avia.wikisort.org - Aeroplane

The Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster was an experimental bomber aircraft, designed for a high top speed. The unconventional approach was to mount the two engines within the fuselage driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers mounted at the tail in a pusher configuration, leaving the wing and fuselage clean and free of drag-inducing protrusions.

XB-42 Mixmaster
XB-42
Role	Medium bomber Type of aircraft
Manufacturer	Douglas Aircraft Company
First flight	6 May 1944
Status	Canceled in 1948
Primary users	United States Army Air Forces (intended) United States Air Force (intended)
Number built	2
Developed into	Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster Douglas DC-8 (piston airliner)

Two prototype aircraft were built, but the end of World War II changed priorities and the advent of the jet engine gave an alternative way toward achieving high speed.

Design and development

The XB-42 was developed initially as a private venture; an unsolicited proposal was presented to the United States Army Air Forces in May 1943. This resulted in an Air Force contract for two prototypes and one static test airframe, the USAAF seeing an intriguing possibility of finding a bomber capable of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress's range without its size or cost.

The aircraft mounted a pair of Allison V-1710-125 liquid-cooled V-12 engines behind the crew's cabin, each driving one of the twin propellers. Air intakes were in the wing leading edge. The landing gear was tricycle and a full, four surface cruciform tail was fitted, whose ventral fin/rudder unit prevented the coaxial propellers from striking the ground. The pilot and co-pilot sat under twin bubble canopies, and the bombardier sat in the extreme front behind a plexiglass nose.[1]

Defensive armament consisted of two 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns each side in the trailing edge of the wing, which retracted into the wing when not in use. These guns were aimed by the copilot through a sighting station at the rear of his cockpit. The guns had a limited field of fire (25 degrees left right and +20 -15 in elevation) to the rear, but with the aircraft's high speed it was thought unlikely that intercepting fighters would attack from any other angle.[1]

Two more guns were fitted to fire directly forward. Initially ordered as an attack aircraft (XA-42) in the summer of 1943, this variant would have been armed with 16 machine guns or a 75 mm (2.95 in) cannon and two machine guns.[1]

Operational history

The first XB-42 (43-50224) was delivered to the USAAF and flew at Palm Springs, California on 6 May 1944. Performance was excellent, being basically as described in the original proposal: as fast as the de Havilland Mosquito B.XVI but with defensive armament and twice the bombload over short distances.[3] The twin bubble canopies proved a bad idea as communications were adversely affected and a single bubble canopy was substituted after the first flight of the second prototype.[4][5]

Testing revealed that the XB-42 suffered from some instability as excessive yaw was encountered,[4] as well as propeller vibration and poor engine cooling - all problems that could probably have been dealt with. Due to the ventral vertical stabilizer and rudder surface set's tip being located underneath the fuselage, careful handling during taxiing, takeoff, and landing was required because of limited ground clearance.

The end of World War II allowed the Air Force to consider possibilities with a little more leisure and it was decided to wait for the development of better jet bombers rather than continue with the B-42 program.

In December 1945, Captain Glen Edwards and Lt. Col. Henry E. Warden set a new transcontinental speed record when they flew the second prototype XB-42 (43-50225) from Long Beach, California to Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. (c. 2,300 miles). In just 5 hours, 17 minutes, the XB-42 set a speed record of 433.6 mph (697.8 km/h).[6]

The record-breaking XB-42 prototype was destroyed in a crash on 16 December. On a routine flight out of Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., suffered in short order, a landing gear extension problem, failure of the left engine, and as coolant temperatures rose, failure of the right engine. Major Hayduck bailed out at 1,200 feet, Lt. Col. Haney at 800 feet, and the pilot Lt. Col. Fred J. Ascani, after crawling aft to jettison the pusher propellers, at 400 feet – all three survived. The aircraft crashed at Oxon Hill, Maryland. The classified jettisonable propeller technology caused a problem for authorities in explaining what witnesses on the ground thought was the aircraft exploding. Possible fuel management problems were speculated, but this hypothesis was never proven by subsequent investigation.^{[citation needed]}

The remaining prototype was used in flight test programs, including fulfilling a December 1943 proposal by Douglas to fit uprated engines and underwing Westinghouse 19XB-2A axial-flow turbojets of 1,600 lbf (7.1 kN) thrust each, making it the XB-42A.[7]

