And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
The aircraft in the image is a Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender.
It was an experimental American fighter aircraft developed during the 1940s, featuring an unconventional "canard" configuration with a rear-mounted engine and a pusher propeller.
The design included a revolutionary propeller jettison system to protect the pilot during emergency bailouts.
It was equipped with a Pratt & Whitney X-1800 engine (though later prototypes used Allison V-1710 engines) and had a maximum speed of 390 mph (630 km/h).
The aircraft had a length of 29 ft 7 in and a wingspan of 40 ft 7 in.
It was one of three designs that were contracted by the airforce where the designers were allowed to run rampant to meet a specification and see what came of it. The other two were pushers as well, the Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose and the Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet. The Ascender was the best but no better than aircraft already in production. It had a dangerous stall. The Black Bullet, which looks cool but was a pig, was built of welded magnesium and that led to the inert gas welding we take for granted today.
The aircraft in the image is a Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender.
ReplyDeleteIt was an experimental American fighter aircraft developed during the 1940s, featuring an unconventional "canard" configuration with a rear-mounted engine and a pusher propeller.
The design included a revolutionary propeller jettison system to protect the pilot during emergency bailouts.
It was equipped with a Pratt & Whitney X-1800 engine (though later prototypes used Allison V-1710 engines) and had a maximum speed of 390 mph (630 km/h).
The aircraft had a length of 29 ft 7 in and a wingspan of 40 ft 7 in.
I do believe that is a Curtiss Assender
ReplyDelete🤣 less informative comment than GS’s, but much more entertaining.
DeleteWith a nickname as on-the-nose as that, makes you wonder which came first--the nickname or the official one.
DeleteI agree with Anonymous above.
Delete👍
ReplyDeleteIt was one of three designs that were contracted by the airforce where the designers were allowed to run rampant to meet a specification and see what came of it. The other two were pushers as well, the Vultee XP-54 Swoose Goose and the Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet. The Ascender was the best but no better than aircraft already in production. It had a dangerous stall. The Black Bullet, which looks cool but was a pig, was built of welded magnesium and that led to the inert gas welding we take for granted today.
ReplyDelete