(Ryan) FR Fireball @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • A Ryan FR-1 at NAS Patuxent River in March 1945 A Ryan FR-1 at NAS Patuxent River in March 1945
    A Ryan FR-1 at NAS Patuxent River in March 1945
  • FR-1 Fireballs of VF-66 at Naval Air Station North Island, California FR-1 Fireballs of VF-66 at Naval Air Station North Island, California
    FR-1 Fireballs of VF-66 at Naval Air Station North Island, California
  • Ryan FR-1 Fireball Ryan FR-1 Fireball
    Ryan FR-1 Fireball
  • A Fireball armed with four HVAR rockets (1945) A Fireball armed with four HVAR rockets (1945)
    A Fireball armed with four HVAR rockets (1945)
  • Ryan FR-1<br>Fireball (1945) Ryan FR-1<br>Fireball (1945)
    Ryan FR-1
    Fireball (1945)
  • Ryan FR-1s of VF-66 at NAS North Island, in 1945 Ryan FR-1s of VF-66 at NAS North Island, in 1945
    Ryan FR-1s of VF-66 at NAS North Island, in 1945
  • Planes of Fame Museum (Chino, California) Planes of Fame Museum (Chino, California)
    Planes of Fame Museum (Chino, California)
  • This Fireball is hoisted on<br>USS Anchorage, circa 1969 This Fireball is hoisted on<br>USS Anchorage, circa 1969
    This Fireball is hoisted on
    USS Anchorage, circa 1969
  • The Ryan XFR-4 Fireball The Ryan XFR-4 Fireball
    The Ryan XFR-4 Fireball
  • Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-41 "Fire Birds" Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-41 "Fire Birds"
    Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-41 "Fire Birds"
  • FR-1 Fireball on escort carrier USS Charger FR-1 Fireball on escort carrier USS Charger
    FR-1 Fireball on escort carrier USS Charger
  • Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-66 at NAS North Island (1945) Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-66 at NAS North Island (1945)
    Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-66 at NAS North Island (1945)
  • The trials on USS Ranger (May 1945) The trials on USS Ranger (May 1945)
    The trials on USS Ranger (May 1945)
  • Ryan FR-1 Fireballs of VF-66 on USS Ranger, in 1945 Ryan FR-1 Fireballs of VF-66 on USS Ranger, in 1945
    Ryan FR-1 Fireballs of VF-66 on USS Ranger, in 1945
  • Ryan FR-1 Fireball Ryan FR-1 Fireball
    Ryan FR-1 Fireball
  • Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-41 "Fire Birds" Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-41 "Fire Birds"
    Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-41 "Fire Birds"
  • Planes of Fame Museum (Chino, California) Planes of Fame Museum (Chino, California)
    Planes of Fame Museum (Chino, California)
  • Ryan FR-1 in flight near NAS Patuxent River in July 1945 Ryan FR-1 in flight near NAS Patuxent River in July 1945
    Ryan FR-1 in flight near NAS Patuxent River in July 1945
  • Ryan FR-1 Fireball (Near North Island, 1945) Ryan FR-1 Fireball (Near North Island, 1945)
    Ryan FR-1 Fireball (Near North Island, 1945)
  • On USS Bairoko, in 1946 On USS Bairoko, in 1946
    On USS Bairoko, in 1946
  • LCdr John Gray was killed in a mid-air collision involving two FR-1s LCdr John Gray was killed in a mid-air collision involving two FR-1s
    LCdr John Gray was killed in a mid-air collision involving two FR-1s
  • Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-41 "Fire Birds" Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-41 "Fire Birds"
    Ryan FR-1 Fireball of VF-41 "Fire Birds"
  • A Ryan FR-1 launches from USS Badoeng Strait, in 1947 A Ryan FR-1 launches from USS Badoeng Strait, in 1947
    A Ryan FR-1 launches from USS Badoeng Strait, in 1947

Ryan FR Fireball

The Ryan FR Fireball was a mixed-power (piston and jet-powered) carrier fighter designed by Ryan Aeronautical for the United States Navy during World War II. It was the Navy's first aircraft to carry a jet engine. Only 66 production machines were completed before Japan surrendered in August 1945. The FR-1 Fireball equipped a single squadron before the end of the war, but never saw combat. The aircraft ultimately proved to lack the structural strength required for sustained operations aboard aircraft carriers and was withdrawn in mid-1947.

The Fireball was Ryan Aeronautical's first fighter. The San Diego firm was until then best known for having built, in 1927, the Spirit of St. Louis in which Charles Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop crossing of the Atlantic, and for a line of light aircraft and monoplane trainers (PT-16, PT-20, PT-21, PT-22 Recruit) supplied to the Army and the Navy in the 1930s and early 1940s. Under the US Navy designation system then in force, the letters FR identified the first Fighter (F) sold to the Navy by Ryan (R).

