XP-77

raconnel · **Posted:** Fri Sep 18, 2020 8:43 pm

Nice, thanks!

Richard

Scott Rose · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2020 1:13 am

Warbirds Resource Group: Bell XP-77

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11319

I wonder what the source of the vibration was. Was the V-770 prone to that?

wendovertom · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2020 10:10 am

That looks like its grand children are some of those super modified long nose Formula One racers

Tom P.

p51 · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2020 4:20 pm

Back in the 90s, I encountered a vet who'd flown them. He even had a picture of him in front of one with his flight gear.
He said the old adage of "if it looks good, it'll probably fly well" applied well as it looked hideous to him and flew like a brick.

mike furline · **Joined:** Wed May 05, 2004 3:45 pm **Posts:** 2628

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/bell_xp-77.php

Neal Nurmi · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2020 9:55 pm

I just read about this little beast in Birch Matthews' great history of Bell Aircraft Corp. It had a top speed on a really good day of 330 mph and a range of 305 miles. That's without the intended armament. The contract started out at $750,000 for about 20 of them as I remember, and when the contract was cancelled the cost was $3.5 Million for less than half a dozen. One of many problems was that most of the woodwork was supposed to be contracted out, but most of the available woodworking facilities and expertise was tied up in glider construction. Not a real successful program...

Kyleb · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2020 10:09 pm

Interesting airplane that originated in the lightweight fighter idea that was prevalent for a while, mainly early in the war.

Looking at it, there are two obvious problems from the get-go.

First, if you're building a lightweight fighter, a retractable nosegear isn't your friend. Compared to a tailwheel, it had to add (relatively speaking) a lot of weight.

Second, the canopy design appears very draggy. With low HP, you can't afford a big lump on top of the fuselage.

OTOH, it was WWII. Funding was provided for a lot of odd ideas. Some of them even worked.

dhfan · **Posted:** Thu Nov 19, 2020 9:06 am

It sounds like our attempt at a cheap lightweight fighter was substantially more successful, although I'm not sure anything with a Merlin upfront could really be called lightweight.
Perhaps emergency, light-ish and cheap-ish would be more accurate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_M.20

sandiego89 · **Joined:** Mon May 21, 2012 12:28 pm **Posts:** 1195

bdk wrote:

I wonder what the source of the vibration was. Was the V-770 prone to that?

Wiki indicates that the excessive vibration was attributed to the engine being directly mounted to the airframe without dampening. From my limited experience with an old Honda sedan with shot engine mounts I can easily imagine how this was a problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_XP-77

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11319

sandiego89 wrote:

bdk wrote:

Wiki indicates that the excessive vibration was attributed to the engine being directly mounted to the airframe without dampening.

Were the Allisons in the P-39 and P-63 shock mounted?

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