Is it a whiff, or not?

[The Rat]

Sheesh, the things you come across while bouncing around the interwebbies. According to Wikipedia, which references Flight magazine, 1950, page 557, the Saab Safir, a 3-4 place piston engined trainer, was fitted with a full-scale J-29 Tunnan wing for test purposes.

    

Now this begs the question: is that fact so obscure that you could fool a lot of people into thinking that it was a crazy 'what if?' I know that my knowledge of aviation history isn't great (I have a good memory, but it's short  ), but it would be interesting to sit one on a table at a show and wait for the snorts and/or quizzical faces. This would probably be a job for the Project Cancelled SIG, but I'm interested enough to perhaps give it a go one day. And of course, to complete the madness, one would have to use the leftover parts to construct a real whif; a Tunnan with Safir wings. 

So what else can you think of in the same vein? Something that sounds just wrong, unbelievable, or totally outlandish, but really existed.

[perttime]

SAAB did put a swept wing on a Safir for testing the new wing concept. They called it SAAB 201, and the wing was a scaled down version of what they were designing for the Tunnan. They also did a similar thing with Lansen: SAAB 202.
Swedish Wikipedia: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_201



It probably is obscure enough that most wouldn't know about it without looking it up. If you give it a different paint job and come up with a story, it is a whif.

I recall some strange looking aircraft have come out of testing new engine technologies on old airframes. B-17 and Lancaster, at least, I think.

[Dizzyfugu]

a Tunnan with Safir wings. 

I have seen a Tunnan with Starfighter wings and its respective T-tail on a convention table... 

[The Rat]

Beauty, just what I was looking for!

SAAB did put a swept wing on a Safir for testing the new wing concept. They called it SAAB 201, and the wing was a scaled down version of what they were designing for the Tunnan. They also did a similar thing with Lansen: SAAB 202.
Swedish Wikipedia: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_201



It probably is obscure enough that most wouldn't know about it without looking it up. If you give it a different paint job and come up with a story, it is a whif.

I recall some strange looking aircraft have come out of testing new engine technologies on old airframes. B-17 and Lancaster, at least, I think.

[TomZ]

Bell did the same with the P-39, called the L-39



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_L-39

TomZ

[The Wooksta!]

I'm wanting to do something similar with Komet wings on a Bf 108. Lippisch did draw up something similar to train pilots on tailless flying, so there's a toenail in reality.

[The Rat]

That's the sort of stuff I mean! I've seen that picture before, couldn't bring it to my mind.

Bell did the same with the P-39, called the L-39



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_L-39

TomZ

[jcf]

The two L-39s were conversions of P-63 airframes rather than P-39 airframes. 

[The Rat]

The two L-39s were conversions of P-63 airframes rather than P-39 airframes.

Any idea what the wings were?

[perttime]

I'm wanting to do something similar with Komet wings on a Bf 108. Lippisch did draw up something similar to train pilots on tailless flying, so there's a toenail in reality.

The idea sounds familiar.... Yep: Messerschmitt P 06

[perttime]

From Luftwaffe: Secret Wings of the Third Reich bookazine by Dan Sharp:

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[jcf]

The two L-39s were conversions of P-63 airframes rather than P-39 airframes.

Any idea what the wings were?

The aircraft were built to test the low speed handling characteristics of swept wings and used modified P-63 wings
for both the L-39-1 and the L-39-2, as the latter was originally constructed. The L-39-2 later had all new fully swept
wings that were built to test the low speed handling of the wing design for the Bell X-2.

Tommy Thomason covered modelling it on his Tailhook Topics blog:
Sweeping Change - The Bell L-39

More on the program from Tommy's U.S. Navy Aircraft History blog:
Bell L-39 Wing Sweep Evaluation

Original modified wing layout:
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[jcf]

Grumman had proposed a modified F4F Wildcat for the same program, which would definitely fit the topic.

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[The Rat]

Grumman had proposed a modified F4F Wildcat for the same program, which would definitely fit the topic.