Background

By 1942 the US Navy had concluded that the turbojet was the future of fighter aviation, but that the engines then available were unsuitable for carrier work. Early turbojets spooled up slowly, which made a wave-off after a botched approach hazardous; they consumed fuel at a prodigious rate; and the take-off runs they required, as demonstrated by the Bell P-59 trials, were incompatible with a flight deck. The Bureau of Aeronautics therefore turned to a composite, or mixed-power, formula: a conventional radial engine for take-off, landing and cruise, and a turbojet for climb, high-speed flight and combat. The piston engine also served as insurance against failure of the still-immature turbojet.

The proposal was instigated by Rear Admiral John S. McCain Sr. and circulated to nine design offices. Ryan's submission, the Model 28, was selected. Given the performance its turbojet promised, the aircraft was expected to be used above all against kamikaze attacks, a threat that was becoming acute in the Pacific. The Curtiss XF15C-1 explored the same mixed-power concept for the Navy but was never ordered into production.

Design and development

Ryan received a contract for three XFR-1 prototypes and one static test airframe on 11 February 1943, the first two prototypes being delivered fourteen months later. A further contract for 100 aircraft was placed on 2 December 1943, before the type had even flown.

The XFR-1 was a single-seat, low-wing monoplane with tricycle landing gear, folding outer wing panels and an arrester hook. A 1,350-horsepower (1,010 kW) Wright R-1820-72W Cyclone radial engine was mounted in the fighter's nose while a 1,600 lbf (7,100 N) General Electric I-16 (later redesignated as the J-31) turbojet was mounted in the rear fuselage. It was fed by ducts in each wing root, which meant that the wing had to be relatively thick to house both the ducts and the outward-retracting main landing gear. To simplify the fuel system, both engines used the same grade of avgas. Two self-sealing fuel tanks were housed in the fuselage, one of 130 US gallons (490 l; 110 imp gal) and the other of 50 US gallons (190 l; 42 imp gal). The cockpit was positioned just forward of the leading edge of the wing and the pilot was provided with a bubble canopy which gave him excellent visibility. The XFR-1 had the first laminar flow airfoil in a navy carrier aircraft.

The Fireball was armed with four .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns with 300 rounds per gun. They were mounted in the center section of the wing, immediately outboard of the air intakes for the jet engine. Four 5-inch (127 mm) rockets could be carried under each outer wing panel and two hardpoints were provided under the center section for 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs or 100 US gal (380 l; 83 imp gal) drop tanks. Armor plates were provided in front and behind the pilot's seat and for the oil cooler.

The first XFR-1 made its first flight on 25 June 1944 without its jet engine, but that was installed shortly afterward, the first flight on both powerplants following within weeks. The second prototype first flew on 20 September 1944. Test flights confirmed wind tunnel tests that revealed a lack of longitudinal stability because the center of gravity had been miscalculated. In addition, the circular rear fuselage of the FR-1 gave less stability than the slab-style fuselage of the Grumman F4F Wildcat that was used as a model for the stability calculations. A new tail with enlarged vertical and horizontal stabilizers was designed and retrofitted to the prototypes. The original Douglas double-slotted flaps proved to be unsatisfactory during flight testing, but all three prototypes and the first 14 production aircraft were built with them before they were replaced with a single-slotted flap.

The first prototype was lost in a crash at NAS China Lake on 13 October 1944. Investigation showed that the wing structure was not strong enough to resist compressibility effects. This was cured by doubling the number of rivets in the outer wing panels. The second prototype crashed on 25 March 1945 when the pilot failed to recover from a dive from 35,000 feet (10,670 m), probably also due to compressibility effects. The third prototype crashed on 5 April when the canopy blew off during a high-speed pass over Lindbergh Field. All three prototypes were therefore destroyed within six months.

Operational testing by the Naval Air Test Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River that included carrier acceptability tests revealed additional problems. The piston engine tended to overheat until electrically operated cowl flaps were installed, the catapult hooks had to be moved and the nosewheel oleo shock strut had to be lengthened by 3 inches (76 mm). Carrier suitability tests began aboard the escort carrier Charger in early January 1945. The aircraft successfully made five catapult takeoffs using the piston engine as well as three takeoffs using both engines. No problems were reported when landing aboard the carrier.

