Vought F6U Pirate
The Vought F6U Pirate (factory designation "V -340 " ) was a fighter aircraft that was developed from 1944 to 1950 for the United States Navy. Due entirely inadequate flight performance, the production was discontinued in 1950.
Development
On September 5, 1944, the U.S. Navy wrote of a new aircraft carrier - based aircraft, which was to be powered by a Westinghouse 24C engine. Vought designed the V- 340, a low-wing aircraft with air intakes under the wings and an engine in the rear. The pilot sat far forward in the fuselage, which promised a very good view on carrier landings. A special technical feature was called Metalite material of the outer skin, which consisted of two light metal layers and an intermediate glued Balsaholzschicht. For the rudder came with Fabrilite a similar material with fiberglass instead of metal used. The air intakes were made of fiberglass reinforced plastic.
Vought received an order for three prototypes on 29 December 1944. As the Pirate on October 2, 1946 flew for the first time, showed, however, that the built- Westinghouse J34 -WE -22 engines with 13.34 kN thrust was much too weak. In addition, stability problems and showed the effectiveness of the tail rudder was too low, which forced her to modifications. The third prototype was therefore equipped as the first aircraft for the U.S. Navy with an engine with afterburner Solar A- 103A, a Westinghouse J34 -WE -30 with 18.78 kN thrust. Despite this engine flight performance remained completely unsatisfactory.
The first production version F6U -1 flew on 5 March 1949 for the first time. The U.S. Navy took off from August 1949 30 series aircraft before the job on October 30, 1950 has been deleted. The aircraft were used for tests in the development squadron VX -3 of the Naval Air Test Center and the short term at a reserve squadron. In November 1950, the remaining 27 machines were used only as a practice ground objects.