Curtiss-Wright X-19

The Curtiss -Wright X-19 was an experimental American VTOL aircraft change.

In March 1960, the Curtiss- Wright Corporation developed under the name X-100 prototype for a new, vertical take-off transport aircraft. X -100 had a single engine, the drive to the two tilt rotors wing tips; at the rear movable exhaust nozzles were to control at low speeds.

From the X-100 Curtiss-Wright developed the much larger X-200, from the U.S. Air Force ordered two copies as the X -19A.

The X-19 was a high-wing monoplane with two series- mounted wing of 5.94 m ( front) and 6.55 m (rear) wingspan. At its peak there were a total of 4 propeller of almost 4 m in diameter. This could be together gondola rotated 90 degrees upward, so that the aircraft could take off and land like a helicopter. The propellers were driven by two housed in the fuselage Avco Lycoming T55 -L -5 shaft engines, each 1640 kW ( 2230 hp).

The first flight of the X-19 took place in November 1963 ( according to other sources on June 26, 1964) instead. The top speed was 730 km / h and the payload 500 kg.

Originally, the X-19 should be further developed into a vertical take-off transport aircraft. After the crash of the first prototype on 25 August 1965, the program was canceled, however. The second copy (S / N 62- 12198A ) is since 2007 owned by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio and is to be restored.

Only with the Bell - Boeing V-22 Osprey went a similar aircraft in serial production (though the V -22 is significantly larger than the X-19 and has only two propellers which are pivoted together with engines ).