local vocational school to restore sole 70's x plane

[tom d. friedman]

ehove, a northern ohio vocational school is going to restore the only example of a u.s. navy experimetal aircraft that was made by former rockwell int. of columbus, ohio in the 1970's. the thrust augmented wing / stol technology was the goal. aircraft's official designation, the XFV - 12A the goal of the project was to develope a supersonic aircraft that could & take off / land vertically. like our current F - 35 lightning fighter. the aircraft to me looks like an A -4 SKYHAWK melded to a vought f-7u CUTLASS.........it's like a "frankenjet"!! the XFV - 12 A never took off as fighter jet, but was a good experience for jet designers. some of the parts was an f -14 engine, A4 SKYHAWK fuselage, & F4 PHANTOM air intakes. the project was cancelled in 1981. it ended up at sandusky, ohio's nasa plumbrook station for storage, after the phantom's intakes were hacked off. the cockpit restoration will be overseen by nasa w/ high school kids doing the work. i'm not to proficient at posting pics on this site, perhaps somebody could post some. it's interesting to look at & very unique on it's own.

[The Inspector]

It was a follow on to HiMat an adaptable, modifiable experimental droppable test project. HiMat had 'plug in' wings and surfaces to quickly test different configurations. As Rutan has proved, just because you think it looks weird don't make it weird to airflow.

[tom d. friedman]

wonder if the navy aviation museum will snag it when completed...........

[Fouga23]

That is one crazy looking jet!
http://morningjournal.com/articles/2012 ... 261001.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_XFV-12
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/appel/a ... owski.html

[Bill Kistler]

I do think its kind of funny the NASA article indicates it took them two days to figure out what it was. Its printed right on the side in big bold letters, XFV-12A.

[old iron]

and cost a huge amount of money for a prototype that never legitimately flew...

[The Inspector]

and cost a huge amount of money for a prototype that never legitimately flew...

Note; see XF-103, XF-108, Boeing 2707......................

[peter]

Why would they hack off the intakes and also so is this only a cockpit section then?

[Locobuster]

A couple of XFV-12A items I picked up at the now defunct Ohio History of Flight Museum back in the 90's...

[gale_dono]

I've been told that the project here "fell through"; anyone got any info on where the bird is now?

[JohnB]

and cost a huge amount of money for a prototype that never legitimately flew...

Note; see XF-103, XF-108, Boeing 2707......................

A-12 "Flying Dorito" anyone?

[Rauhbatz]

A friend's dad was the chief project engineer on this bird at the Columbus Ohio plant. I recollect him saying while it was an exciting concept, he felt it was too complex to fly and found the whole project very frustrating...