Rocket-boosted P-51D Mustangs

[jzichek]

Check out this article reproducing an Air Proving Ground test report of a pair of rocket-boosted P-51D Mustangs at RetroMechanix.com:



The project was initiated to provide "flash performance" for the Mustang in response to the appearance of German turbojet and rocket-powered fighters in late 1944. Two P-51D-25 airplanes, serial nos. 44-73099 and 44-74050, were fitted with Aerojet acid-aniline rocket motors; the exhaust of the motor can be seen just in front of the tail wheel above. Red fuming nitric acid was carried  in  a  special  tank  under the port wing; an aniline-alcohol mixture was carried in a tank under the starboard wing. The accompanying gallery features 27 images reproducing the majority of the report, including several rare photos of the modified aircraft.

-Jared

[NARSES2]

Now that would make a nice "simple" build 

[PR19_Kit]

Red fuming nitric acid and aniline-alcohol? Nothing lethal then!!!!!! 

[RussC]

Always liked the idea of ramjet assists more for combat, and rocket assists for shorter takeoffs with fatter loads. Back then the rocket was quite a thing to explore, but I'll second the fears over RFNA and Perhydrol, as much as T and C stoff.

[rickshaw]

Red fuming nitric acid and aniline-alcohol? Nothing lethal then!!!!!! 

Nope, nothing nasty there at all.   Makes HTP look positively mild!   

[PR19_Kit]

Didn't the Nike Ajax use RFNA as one of its fuels too? Always sounded TOTALLY lethal to me, and for use in a combat zone? Ouch!

[RussC]

Didn't the Nike Ajax use RFNA as one of its fuels too? Always sounded TOTALLY lethal to me, and for use in a combat zone? Ouch!

Yes it did. I toured a restored display NIKE site , SF88L near the Marin Headlands, opposite San Francisco. It was a Ajax station later converted to Hercules.

The fuels building was in a revetment with lots of berms and heavy doors. Hercules used solid propellants.

[rickshaw]

Didn't the Nike Ajax use RFNA as one of its fuels too? Always sounded TOTALLY lethal to me, and for use in a combat zone? Ouch!

IIRC the Corporal SRBM and the Sergeant IRBM did and it required super-special care when fueling.  Everybody in protective suits, only the fueling crew on the pad, etc.  I've seen some film of them doing it lately and it was very cumbersome.

[RussC]

Didn't the Nike Ajax use RFNA as one of its fuels too? Always sounded TOTALLY lethal to me, and for use in a combat zone? Ouch!

IIRC the Corporal SRBM and the Sergeant IRBM did and it required super-special care when fueling.  Everybody in protective suits, only the fueling crew on the pad, etc.  I've seen some film of them doing it lately and it was very cumbersome.

 And then the Titan II, king of the nasty fuels. I'll stop here- thread drift.

 

 Note the mannequins in the museum display, instead of the missile itself

 

 Museum is a 60 to 90 minute ride from me.

 

 We told her the coordinates were set for the class bully's house.

 

[rickshaw]

"Now, where did I drop that spanner?" 

[RussC]

"Now, where did I drop that spanner?" 

  Actually a Titan II was lost just that way, a big wrench socket got dropped from the upper galleries, hit a walkway and bounced into the missile making a small hole in the fuel tank. A few hours later, Titan go boom and the W-53 thrown through the roof and into a cow pasture.

Look up movie "Disaster at Silo 7" which was filmed at the museum.

Neighbors of these facilities feared the small red cloud as much as the big mushroom.

[rickshaw]

"Now, where did I drop that spanner?" 

  Actually a Titan II was lost just that way, a big wrench socket got dropped from the upper galleries, hit a walkway and bounced into the missile making a small hole in the fuel tank. A few hours later, Titan go boom and the W-53 thrown through the roof and into a cow pasture.

Look up movie "Disaster at Silo 7" which was filmed at the museum.

Neighbors of these facilities feared the small red cloud as much as the big mushroom.

That was what I was referencing.  I felt someone would take the hint.   

[sequoiaranger]

"We" have seen RATO units on Ar-234's and ramjets on other German aircraft (and some Soviet), and even some on US aircraft post-war. I talked with General (ret.) Cardenas (Chuck Yeager's boss at the time of the sound-barrier breaking) and he tested many US aircraft (notably the A-20 "Boston") with RATO units and HATED them. If the units were out from the centerline very far (like typically on the wings outboard of the engines), and there was ANY un-equal thrust for some reason, the aircraft became next to impossible to handle (and a crash was likely imminent!). Note that the later B-36/B-47's etc, had fuselage-mounted RATOs--they kept the thrust more centerline and controllable.

At least the proposed rocket Mustang had a centerline-thrust unit, though with the chemicals involved, I would hate to have anyone putting bullet holes in my plane!!

[PR19_Kit]

Didn't the original B-47s have RATOs mounted in both sides of the fuselage and the later ones had them in a sort of inverted 'saddle tank' hung under the fuselage?

I watched a late model one use that during a demo take-off at Brize Norton once, talk about 'Per Adua as Astra'! It went off like a Saturn V, if Saturn Vs had existed then of course. 

In either case any asymmetric bottle failures would have resulted in a similar off-centre thrust situation.