XF10F Jaguar

Infobox Aircraft
name= XF10F Jaguar
type= Fighter aircraft
manufacturer=Grumman


caption=
designer=
first flight= 1952-05-19
introduced=
retired=
status= Cancelled in April 1953
primary user=
more users=
produced=
number built= 1
unit cost=
variants with their own articles=

The Grumman XF10F Jaguar was a prototype swing-wing fighter aircraft offered to the US Navy in the early 1950s. Although it never entered service, its research pointed the way towards the later General Dynamics F-111 and the F-14 Tomcat.

Design and development

The Navy's interest in the variable geometry wing was based on concerns that the ever-increasing weight of its jet fighters was making aircraft carrier operations troublesome. Many of its existing aircraft already had marginal carrier performance, and the trend in weight growth was obviously upward. At the same time, the demands for high-speed performance demanded swept wing layouts that did not lend themselves to good take-off characteristics. The prospect of combining the two in a single aircraft was enticing.

The resulting Jaguar was a stubby, somewhat plump-looking aircraft whose fuselage was similar to that of the earlier F9F Panther. It had a T-tail, with the horizontal stabilator, a small pivoting fuselage with a little mobile delta front wing and a larger rear delta main wing, mounted atop the vertical fin. The single turbojet engine was fed by cheek intakes. The high, shoulder-mounted wing could be moved to two positions: a 13.5° sweep for take-off and landing and a 42.5° sweep for high-speed flight. The unique horizontal stabilizer design was free-floating; the attached small foreplane was directly controlled by the pilot and pulled the stabilizer up or down; so, it was aerodynamically, not mechanically controlled, and this resulted in sluggish pitch control, increasingly so at low speeds where airflow over the small foreplane was lessened, and if the project had developed further, it probably would have been replaced by a conventional all-flying tailplane. The unpredictable behavior of the design often caused pilot-induced oscillations, causing the plane to be nearly uncontrollable much of the time.

The XF10F-1 was not armed, but production aircraft would likely have had four 20 mm cannon and pylons for bombs and rockets, like other contemporary USN fighters.

Testing

Although the Jaguar's potential was interesting, its configuration presented many of the same handling problems as the earlier Bell X-5 experimental aircraft, with some vicious spin characteristics.

The Jaguar's development was further hampered by its use of the disastrously unreliable Westinghouse J40 turbojet, which, as on other aircraft of this period, made the Jaguar dangerously underpowered and prone to various engine-related problems. The J40 developed only 6,800 lbf (30.2 kN) thrust rather than the anticipated 11,000 lbf (49 kN), and its troubles ultimately proved to be insuperable.

Test pilot Corwin "Corky" Meyer, the only pilot to fly the Jaguar, described it as entertaining to fly "because there was so much wrong with it."Fact|date=April 2008 Interestingly, he found the novel wing-sweep mechanism (which ironically was much more complicated than the one used by the Bell X-5 and later adopted by the F-111, F-14 Tomcat and Panavia Tornado) to be the only feature that worked flawlessly. The Navy was not encouraged by the results, and the development of larger carriers with angled flight decks and steam-driven catapults made the swing-wing configuration less necessary.

The prototype XF10F-1 first flew on 19 May 1952. It was used for some 32 test flights throughout the year, but in April 1953 the Navy cancelled the program, and with it the 112 production aircraft that had been ordered. The sole flying aircraft and the uncompleted second prototype were shipped to Naval Air Material Center in Philadelphia for barricade testing, and the static test aircraft was later used as a gunnery target.

pecifications (XF10F-1)

aircraft specifications

plane or copter?=plane
jet or prop?=jet

crew=one pilot
length main=55 ft 9.6 in
length alt=17.01 m
span main=
** Spread: 50 ft 8 in (15.42 m)
** Swept: 36 ft 8 in
span alt=11.17 m
height main=16 ft 3 in
height alt=4.95 m
area main=
** Spread: 466.9 ft² (43.38 m²)
** Swept: 450 ft²
area alt=41.8 m²
empty weight main=20,425 lb
empty weight alt=9,265 kg
loaded weight main=
loaded weight alt=
max takeoff weight main=35,450 lb
max takeoff weight alt=16,080 kg

engine (jet)=Westinghouse XJ40-W-8
type of jet=turbojet
number of jets=1
thrust main=6,800 lbf
thrust alt=30.2 kN

max speed main=710 mph
max speed alt=620 knots, 1,100 km/h
range main=1,670 mi
range alt=1,450 nm, 2,670 km
ceiling main= ft
ceiling alt= m
climb rate main=
climb rate alt=
loading main=
loading alt=
thrust/weight=0.19

ee also

aircontent
related=

similar aircraft=
* Bell X-5

lists=
* List of fighter aircraft
* List of military aircraft of the United States

see also=

References

External links