Stuff That Never Made It - but why?

[McColm]

As already mentioned in your previous pages under a different catagory the Canadain C-102 jetliner never made it into service along with Avro 706 Ashton or the Vickers Nene-Viking or Vickers Viscount 663. Another interesting project from Avro was the worlds first jet airliner the Lancastrain fitted with two Nene jet engines and two Merlins. These machines went on to inspire the creation of the Comet, the worlds first passenger paying airliner. Only to lose out to the Boeing 707/Dash-80.

Another aircraft that lost out to Boeing was the Convair GRB-36 Ficon. Although this wasn't an entirely new idea, Zveno Aviamatka had experimented during the 1930s in using a long range bomber as a mothership and launching smaller fighters for protection. The fighters could be launched from above or below the wing or below the fuselage. Five fighters were launched and recovered in 1935.
The final combination for the Z-7 saw service during World War II.
The Brits came out with the Short Mayo Composite where two sea planes were used to carry mail. The mothership the Maia carried the overweight, mercury to the operational altitude before being released. Unfortunately the return leg for the Mercury was made in stages as the Maia couldn't carry her back.
This inspired the Germans during World War II to develope the Junkers Mistel.

Ideas for the Avro Vulcan to carry upto six Gnats to the target area and release them below its wings may have been a good idea, retreaving the Gnats with their short range might have proved tricky.

If on the other hand your company name was Martin and had built the B-26 Marauda, your chances of getting at least one major order from the US Army Air Force to replace the Boeing B-29 or the USAF Douglas A-26 was in your favour but alass no. The X-48 lost out to the B-47. Whereas the sleeker XB-51 lost to the Canberra B-57. As a consulation prize Martin licenced-built and went onto develop the night-intruder Canberra bomber which was to serve in the Vietnam war.
The US Navy looked as though they could save the Martin Company of Baltimore with an order for the P6M-2 SeaMaster with its impressive high speed from the four afterburning turbojet engines, low-level attack, air-to-air refueling and the first American aircraft to perform a multiple ejection. The SeaMaster lost out to high costs and further funding.
The jet-fighter seaplane hopes were carried by the Convair XF2Y Sea Dart and SARO SR.A/1, but no orders were placed.

[apophenia]

Avro Canada planned the C-102 to have twin Avons but had to settle for four Derwents instead when Britain refused to supply the Avons. An early alternative plan was four Mamba turboprops. [Image deleted to spare Download File]

Either going turboprop or twin-jet might have made the Jetliner ('Turboliner'?) more marketable to TCA. US engines were planned for US airlines (4 x Allison J33s or 4 x J42 Nenes -- which Malton asked P&W to supply on loan).

But it was the Canadian government that killed the project, insisting that Avro focus on producing CF-100s instead.

[McColm]

Back in spring 1954 NATO issued a specification for a light weight tactical strike fighter.
The contenders were: Aeritalia G91R, Breguet Br.1001 Taon, Dassualt-Breguet Etendard, Folland Gnat and the Sud-Aviation SE.5000 Baroudeur.

The Baroudeur took off from a trolley and landed on skids, this made it to the fly-offs but the project was cancelled.
The Gnat saw service with the RAF, India, Finland and Yugoslavia.
The Etendard was developed as a carrier-based attack aircraft.
The Taon lost the competition to the G91R, it had good handling qualities, exceptional speed but failed in the range and take off run. Breguet modified the Taon and it set a closed-circuit speed record of 667 m.p.h/1073 km/h in July 1958.

Another aircraft to lose out to the Fiat G91R would be the Focke-Wulf and Weser VAK 191B. This was a German and Italian venture to rival the Kestral. The design with three engines, one for vectored-thrust (turbofan propulsion) and two vertically-mounted lift turbojets for VTOL. (YAK-38 layout) However before the first aircraft had flown, NATO had abandoned VTOL on cost grounds. Instead  choosing to develop an aircraft to operate from conventional airfields. thus the Tornado was picked for this role in 1968. Italy had withdrawn from the programme a year earlier having selected the G91Y.
The VAK 191B performance was almost the same as the Harrier MKI.

[Weaver]

I thought the Gnat didn't actually go into service with Yugoslavia?

The VAK-191 had it's lift engines fore and aft of a VT cruise engine with four Harrier-style nozzles, whereas the Yak-38 had both lift engines behind the cockpit and two cruise engine nozzles at the rear.

