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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0141.PDF
^ FLIGHT, 65 15 January 1954 SABRES AND FURIES . . . The F-86H, as depicted, has the extended leading edge and is powered with the General Electric J73 turbojet. Armament is six 0.5in guns. of pulling out the large leading-edge slats. This resulted in the full potentialities of the airframe not being used. George Welch, the North American test pilot, is credited with the 6-3 modifica tion, which involves the removal of the slats and the addition of a new, sharper leading-edge which increases the chord by 6in at the root and 3in at the tip—hence the name. A small (35in by 5in) fence is added above the wing at about 70 per cent span. The new wing offers a slight improvement in all-round per formance and, in particular, it is possible to "pull more gs" before buffeting; the actual increase is a gain of 1.5 g at Mach 0.92 at 30,000ft. With the new leading edge, the F is claimed to have a definite advantage over the Mig-15 at all altitudes. The penalty is a higher stalling speed and some sloppiness at low air speeds. A stall buffet commences at 120 kt with flaps down, followed by some yawing and rolling at 115 kt, the aircraft eventually drop ping off on one wing at 105 kt. As a result, pilots now fly wider and faster landing patterns, holding speed above 150 kt on the final, and exercising caution on turns. The touch-down speed is increased by 10 kt to a minimum of 120. Modification kits embodying the new leading edge were shipped to Korea and all current F production has the new wing. The aircraft is still being built at Columbus and Inglewood, although it has been cut back considerably in recent months. A few have been modified as two-seat trainers. The trainer variant—the prototype of which flew last week—has duplicated tandem cockpits. Airframe modifications include the mounting of the wing sight further forward and an additional 63 ins of forward fuselage. F-86H. A major revision in all pans of the E produced this sub-type, which in comparison is bigger, bulkier, heavier, stronger and nearly twice as powerful. A most important change is the switch to the General Electric J73-GE-3 turbojet, this being the company's latest production engine. The new engine retains a 12-stage compressor, but has ten combustion-chambers arranged in cannular fashion and two tur bine stages; the dry static thrust rating is 9,200 lb. The J73 has been specially designed so that its mounting points will fit any installation designed for the J47, the only revision necessary being in the fuel, power and control lines, and a general strengthening of the fuselage to take the extra thrust. The mass-flow of the J73 is of the order of 170 lb/min, and this required considerable enlargement of the intake duct. Among the new structural features of the H is a unique grid which lies under the skin of the wing. This takes the place of the former rather complex double-skin sandwich over the wing-tank bay and reduces the number of parts employed by 285 (presumably in each wing). The grid starts as a thick slab of 75 S-O alloy, which is skin-milled to fine limits. The slab is then routed to form a rectangular-celled grid 116in by 40in, weighing 100 lb. The difficult process of forming the grid to the profile of the wing is accomplished by heating it in a furnace and then rapidly transferring it to a 7,000-ton forming press between the matched dies of which the grid is quenched in four seconds. This removes internal stress and there is no spring-back. Other changes include a hi?h tailplane without dihedral, a clamshell canopy, bigger cockpit with a new pattern of ejection seat, new landing gear to take the increased weight, and improved suspension of all types of underwing stores. Actually, the big thrust increase is largely absorbed in propelling this heavier air craft, but even at over 20,000 lb, with full offensive load, the H has a better performance than the F. Armament is unchanged, and the type is in full production at Columbus for use principally as a ground-attack fighter/bomber. F-86K. This is a slightly altered variant of the D, to be built in Italy under the M.S.A. off-shore programme. Fiat is the principal contractor, with orders worth $20m; it is reported that this finances a first run of fifty aircraft. - t The first Ks will almost certainly be assembled m Italy from North American-built components, the first shipments of which have arrived. Eventually the aircraft will be entirely of Italian manufacture. A telling omission from the K will be the Hughes intercepter fire-control, which will be replaced by simple A I. radar as carried by British night-fighters. Another noteworthy change is that the rockets of the F-86D have been replaced by four 20 mm guns. American reports that the Rolls-Royce Avon RA.7R is being considered as a possible power-plant are not confirmed. It may be noted that the allocation of the U.S.A.F. variant-letter "K" signfies that these aircraft may be used by the U.S.A.F. as well as by other NATO forces. Production tooling is under way and the type should be in service within 18 months. Commonwealth CA-26. It is several years since the Australian Government decided that the Sabre was the best available fighter with which to re-equip the R.A.A.F. The eventual programme concerns the F, re-designed to take an Avon RAJ. The new fighter, known as the Commonwealth CA-26 Sabre, is now com ing off the assembly line at a new plant at Melbourne. The first aircraft, which carried a British prototype marking, flew from the Avalon airfield last summer. The initial batch of CA-26s has been built largely with components supplied by North American, who have also contributed many drawings and specialized tools. Later aircraft are all-Australian, as are the Commonwealth-built RA.7Rs manufactured near Melbourne under Rolls-Royce licence. The Avon has necessitated ducting nearly as big as that of the F-86H and, since Rolls-Royce could hardly anticipate this installation, considerable revision has been required in the engine-bay. Equipment is largely American, although some is of British or Australian origin. A major change is the adoption of a 30mm cannon (type unspecified) to replace the three half-inch weapons on each side. The new guns are mounted half-way down the cockpit wall, firing approximately in line with the air craft e.g. The barrels cannot be of excessive length, for the ammunition tanks are in roughly the same positions as on the American machine. The CA-26 is probably the first aircraft armed with guns of this calibre to go into squadron service since the Me 262. The performance of the Avon-Sabre possibly exceeds that of all other F-86s. FJ-2 Fury. The first jet aircraft ever designed as a carrier-based fighter was the North American FJ-1 Fury, which first flew in 1946. The small number built were withdrawn from ser vice in the summer of last year, but the type is worth remember ing as the progenitor of the entire Sabre series. About 1951, the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics accepted a fact which must have occurred to them years before, namely, that the swept-wing Sabre could in turn be used as the basis for a world-beating carrier fighter. "Navalizing" was rapidly undertaken, and the XFJ-2 Fury (the designation should be F2J signifying a new design) flew in February, 1952. It was a rebuilt F-86E. The production FJ-2 began to appear last winter. The production Fury is a completely revised aircraft greatly resembling the E Sabre, but able to take an under-wing offensive load. Aerodynamic features include an all-flying tail and a slatted wing which folds upwards hydraulically. A catapult spool lies in the belly, while the hook is of the A-frame type, faired absolutely flush under the rear fuselage. Catapult take-offs from a carrier accelerator require a high angle of attack, and this feature, coupled with the necessity of opposing the pitching moment from the catapult bridle, demand an unusually lengthy nose undercarriage. That of the FJ-2 is normally very similar to that of the F-86E but, for both cata pulting and deck-landing, it can be extended hydraulically a distance of some two feet. The legs of the FJ-2 are all stressed to the rate of descent required by the U.S. Navy which, we believe, is 18ft/sec. The armament is also changed to the four 20 mm standard for U.S.N, fighters. The new guns are mounted in the usual manner with considerable horizontal stagger. The gunsight is a new Navy model which protrudes slightly in a fairing in front of the windscreen. Production Furies are equipped with a fire- control system for rocket firing, specially developed for the air craft by the Bureau of Ordnance at Inyokem. The latter system includes probes which feed angle-of-attack and yaw informa tion to a fire-control computor which permits the rockets (presumably air-to-ground) to be launched only when the relative wind around the aircraft is correct. Unlike the weapons of the
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