wb9omc@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) (08/10/90)
From: wb9omc@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) >>From: fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix) >> XF92: Whoo, boy....can't remember the name of this one but it was >> sort of the original Convair Delta-wing fighter vehicle. >Launched from water off hydrofoils. Exploded during test flight, data >led to design of F-102. (note most useless lines omitted) I think you have confused the XF92 and the Convair SeaDart (numbers not remembered). The SeaDart did indeed take off from water and there were in fact, troubles, not the least of which was an explosion (which may have been near the San Diego area...not certain). The XF92 proper, though, was only for use on dry runways..... :-)
ham@hpcc01.hp.com (Bob Hamilton) (08/15/90)
From: ham@hpcc01.hp.com (Bob Hamilton) > I think you have confused the XF92 and the Convair SeaDart (numbers not > remembered). The SeaDart did indeed take off from water and there were in > fact, troubles, not the least of which was an explosion (which may have > been near the San Diego area...not certain). The XF92 proper, though, was > only for use on dry runways..... :-) Correct. I grew up in San Diego and saw both planes. The XF-92 (precursor to the XF-102, later the F-102A) had delta wings, and a round air intake at the front of the nose (similar to the F-84). It did most, if not all, of its flying out of Edwards AFB. I saw it on static display at some kind of open house that CONVAIR, (the manufacturer) held in the early 50's. The SeaDart (may have been XFY-1... I was eight years old at the time, don't remember too well) had delta wings, a pointed nose, twin air intakes high on the fuselage aft of the cockpit, and most unusual: retractable water skis, on which it took off and landed. I watched some of those flights from my home overlooking San Diego Bay. As I remember, they built two SeaDarts. One day one of them blew up in flight. I was sitting in third grade class, and heard the explosion. --Bob Hamilton Corporate Quality Information Systems Hewlett-Packard Mail Stop 29AK 3172 Porter Drive Palo Alto, California 94304 (415) 857-6025 ham@hpsdesis.corp.hp.com
simpkins@manta.nosc.mil (Michael A. Simpkins) (08/21/90)
From: simpkins@manta.nosc.mil (Michael A. Simpkins) >The SeaDart (may have been XFY-1... I was eight years old at the time, >don't remember too well) had delta wings, a pointed nose, twin air intakes >high on the fuselage aft of the cockpit, and most unusual: retractable >water skis, on which it took off and landed. I watched some of those >flights from my home overlooking San Diego Bay. As I remember, they built >two SeaDarts. One day one of them blew up in flight. I was sitting in >third grade class, and heard the explosion. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They have a Sea Dart on display in front of the Air and Space museum here in Balboa Park. This is absolutey the strangest looking plane I have ever seen. (But it says on the plaque that it did indeed fly a couple of times.) It sure doesn't seem that there would be enough room in the bay for that thing to be doing flight tests, there must have been a lot less around back then. Simpkins
ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) (08/23/90)
From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) > >>The SeaDart (may have been XFY-1... I was eight years old at the time, >>don't remember too well) had delta wings, a pointed nose, twin air intakes >>high on the fuselage aft of the cockpit, and most unusual: retractable >>water skis, on which it took off and landed. I watched some of those >>flights from my home overlooking San Diego Bay. As I remember, they built >>two SeaDarts. One day one of them blew up in flight. I was sitting in >>third grade class, and heard the explosion. Check out the Sea Dart article in Model Aviation magazine (sometime last year). Great photographs, quite a bit of history. The main problems with the Sea Dart were: extreme buffetting during takeoff, and instability on takeoff. Also, the take- off "roll" was unacceptably long, at a mile to a mile and a half. Three proto- types (I believe) were built. Both one- and two-ski gear were tried. The author suggests that the airplane, with little modification, sould have been used as a "Snow Dart" in Alaska. The airplane, when at rests, sits on its fuselage in the water (like a duck). The twin air in- takes were high on its back for this reason. The first prototype was lost in full view of the public, disintegra- ting in the middle of a demonstration flight over the Bay, during a high speed pass. The design eventually evolved into the Delta Dart.
geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) (08/23/90)
From: geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) In article <1990Aug21.025500.2527@cbnews.att.com> simpkins@manta.nosc.mil (Michael A. Simpkins) writes: >They have a Sea Dart on display in front of the Air and Space museum here in >Balboa Park. This is absolutey the strangest looking plane I have ever seen. >(But it says on the plaque that it did indeed fly a couple of times.) It >sure doesn't seem that there would be enough room in the bay for that thing to >be doing flight tests, there must have been a lot less around back then. I've always thought the whole Sea Dart concept rather odd. I can understand why the military of the day would have considered jet fighters that could take off and land on the water, but the corrosion problems would've been incredible. A small flying boat would've been a halfway practical approach, at least from the corrosion standpoint; the British even tried that out with the Saunders-Roe whatever-it-was. (Practical from a corrosion stand- point, anyway. Flying-boat hulls aren't exactly optimized for aerodynamic efficiency, the Martin Seamaster notwithstanding.) But the thought of plopping a jet fighter bodily into salt water makes me cringe. It *was* a neat-looking little critter, though. Geoff -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Geoff Miller | "It's a fried telephone book! We gave it a geoffm@purplehaze.sun.com | fancy French name, and you ordered it!" -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
military@cbnews (06/25/91)
From: sun!pro-amber.cts.com!leed (Lee Dronick) In-Reply-To: message from john@newave.mn.org -> Speaking of the Sea Dart, I was at Willow Grove NAS about 4 weeks ago, -> and the Sea Dart was missing from the display area. Does anyone know -> where the Sea Dart is and what (if anything) is being done with it? I am getting into this conference late ( I was occasionaly late for libert call, but never for watch), but if the Sea Dart is the jet powered, figher seaplane, it's on display at the Aero-Space Museum in Balboa Park (San Diego). ---- ProLine: leed@pro-amber Internet: leed@pro-amber.cts.com UUCP: crash!pro-amber!leed ARPA: crash!pro-amber!leed@nosc.mil