Ryan XV-5 Vertifan

[Weaver]

Couldn't find a thread about this aircraft so I started a new one, but if there is one and I've missed it, mods, please feel free to merge the threads.

Found an interesting article about the Ryan XV-5A/B Vertifan and some proposed derivatives, complete with period artwork from Ryan brochures.

The article is here: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/9903/ryan-aeronautical-had-big-plans-for-the-vertifan-jump-jet

The video in the article is easier to watch on Youtube, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1376&v=zbXVjx_kqu8&feature=emb_logo






This looks like the most straight-forward adaption of the idea. It's a strike-rescue aircraft for the US Navy that could accompany a flight of strike aircraft at 500 knots and then be on-hand to rescue downed aircrew immediately instead of having to wait for a helicopter to arrive. The Vertifan was modified with a passenger compartment behind the cockpit, which would have had a retractable rescue winch. They did some practical work on this application as you can see in the video. Problems I can see are range (significantly, it's always the Vertifan that's being refuelled) and carrying capacity (two rescuees is one or two shootdowns at most).




This is another fairly straight-forward adaption, this time as an attack aircraft for the US Air Force. The passenger compartment has been replaced by four 20mm cannons and there are two hardpoints on the wing. Not sure whether it'd be able to carry a useful amount of stores, however.




This is a more out-there development, although it still used the fan-in-wing concept: an ASW aircraft. Don't quite know why they've gone to an tandem cockpit on this one when the original side-by-side one would have been more appropriate.




The next two use a fundamentally different design, with lift-fans folding into the sides of the fuselage rather than buried in the wing. The first up is a COIN aircraft with a pusher prop instead of using the jets for propulsion. Presumably this would combine the speed of a Bronco with the VTOL capability of a Hueycobra. Note that the service isn't specified: this was at the time of the Army/USAF handbag fight over 'roles and missions' so Ryan were playing it safe by not committing to the Army ending up being able to fly these.




And lastly, the inevitable fast jet for the Luftwaffe, taking off from a clearing somewhere in West Germany. The article witters on about AI radar on this one, but it looks like a tin-nosed strike job to me, and that was what the Luftwaffe's V/STOL requirements were all focussed on. The advantage of going with the fuselage fans on this one is that it allows for a thin, and therefore presumably supersonic, wing. Note the F-111-style air-intakes: probably not the best things in the world to copy with hindsight...




Ultimately of course, the XV-5 gor nowhere, although as you can see from the video, it flew quite nicely and they did a respectable amount of testing with it. Two fatal crashes blotted it's copybook however, and apparently the transition from vertical to forwards flight was abrupt and difficult to manage (note that the video is Ryan publicity). I suspect that the problems could have been sorted out with more development and this has always looked like one of the more viable 1960s V/STOLs to me. However it was not to be because, technical merits notwithstanding, it was a US Army sponsored programme: when they lost the battle to fly their own fixed-wing aircraft, they had to cancel it and the USAF killed it stone dead, like they did with a lot of the Army-programmes they inherited.

[Weaver]

Thinking out loud:

One of the XV-5's problems was pitch-control during transition: you can see it pitch up when the nose fan's powered up in the video, and one of the fatal crashes was caused by the automatic tailplane pitch down system designed to counter this being activated by accident.

Another issue is the large amount of fuselage taken up by the nose fan, the ducting and the jet pipes, so here's an idea to potentially solve both problems:

1. Give the engines short, straight jetpipe exhausting on the dorsal surface. We know this is feasible from various other aircraft. This frees up a fair bit of volume in the fuselage.

2. To clear the jetwash, replace the empennage with a low-mounted tailplane with endplate fins.

3. Replace the large nose fan with two half-sized fans, one at the nose and one at the tail.This achieves a few things:

  a. It frees up some prime real-estate in the aircraft's nose, while using some generally empty space in the tail,
  b. It enables better control in VTOL/transition, because control is now a matter of nose-up/tail-up rather than nose-up/not-nose-up,
  c. It reduces yaw instability with the nose fan doors open by making them smaller,
  d. The wide forward fuselage was probably conditioned by the width of the nose fan: replacing it with a smaller fan might allow a slim fuselage
      with tandem seating.

[PR19_Kit]

I'm surprised the Navy or the Marines didn't get into the act too.

They did with the OV-10 Bronco, and the V-5 attack variant looks just the Marines sort of aircraft.

[PR19_Kit]

3. Replace the large nose fan with two half-sized fans, one at the nose and one at the tail.This achieves a few things:

How bout using Harrier style puffer nozzles?

[Weaver]

3. Replace the large nose fan with two half-sized fans, one at the nose and one at the tail.This achieves a few things:

How bout using Harrier style puffer nozzles?

I suspect that the nose fan contributes a fair bit to lift (20%-ish?). RCS nozzles would have to be awfully big to manage that: the whole point of the fans is that they generate more (and cooler) lift than bleed-air alone. If the RCS nozzles are only sized to control needs and don't generate significant lift (as in the Harrier), then the wing fans will have to be 20% bigger.

[Weaver]

Here's a thought: move the engines to a position above the wing roots, a bit like a Ka-52 helicopter, then move the wing fans outboard until they clear the engine pods. Short straight jetpipes, short fan ducting and you can have the T-tail back.

[Weaver]

Jackpot! This thread is a GOLDMINE of XV-5 info: http://sturgeonshouse.ipbhost.com/topic/1042-ryan-xv-5-vertifan/

Pretty much everything I've thought of and/or suggested in previous posts have been thought of in one way or another. Needless to say, I've nicked every picture and diagram, but please go and look at the guy's thread to give him the traffic. Here's a taster:

[jcf]

This is a concept I posted over in the F-104 topic:

Ryan proposal for a lift-fan VTOL F-104G.

[jcf]

More Ryan concepts, including a 3-view of the West German marked aircraft in the painting
Harold posted.

[Doug K]

I remember seeing this in a book I had as a kid, the wing fans remind me of SHEILD's Quinjets.....

[sandiego89]

Wow Weaver, that is a great reference site.

Is Anigrand the only option to build one in plastic?

[Weaver]

That cranked arrow job with eight fans is a thing of beauty, isn't it?

Also found this:

[PR19_Kit]

That cranked arrow job with eight fans is a thing of beauty, isn't it?

Just what I was thinking, and the rear mounted engines look great too.