The FR-1 Fireball was further developed into the XFR-2 which utilized a 1,425 hp (1,063 kW) Wright R-1820-74W in place of the -72W. One single airframe was converted to this configuration. No prototypes were built for the next proposed variant, the FR-3, which would have used a General Electric I-20 turbojet. Both of these projects were canceled with the end of the war. The fastest Fireball was the XFR-4, which had a Westinghouse J34 turbojet and was approximately 100 mph (161 km/h) faster than the FR-1. The turbojet's air intakes were moved from the wing roots to the fuselage in front of the wing; they were covered by electrically powered doors to lessen drag when the aircraft was flying only on its piston engine. The Fireball's fuselage was lengthened by 8 inches (203 mm) to accommodate the larger engine and the leading edge extension of the wing root that housed the air intakes was also removed. The XFR-4 was intended to serve as a testbed for the turbojet installation on the XF2R-1 Dark Shark, the final derivative of the design, in which the piston engine was replaced with a General Electric XT31-GE-2 turboprop. Only one Dark Shark was built; it first flew in November 1946 and a J34-powered XF2R-2 was proposed but never completed, the Navy having by then abandoned the composite fighter in favour of all-jet designs.

Production and cancellation

Sources diverge on the size of the follow-on order placed in January 1945. Swanborough and Bowers state that the contract of 31 January 1945 raised the total number of FR-1s on order to 700, a figure also given by the French-language literature (an initial 100 aircraft plus a further 600). Green, on the other hand, gives an initial order for 100 aircraft followed by 1,000 additional fighters in January 1945, with 1,044 machines cancelled on VJ Day, implying a total of about 1,100. All the contracts were in any case conditional on the aircraft successfully completing carrier trials.

Deliveries began in March 1945. Only 66 production Fireballs had been completed by November 1945 when the remaining orders were cancelled. Wikipedia's infobox gives a total of 71 airframes built, a figure that presumably includes the prototypes and test airframes, but no published breakdown of the difference was found. Of the production aircraft, only the first seventeen went to an operational fighter squadron; the remainder were used for trials, development work and instruction.

Operational history

One squadron, VF-66, established on 1 January 1945 and nicknamed the "Firebirds", received its first Fireballs in March 1945 at NAS North Island, but they never saw combat. On 1 May, three of the squadron's aircraft were craned aboard the carrier Ranger to attempt to qualify seven pilots, but two of the fighters were damaged while landing. One missed the arresting gear and hit the crash barrier while the other aircraft's nose gear collapsed. The following month the pilots qualified and were on pre-embarkation leave when the Japanese surrendered. The squadron was decommissioned on 18 October with all pilots and aircraft transferred to VF-41, itself established on 26 March 1945.

The first carrier landing under jet power

On 6 November 1945, a Fireball of VF-41 became the first aircraft to land under jet power on an aircraft carrier, albeit unintentionally. Ensign J. C. "Jake" West was in the landing pattern for the escort carrier Wake Island, off San Diego, with the turbojet shut down as standard procedure required, when the radial engine of his FR-1 failed on final approach. He managed to air-start the jet engine and land, barely catching the last arrestor wire before hitting the ship's crash barrier, which had been raised because of the emergency.

The claim has since been qualified. There is evidence that the aircraft may still have been benefiting from residual power delivered by its Wright R-1820, so that the landing was not made on jet thrust alone. The Navy's own ship history (DANFS) for Wake Island dates the event to 5 November rather than 6 November. In any case the landing was improvised, not planned: the first deliberate, prepared jet landing and take-off from a carrier deck was made by Lieutenant-Commander Eric "Winkle" Brown, flying a de Havilland Sea Vampire aboard HMS Ocean on 3 December 1945. English Wikipedia's footnote gives 4 December, a date not corroborated by the other sources consulted, which agree on 3 December. The first take-off and landing of a pure-jet aircraft from a US Navy carrier followed on 21 July 1946, when a McDonnell FD-1 Phantom operated from Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Decline and withdrawal

VF-41 was attempting to qualify its pilots for carrier operations during this period, but only 14 of its 22 pilots made the six required takeoffs and landings. A number of accidents occurred when the nose gear failed on landing, but the pilots were at least partly responsible as they were slamming the nose gear onto the deck after landing on the main gear.

The squadron qualified on the escort carrier Bairoko in March 1946, but nose gear problems persisted and cut the cruise short. Ryan installed a steel fork for the nosewheel, but inspections also revealed evidence of partial wing failures so the aircraft was limited to maneuvers not to exceed 5 Gs. VF-41 suffered three fatal accidents in 1946 before being redesignated as VF-1E on 15 November 1946. One Ensign collided with the target banner during gunnery practice and spun into the water. A few months later, the squadron commander was performing a barrel roll when his wing broke off and he struck another Fireball, killing both pilots.

