 0 & Tachikawa Ki-94-I already mentioned, there a few other push-pull projects mentioned, all bombers.

There are several aircraft that are part of the Kogiken Plan, it seems that this was a steering group that suggested future design.  Several of the aircraft had a four engine push-pull configuration, with two engines sharing a nacelle, one nacelle on each wing.  The Plan II heavy bomber sort of resembles a Ju-288, with a heavilly glazed nose, twin tail with faired upper & lower defensive positions in the base of the tail.  The Plan VIII high speed recce aircraft resembles the Ki-46 variants with faired cockpit, it has a long slim fuselage with the cockpit not breaking the profile.

The S-31 Kurowashi (Black Eagle) was probably the most spectacular.  It appeared in a Japanese aviation magazine (Sora, in a regular ection called 'dreams of future designers') & it doesn't seem to have gone much further than initial concept and may have been speculative or an attempt at disinformation.  It looks like a Do.335 on steroids.  It would have had four 2,500hp X-24 engines, two in the nose, two in the tail.  It would have had eight 7.7mm guns in four pairs & four 23mm cannon (not actually avaialbe for mounting on aircraft at the time) mounted on barbettes in the wings, remotely controlled from defensive positions in the fuselage.  It would have been 5.88m high, with a length of 21.09m & a wingspan of 32.82m, very similar to a B-17.

There's a profile on Ronnie Olsthoorn's site, which is the one that appears in the book:
http://digitalaviationart.com/skyraider3d/jsp_profiles_2.htm

[Jschmus]

That S-31, what a beast!

[steelpillow]

Very enjoyable thread this, I could go on re-engining the D.XXIII for ever.

Note that the Marton X/V which made it into the title is also a whiff. The hoax seems to have arisen when our slava_trudu posted some photos of a resin model and photoshopped one or two of them. See especially the thread at: https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=24457