| F2Y Sea Dart | |
|---|---|
| File:F2Y Sea Dart 2.jpg | |
| An F2Y Sea Dart with dual-ski configuration | |
| Role | Seaplane fighter |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Convair |
| First flight | 14 January 1953 |
| Retired | 1957 |
| Primary user | United States Navy |
| Number built | 5 |
The Convair F2Y Sea Dart was an American seaplane fighter aircraft that rode on twin hydro-skis during takeoff and landing. It flew only as a prototype, and never entered mass production. It is the only seaplane to have exceeded the speed of sound.
It was created in the 1950s, to overcome the problems with supersonic planes taking off and landing on aircraft carriers. The program was canceled after a series of unsatisfactory results and a tragic accident on 4 November 1954, in which test pilot Charles E. Richbourg was killed when the Sea Dart he was piloting disintegrated in midair. The four surviving planes were retired in 1957, but some were kept in reserve until 1962.
Development
The Sea Dart began as Convair's entry in a 1948 U.S. Navy contest for a supersonic interceptor aircraft.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory. At the time, there was much skepticism about operating supersonic aircraft from carrier decks. In order to address this issue, the U.S. Navy ordered many subsonic fighters. The worry had some foundation, since many supersonic designs of the time required long takeoff rolls, had high approach speeds, and were not very stable or easy to control—all factors that were troublesome on a carrier.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
Ernest Stout's team at Convair's hydrodynamic research laboratory proposed to put a Delta Dagger on water skis.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
Convair's proposal gained an order for two prototypes in late 1951.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory. Twelve production aircraft were ordered before a prototype had even flown. No armament was ever fitted to any Sea Dart built, but the plan was to arm the production aircraft with four 20mm Colt Mk12 cannon and a battery of folding-fin unguided rockets.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory. Four of this order were redesignated as service test vehicles, and an additional eight production aircraft were soon ordered as well.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
Design
The aircraft was to be a delta-winged fighter with a watertight hull and twin retractable hydro-skis for takeoff and landing. When stationary or moving slowly in the water, the Sea Dart floated with the trailing edge of the wings touching the water. The skis were not extended until the aircraft reached about Lua error: not enough memory. per hour during its takeoff run.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
The required power was supplied by a pair of afterburning Westinghouse XJ46-WE-02 turbojets, fed from intakes mounted high above the wings to avoid ingesting spray. When these engines were not ready for the prototypes, twin Westinghouse J34-WE-32 engines of just over half the power were installed.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
Ski configurations
The prototype was fitted with an experimental single ski, which proved more successful than the twin-ski design of the second service test aircraft. Testing with several other experimental ski configurations continued with the prototype through 1957, after which it was placed into storage.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
The US was not the only country to consider the hydroski. The Saunders-Roe company of the United Kingdom, which had already built an experimental flying boat jet fighter, first flying in 1947 the SR.A/1, tendered a design for a ski-equipped fighter, but little came of it.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
Submarine carriage
In the 1950s, the US Navy considered the internal arrangements of a submarine aircraft carrier that could carry three of these aircraft. Stored in pressure chambers that would not protrude from the hull, they would be raised by a portside elevator just aft of the sail and set to take off on their own on a smooth sea but catapulted aft in a higher sea. The program only reached the "writing on a napkin" stage, for two problems were not addressed: the hole for the elevator would have seriously weakened the hull and the load of a laden elevator would also be difficult to transmit to the hull structure.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
Operational history
The aircraft was built in Convair's San Diego facility at Lindbergh Field and was taken to San Diego Bay for testing in December 1952.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory. On 14 January 1953, with E. D. "Sam" Shannon at the controls, the aircraft inadvertently made its first short flight during what was supposed to be a fast taxi run; its official maiden flight was on 9 April.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
The underpowered engines made the fighter sluggish, and the hydro-skis were not as successful as hoped; they created violent vibration during takeoff and landing, despite the shock-absorbing oleo legs they were extended on. Work on the skis and legs improved this situation somewhat, but they were unable to resolve the sluggish performance. The Sea Dart proved incapable of supersonic speed in level flight with the J34 engines; not helping was its pre-area rule shape, which meant higher transonic drag.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
The second prototype was canceled, so the first service test aircraft was built and flown. This was fitted with the J46 engines, which performed below specification. However, speeds in excess of Mach 1 were attained in a shallow dive with this aircraft, making it the only supersonic seaplane to date.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory. On 4 November 1954, Sea Dart BuNo 135762 disintegrated in midair over San Diego Bay during a demonstration for naval officials and the press, killing Convair test pilot Charles E. Richbourg when he inadvertently exceeded the airframe's limitations.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.[1][2][3]
Even before that, the Navy had been losing interest (problems with supersonic fighters on carrier decks having been overcome) and the crash relegated the Sea Dart program to experimental status. All production aircraft were cancelled, though the remaining three service test examples were completed. The two final prototypes never flew.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
Redesignation
Despite the fact that the airplane was officially retired and had not flown since 1957, at least one F2Y was still in storage as of 1962. As a result, it was redesignated YF-7A under the 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
Operators
- Lua error: not enough memory.
