The project in itself was not original:several nations had already thought, with success, of making seaplane fighters.
However, it became original when the Americans imagined employing a jet fighter aircraft. endowed with supersonic characteristics. Although it never made it past the prototype stage, the machine, called the Con vair Sea Dart, remained a good example of bold design in construction and technology. On January 19, 1957, the US Navy ordered two copies of this aircraft, after a long series of experiments had demonstrated the (theoretical) value of the program and defined the basic characteristics of the prototype. Called XF2Y-1, this one flew on April 9, 1953:it was a futuristic jet (for the time) equipped with a delta wing, two engines installed in the fuselage and two retractable skids used to takeoff and landing. The Americans subjected the 5 specimens to long tests; in 1956, the program was abandoned.
Categories seaplane
dates
commissioning date :1953
end of use date :1956
Nationalities
Constructor :USA
Users :US Navy
Technical and Performance Data
Wingspan :10.26 m.
Length :16.03 m
Height :6.32 m
Maximum Weight :7,496 kg
Maximum speed :1,328 km/h at an altitude of 10,973 m
Motorisation (engines or reactors)
two Westinghouse J-34-WE-32 turbojet engines of 1,542 kg thrust each