Robert Dougherty Ashfield, PA | PIONEERING NAVAL FIGHTER. In the early 1930s, the US Navy was concerned to keep its fighter arm as modern as possible, and in December 1932 issued a requirement for an advanced fighter to which Boeing tendered its Model 273 design as the first all-metal cantilever monoplane fighter with semi-retractable landing gear (leaving the lower part of each wheel exposed), a controllable-pitch propeller, and a fully enclosed cockpit to be evaluated by that service. The sole aeroplane made its first flight as the XF7B-1 in September 1933.
TYPICAL REVISION. After the completion of initial trials, the XF7B-1 was returned to Boeing for modification with a longer-chord cowling and, under the center cection, a split flap to reduce landing speed. The aeroplane was later revised with an open cockpit, but the US Navy decided not to order the type on the gounds that the pilot's view was inadequate, and the landing speed and distance were still too high. The XF7B-1 was scrapped after the airframe had been overstressed to 12.1 g (compared with a maximum load factor of 9 g) in March 1935 when the pilot made a sharp recovery from a 415-mph (66-km/h) dive in which the windscreen collapsed. 04/15/2000 @ 21:04 [ref: 87] |