VF-1E conducted carrier qualification in March 1947 aboard the escort carrier Badoeng Strait and only eight pilots successfully qualified, not least because the FR-1s were proving to be too fragile to endure repeated carrier landings. During one brief deployment in June aboard Rendova, one aircraft broke in two during a hard landing. Subsequent inspections of the squadron's aircraft showed signs of structural failure and all the Fireballs were withdrawn by 1 August 1947. By then the first generation of pure jets, the McDonnell FH-1 Phantom and the Grumman F8F Bearcat's jet successors, offered performance the composite formula could no longer match.

After the withdrawal of the type from service, except for a few examples retained for modifications and testing, the FR-1s were scrapped.

Variants

  • XFR-1 : Military designation of the Prototype Model 28 aircraft, three built (plus one static test airframe).
  • FR-1 Fireball : Single-seat fighter aircraft, 66 built.
  • FR-2 : Conversion with a Wright R-1820-74W replacing earlier piston engine, one aircraft modified.
  • FR-3 : Proposed variant with a General Electric I-20 replacing earlier jet engine; never built.
  • XFR-4 : Variant with Westinghouse J34; one built.
  • XF2R-1 Dark Shark : Derivative in which the piston engine was replaced by a General Electric XT31-GE-2 turboprop; one built, first flown in November 1946.

French-language sources, including the French Wikipedia article, additionally list an FR-1D day fighter and a radar-equipped FR-1N night fighter. These designations do not appear in the English-language references consulted and could not be confirmed.

Operators

United States : United States Navy

The "Firebirds" squadron was known under three names:

  • VF-66 (March 1945 – 15 October 1945); the squadron itself was established on 1 January 1945 and disestablished on 18 October 1945, dates that differ slightly from those given in the Wikipedia operators list.
  • VF-41 (15 October 1945 – 1 August 1947), redesignated VF-1E on 15 November 1946.

Survivors

Only a single example, FR-1 BuNo 39657, still survives. It was the eleventh production Fireball and, in 1945, one of six FR-1s sent to the Ames Research Center in California, then operated by the NACA and not by NASA, which was not created until 1958; several sources, including Wikipedia, use the later name. The aircraft subsequently served as an instructional airframe at a technical school in San Luis Obispo, California, before being acquired by the Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino, California in the 1960s (1967 according to the museum). After restoration to static display condition, 39657 was rolled out at Chino on 13 June 2009.

Reports that a second Fireball survives at the former Quonset Air Museum in Rhode Island are erroneous: the aircraft in question is a Curtiss XF15C-1, the Fireball's competitor, now displayed at the Hickory Aviation Museum in North Carolina.

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This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Ryan FR Fireball of Wikipedia ( authors )

Ryan FR Fireball

  • Role : Fighter.
  • National origin : United States.
  • Manufacturer : Ryan Aeronautical.
  • Manufacturer's designation : Model 28.
  • First flight : 25 June 1944.
  • Introduction : March 1945.
  • Retired : 1 August 1947.
  • Primary user : United States Navy.
  • Produced : 1944–1945.
  • Number built : 71 in total, of which 66 production FR-1; no published breakdown of the remaining airframes was found.
  • Developed into : XF2R Dark Shark.

    • Specifications (FR-1)

  • Crew : one.
  • Length : 32 ft 4 in (9.86 m).
  • Wingspan : 40 ft (12.19 m).
  • Height : 13 ft 11 in (4.24 m). Some sources give 13 ft 7¾ in (4.15 m).
  • Wing area : 275 ft² (25.5 m²).
  • Airfoil : root NACA 65-117 a=1, tip NACA 65-115 a=.5.
  • Empty weight : 7,689 lb (3,488 kg).
  • Loaded weight : 11,652 lb (5,285 kg).
  • Maximum speed : 404 mph (650 km/h) with both engines; 276 mph (444 km/h) with piston engine alone.
  • Cruise speed : 152 mph (245 km/h) (piston engine alone).
  • Ferry range : 1,620 mi (2,610 km) (with 2 drop tanks).
  • Service ceiling : 43,100 ft (13,100 m).
  • Rate of climb : 1,800 ft/min (9.1 m/s) (Piston engine only, with 1 drop tank).
  • Powerplant :
    • One General Electric J31-GE-3 centrifugal-flow turbojet, 1,600 lbf (7.1 kN, 726 kgf).
    • One Wright R-1820-72W Cyclone 9-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 1,350 hp (1,010 kW).
  • Propeller : 3-bladed constant-speed fully-feathering.
  • Armament :
    • Four .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine gun with 300 rpg.
    • Two 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs.
    • Eight 5-inch (127 mm) rockets under wings.

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Ryan FR Fireball of Wikipedia ( authors )
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