Obscure aircraft discovery goes on...

Treetop64 · #1 03-09-2013, 04:36 PM

Who's brilliant idea was it to come up with naming a military fighting aircraft a "Fireball"...? o_O

JtD · #2 03-09-2013, 04:56 PM

lol, now that you mention it.

Zorin · #3 03-09-2013, 05:01 PM

Judging by the wiki article, it wasn't much of a success.

EJGr.Ost_Caspar · #4 03-09-2013, 06:29 PM

Thats the equivalence of the Mig-13, which wasn't an success either. Both obsolete by jets.

Hey, and I don't think, its that ugly. If you look for more of such, I can suggest following book:

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Complete-Bo.../dp/0831739398

It covers all (minus 2-3) fighters, that were build to at least prototype or mockup status - from the beginning up to today. Many of them never left the ground... for various reasons.

EDIT: With more pics: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/The-Compl...item27cf0e5a17

EJGr.Ost_Caspar · #5 03-09-2013, 06:59 PM

Such as:

Or my personal favorite:

Also Curtiss made A LOT of unsuccessful prototype designs (after the P-40)!

IceFire · #6 03-09-2013, 07:16 PM

I always thought the P-40Q looked kind of odd too..

The fastest of the P-40s but not put into production because it would take too much time to retool the production line. Apparently.

JtD · #7 03-09-2013, 07:25 PM

IceFire · #8 03-09-2013, 07:27 PM

A uniquely Canadian UFO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_VZ-9_Avrocar

Pursuivant · #9 03-12-2013, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Treetop64

Who's brilliant idea was it to come up with naming a military fighting aircraft a "Fireball"...? o_O

I've always wondered that myself.

Although, except for that pesky N-G ban, I've always thought that the Fireball would make an excellent "Pacific 1946" plane to fly against planes like the J7W Shiden or A7M Reppu.

#10 03-12-2013, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

I've always wondered that myself.

Although, except for that pesky N-G ban, I've always thought that the Fireball would make an excellent "Pacific 1946" plane to fly against planes like the J7W Shiden or A7M Reppu.

The structurally much improved F2R Dark Shark probably would have made it into service before the Fireball with all the problems the Fireball had. Though VF-66 was scheduled to be out to sea in Sept. 45 Fireballs had so many incidents/accidents in their next cruise in March '46 that operations were halted for modifications and limitations were subsequently imposed when wing cracks were discovered. The aircraft was finally withdrawn from reduced operations in 1947 after several structural failures leading to total losses, some fatal. It's unlikely the Fireball would have been combat operational for long if even at all.