#fighterplane

SydneyJimSydneyJim
2025-11-04
2025-08-04

The Westland Wizard was Westland Aircraft’s first attempt to produce a monoplane fighter.

The RAF preferred biplanes for its fighter aircraft and no orders for the Wizard were made. destinationsjourney.com/histor #aviation #WestlandWizard #aeroplane #airplane #aircraft #fighter #RAF #RoyalAirForce #fighterplane

The Westland Wizard was Westland Aircraft’s first attempt to produce a monoplane fighter. The project was privately funded and the prototype design was done in the spare time of the company’s engineers. This all happened during 1926, with high-speed performance as the primary goal.

The original design, called the Westland Racer was powered by a Rolls Royce Falcon III inline engine. After a landing accident however, the engine was replaced by a Rolls Royce Kestrel engine, giving the aircraft a more streamlined nose. At this point, the company decided to rebuild the aircraft as a fighter.

The aircraft was again rebuilt (this time as the Wizard II), when RAF evaluation criticised the forward view. Despite the redesign the RAF preferred biplanes for its fighter aircraft and no orders for the Wizard were made.
2025-07-17

The Lockheed XFV was an experimental tail-sitting prototype aircraft built the early 1950s to demonstrate the operation of a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fighter for protecting convoys.
destinationsjourney.com/histor #Aviation #LockheedXFV1Salmon #VTOL #VTOLFighter #USN #USNavy #fighter #fighterplane #aeroplane #airplane #aircraft #XPlane #experimentalfighter

The Lockheed XFV was an experimental tail-sitting prototype aircraft built the early 1950s to demonstrate the operation of a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fighter for protecting convoys.

Evaluation was delayed when the proposed powerplant, the 7,100 shp Allison T54 became unavailable. Instead a 5,332 hp (3,976 kW) Allison YT40-A-6 turboprop engine driving three-bladed contra-rotating propellers was used.

Testing was conducted using a temporary undercarriage allowing the XFV-1 to take off and land conventionally. As the aircraft never made a vertical take off or landing, this became a permanent fixture.

Intended to be capable of landing on platforms mounted on the afterdecks of conventional ships, it was realised that only the most experienced pilots would be able to achieve this. Matched with the increased speed of conventional fighters, which were superior to the XFV-1, the project was cancelled along with the competing Convair XFY Pogo design.

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