Kyleb wrote:
JohnB wrote:
Kyleb wrote:
Awesome airplane, but if the spec's are correct it was virtually obsolete by the time it broke ground. Generation 1 jets would have been all over it at 42K' and 450mph, which are the service ceiling and top speed listed for the aircraft.
Obsolete?
Not necessarily.
It was a reconnaissance aircraft (remember, the "F" stood for "Foto" not the post '47 "Fighter") which, by their very nature, need long range.
Something all early jets were short of.
There was a reason the USAF used RB-45s.
Range was more important than fighter-like speed.
Obsolete because it was a recon platform that had zero performance margin over the day’s interceptors. It was 100 mph slower even with the recips at max power (think about the reliability of 4360’s running at full throttle for a couple of hours), and didn’t have an advantage in altitude. With a long range overflight asset, it needs to fly higher or faster than the day’s fighters to be survivable.
Kyleb, I think you may be inferring too much from the 'specs', While specs are useful they do not tell the whole story. 42K' and 450MPH are extremely impressive for an aircraft ordered in 1944, and even into the later 1940's. The B-36 was found to be quite effective against prop fighters and the early jets, it could simply fly higher and while jets could perhaps zoom to that altitude, they had zero maneuverability at that altitude. The B-36 could just do a gentle turn, or even slow way down, and the jet that tried to follow would literally fall out of the sky until they could recover at lower altitudes. Yes this invulnerability was short lived as the jets got better, but there was a brief window of effectiveness that an operational F-11 may have also enjoyed.
Any intercepts would have been had to been timed perfectly with a zoom climb, not an easy feat.
As for the "interceptors of the day" which potential adversaries and time frame are you referring to? In the WWII conflict the XF-11 was designed for, the late German or Japanese piston interceptors would have been extremely challenged to meet a high and fast operational F-11, and the first jets likely would have had challenges as well being effective at that speed and altitude. The best Japanese interceptor of WWII was the Nakajima Ki-84, but it had performance below the XF-11. Even the Me-262 did not have that kind of performance at altitude.
I assume your surmise the main threat as the MiG-15, but that did not really become operational until around 1949 and was not known in the west until 1950. While the MiG-15 wiki 'specs" indicate a max speed of 669mph, that was at a much lower altitude, and the max ceiling was around 50K, but that would have been a zoom climb where the MiG would have zero maneuverability. The MiG controls became nearly impossible to move as the mach got higher. The MiG had very short endurance, again any intercept would have had to been a perfectly timed zoom climb. The MiG would not have a performance advantage while in the climb and would be engaged in a tail chase, and once at altitude it would not be maneuverable. It likely would have run out of time and fuel before it was time to return home. Max height and being able to maneuver at that height are a distinct differences. The F-11 would have plenty of wing at height, interceptors not so much.
There is a significant distinction between late WWII/late 1940’s performance and say around 1953. Most pistons were quickly rendered obsolete in speed, but retained an effective altitude and endurance advantage for some time. I disagree that generation 1 jets would have “been all over it”. If you had said the F-11 would have been quickly made obsolete by the early 1950’s I would have agreed with you, but if the F-11 had reached service late in WWII or the immediate postwar period, I surmise it could have had a brief period of impressive effectiveness.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