The VAK-191 was aimed at the NBMR-3 requirement which was abandoned partly due to cost and partly due to the political difficulties caused by the best submission (P.1154) not being a multi-national program, which caused the French to declare that they'd ignore the result and build the Mirage IIIV anyway. The Tornado was an F-104 replacement rather than a G-91 replacement: the G-91 was for a different mission (close support rather than strike) and was replaced by the Alpha Jet.

[McColm]

The Yugo Gnats were used for evaluation and tests by VOC flight test centre, as there were only two of them.
On Wikipedia there is no mention of the F-104, although I could be wrong. The reference to the Tornado is due to the fact that the VAK-191B had a triple fly-by-wire control system, which was used as a research tool for the Tornado.

[Weaver]

On Wikipedia there is no mention of the F-104, although I could be wrong.

First two paragraphs under "Development": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panavia_Tornado

Initially, the Germans and Italians pushed for a single-seat version of the Tornado, basing their requirement on F-104 experience. It took a lot of detailed analysis to finally convince them that it would be a LOT less capable for only a modest cost-saving. Once the Tornado design was done, PANAVIA studied various small, lightweight complementary aircraft to go with it. Nothing came of these as such, but it's very hard to avoid the impression that the AMX was at least "inspired" by them.

The reference to the Tornado is due to the fact that the VAK-191B had a triple fly-by-wire control system, which was used as a research tool for the Tornado.

Yes that's true. The VAK-191B also contributed to various abortive US V/STOL projects.

[McColm]

The YAK-141 Freestyle could have been the follow-on aircraft to the VAX-191B. the novel layout included a large main engine supplemented by two smaller lift jets. Vectoring nozzles enable the Freestyle to take off vertically or after a very short roll, to hover and land vertically. In conventional flight the aircraft has supersonic performance.
There was talk of the Italians and Lockheed putting money into the project as funding problems however, meant the type never progressed beyond the technology demonstrator stage.

[Weaver]

The Yak-141 had serious problems with the energy and temperature of it's downwash. When it appeared at Farnborough, it had a layer of insulating gunk about an inch thick painted all over the underside: imagine the practical consequences of that for maintenance.

[Mossie]

It also melted a ruddy great hole in the runway!!!   The organisers weren't best pleased, but it highlighted a big problem for the Freestyle using it's afterburner in vertical flight which they never fixed.  I imagine the P.1154 would have had the same problem, if that had gone ahead maybe it would be sitting in this thread???

[Weaver]

Yeah maybe. In the V/STOL section of American Secret Projects - Fighters, there's a letter quoted from Harrier test pilot John Farley, which makes it clear that downwash energy and temperature, and hot gas re-ingestion are the bugbears of any attempt to build a supersonic V/STOL.

[Sauragnmon]

If I'm not mistaken though, in dry thrust, you can get vertical lift on a Freestyle though - kicking up reheat in Vertical Flight, unfortunately, is absolute murder on a surface that is not prepared.  I could have sworn I saw a picture of a JSF in reheat vertical on a V/TOL test area that was specially designed to vent more - IIRC they did it to test the Pop Stall threat problem, another one the Freestyle at times had troubles with.

[Weaver]

The F-35 get round it by effectively having a variable-cycle engine that's a low-bypass afterburning turbofan in conventional flight and a high-bypass, benign footprint turbofan in hovering flight. It's just that the latter's fan is mounted at 90 deg to the rest of the engine and can be disengaged.

[McColm]

Jim Bede from the Bede Aviation Company in St Louis Missouri has turn a 'what-if' into a business, and then failed to get any military orders.
The XBD-2 was a revolutionary six-seater executive aircraft featuring a single pusher propeller shrouded to increase thrust.
The BD-4 was marketed as a private utility aircraft, which met with little success.

Fame came in the form of James Bond flying the BD-5J from a horse box in the opening scenes of Octopussy.

The next project was the BD-10J, the worlds first subsonic, home built jet aircraft. This tandem, fighter-style seating arrangement had non-boosted flight controls and a pressurised cockpit. Dubbed the pint size F-15 Eagle. This composite and aluminium construction allows the overall weight to be as light as possible.
Bede sold the military rights to Monitor Jet of Canada who intended to market the BD-10J as a basic trainer as the MJ-7. The only country that had shown any interest was the Portuguese Air Force as a replacement of a basic trainer of their Alpha Jets. This faded just like Bede.

[Weaver]

Bede is still going, but they seem to be concentrating on the relatively conventional BD-4 these days. They still support the BD-5, but then so does another specialist company.

On my to-do list is a "BD-15"........

[McColm]

Thanks Weaver,
Makes you think in the 'what-if' field. That if you were to build a retro Spitfire with all the safety features made from composite materials and carbon fibre. Who apart from the racing circuit would buy them?