Aircraft on display
All four remaining Sea Darts survive to this day.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
- XF2Y-1 Sea Dart, Bureau Number 137634, is in bad shape due to a mistake with a crane and is awaiting restoration for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
- YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, Bureau Number 135763, is on display at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park. It is on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola.
- YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, Bureau Number 135764, is on display at the Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum at NAS Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. It is on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola.
- YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, Bureau Number 135765, is on display at the Florida Air Museum that is part of the Sun 'n Fun complex at Lakeland Linder International Airport, Florida.
Specifications (YF2Y-1 135763)
Data from Naval Fighters #23 : Convair XF2Y-1 And YF2Y-1 Sea DartLua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: Lua error: not enough memory.
- Wingspan: Lua error: not enough memory.
- Width: Lua error: not enough memory. fuselage / hull beam
- Draught (skis retracted): Lua error: not enough memory.
- Draught (skis extended): Lua error: not enough memory.
- Height: Lua error: not enough memory. on 3-point beaching gear
- Lua error: not enough memory. aircraft in horizontal rigging position
- Wing area: Lua error: not enough memory.
- Aspect ratio: 1.02
- Airfoil: root: NACA 0003.30-65 (mod.) 3% thickness ; tip (station 173.7): NACA 0004-65 (mod.) 4% thickness ; average thickness 3.83%
- Empty weight: Lua error: not enough memory.
- Gross weight: Lua error: not enough memory.
- Fuel capacity: Lua error: not enough memory. usable fuel + Lua error: not enough memory. unusable fuel
- Powerplant: 2 × Westinghouse J46-WE-12B afterburning turbojet engines, Lua error: not enough memory. thrust each dry, Lua error: not enough memory. with afterburnerLua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
- XF2Y-1 137634 2x Westinghouse J34-WE-32 Lua error: not enough memory. (dry only)
Performance
- Maximum speed: Lua error: not enough memory. (Lua error: not enough memory., Lua error: not enough memory.) at Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
- Lua error: not enough memory. at Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
- Maximum speed: Mach 1.25
- Range: Lua error: not enough memory. (Lua error: not enough memory., Lua error: not enough memory.)
- Rate of climb: Lua error: not enough memory.
- Time to altitude: Lua error: not enough memory. in 1 minute 42 secondsLua error: not enough memory.Lua error: not enough memory.
- Wing loading: Lua error: not enough memory.
- Thrust/weight: 0.56 (max. loaded); 0.96 (empty)
- Take-off run: Lua error: not enough memory.
- Landing run: Lua error: not enough memory.
- Take-off time in calm air: 35 seconds
- Landing speed at 20° alpha: Lua error: not enough memory. in landing configuration with 10% fuel
Armament
- Guns: 4x fixed forward-firing Lua error: not enough memory. Colt Mk 12 cannon (production aircraft)
- Rockets: Fin-Folding Aerial Rockets (production aircraft)
- Missiles: 2 × air-to-air missiles (production aircraft)Lua error: not enough memory.
See also
Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
Related lists
References
Citations
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Books
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Websites
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External links
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Lua error: not enough memory. Lua error: not enough memory. Template:US fighters Template:US Navy experimental aircraft