In this configuration, it first flew at Muroc (now Edwards Air Force Base) on 27 May 1947. In testing, it reached 488 mph (785 km/h). After 22 flights, the lower vertical stabilizer and rudder were damaged in a hard landing in 1947. The XB-42A was repaired but never flew again, and was taken off the USAF inventory on 30 June 1949.[7]

Surviving aircraft

The first prototype 43-50224 - in storage awaiting restoration in the Restoration Hangar at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The prototype was removed from the USAF inventory in 1949 and given to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., in whose care it remains although it has never been placed on display. The wings were removed for transport but have since been lost. In late 2010, the fuselage was transferred, along with the Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster, to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio where they are awaiting restoration in the Restoration Hangars. Once completed, they will be displayed in the Museum's Experimental Aircraft Hangar.

Specifications (XB-42)

Data from Francillon 1979[8]

General characteristics

• Crew: three (pilot, co-pilot, bombardier)
• Length: 53 ft 8 in (16.36 m)
• Wingspan: 70 ft 6 in (21.49 m)
• Height: 18 ft 10 in (5.74 m)
• Wing area: 555 sq ft (51.6 m²)
• Empty weight: 20,888 lb (9,475 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 35,702 lb (16,194 kg)
• Powerplant: 2 × Allison V-1710-125 liquid-cooled V12 engines, 1,800 hp (1,300 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 410 mph (660 km/h, 360 kn) at 23,440 feet (7,140 m)
• Range: 1,800 mi (2,900 km, 1,600 nmi)
• Ferry range: 5,400 mi (8,700 km, 4,700 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 29,400 ft (9,000 m)
• Power/mass: 0.16 hp/lb

Armament

• Guns: 6 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns, two in twin rear-firing turrets and two fixed forward-firing[9]
• Bombs: 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) in internal bay

See also

Related development

• Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster
• Douglas DC-8 (piston airliner)

Related lists

• List of aircraft of World War II
• List of attack aircraft
• List of bomber aircraft
• List of military aircraft of the United States

References

Citation

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Douglas XB-42.

• XB-42A
• "Christmas Brings Joy To Everyone, 1945/12/10," Universal Newsreel,1945

На других языках

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[de] Douglas XB-42

Die Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster war ein experimenteller US-amerikanischer Bomber der Zeit des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Mit zwei gegenläufigen Druckpropellern am Heck sollte er hohe Geschwindigkeit erreichen.

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- [en] Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster

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[fr] Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster

Le Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, connu chez son constructeur comme le Model 459, est un prototype de bombardier léger à moteurs à pistons américain conçu par la Douglas Aircraft Company ; il est initialement désigné XA-42, dans la nomenclature des avions d'attaque au sol avant d'être reclassé comme bombardier en 1943. Le projet est développé à partir de 1943, pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, comme solution à plus long rayon d'action que le A-20 Havoc. En juin 1943, deux prototypes sont commandés par les United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) et le premier réalise son premier vol en mai 1944. Toutefois, en raison de la fin de la guerre et de l'arrivée des avions à réaction, plus performants, le projet ne débouche sur aucune commande en série.

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[it] Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster

Il Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster era un monoplano, bimotore dalla inconsueta configurazione con elica controrotante spingente disposta all'estremità di coda. Venne realizzato dall'azienda statunitense Douglas intorno alla metà degli anni quaranta; rimase allo stadio di prototipo.

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[ru] Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster

«Ми́ксмастер» (Mixmaster, с англ. — «миксер»;[1] войсковой индекс на стадии разработки — XB-42) — экспериментальный бомбардировщик, разработанный американской компанией «Дуглас» в 1943 году. Имел два поршневых двигателя, вращавших соосные винты в хвосте фюзеляжа. По утверждению американского историка авиации Бауэрса является самым скоростным поршневым бомбардировщиком в истории[2], хотя серийный британский бомбардировщик «Москито» модификации D.H.98 B.Mk.35 летал быстрее на 8 км/ч, а опытный советский ВМ-16 с поршневыми моторами ВК-108 — на 40 км/ч быстрее «Миксмастера», развивая 700 км/ч. Своё необычное для американских боевых самолётов словесное название («миксер»), самолёт получил благодаря своим хвостовым винтам, которые делали его похожим на популярный среди американских домохозяек прибор кухонного гарнитура[3].

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