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Description
| Manufacturer: | Douglas |
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| Base model: | F5D | ||
| Designation: | F5D | ||
| Version: | -1 | ||
| Nickname: | Skyshark | ||
| Designation System: | U.S. Navy / Marines | ||
| Designation Period: | 1922-1962 | ||
| Basic role: | Fighter | ||
| See Also: | |||
Specifications
| Not Yet Available |
Examples of this type may be found at
| Museum | City | State |
| Fred E. Weisbrod Museum / International B-24 Museum | Pueblo | Colorado |
| Patuxent River Naval Air Museum | Patuxent River | Maryland |
F-6A on display
Recent comments by our visitors
| Roger Brown , CA | The F4D was originally designed as a day fighter and modified to a limited night fighter. It's problem was dutch roll during carrier landing approaches. A major defect and after heavy operational losses squadrons were folded into a Navy unit as part of NORAD located at NAS North Island Ca. The F5D would out manuever a Crusader at any altitude and particulary at 30k plus. Addition of the J79 would have resulted in somewhat better performance as the 79 was lighter. The Crusader was faster with top end of the F8E at 1.8M. Before the F8J BLC the Crusader was marginal for carrier work but was more versitile than the Ford. 05/24/2006 @ 06:47 [ref: 13367] |
| S70 , NV | In 1947, based on the German Lippish's delta wing design, Douglas designed and produced an excellent F4D-1 Skyray. After Five years of its operation, Douglas engineers collected the weakness and created a new improved fighter, the F4D-2N. The U.S. Navy interested the concept, two prototypes was ordered to Douglas. As it was actually very different with the F4D-1 Skyray, although it was outwardly similar, a new designation F5D-1 Skylancer was given. The F5D-1 was powered by the same engine as used in F4D-1. During its first flight in 1956, it exceeded sound speed easily. The F5D-1 was judged an outstanding interceptor but lost production contract to the Vought F8U-1 Crusader by political motives rather than the technical reasons. It was because Douglas had many military airplane orders from the Navy at that time. After Navy's cancellation, four airplanes were proceeded with various Military tests until 1961. Then two were grounded and two transferred to NASA. It was finally retired in 1970.
Information also from Anigrand website 05/23/2006 @ 13:48 [ref: 13361] |
| S70 , NV | Type: Carrier-based all weather interceptor
Purpose: To explore aerodynamic improvement to the F4D-1 Skyray Span: 33ft.6in. Length: 53ft.9in. Height: 14ft.10in. Engine: 1x Pratt & Whitney J57-P-8 turbojet Max.speed: 990 mph Crew: 1 Armament: 4x20mm (plus missles/bombs?) (M-61 Vulcan considered?) Source for this and three photos: http://www.anigrand.com/AA2055_XF5D-1.htm 05/23/2006 @ 13:44 [ref: 13360] |
| S70 , NV | -I'm confused...
-Wasn't the F-6 the renamed F4D? -Wasn't the "Skyshark" a prop/turbo composite? -Weren't there only four F5D Skylancers? 05/23/2006 @ 13:25 [ref: 13358] |
| Brian Neville , MD | One of those photos is the Barling XNBL-1 bomber! 03/02/2005 @ 19:24 [ref: 9590] |
| Brian Kim Neville Severn, MD | Named Skylancer, the F5D had a top speed of 953 miles per hour at 35,000 feet. Range (clean) was 1,335 miles. Empty weight of 17,444 pounds. Maximum loaded weight of 29,122 pounds. Wingspan of 33 feet 6 inches. Length of 53 feet 9.6 (9 and 3/5) inches. Height of 14 feet 9.6 (9 and 3/5) inches. Wing area of 557 square feet. Meant to use the General Electric J79 turbojet, it was actually powered by the Pratt & Whitney J57-P-8 rated at 10,200 pounds static thrust dry, and 16,000 pounds static thrust with afterburning. Proposed armament included four retractable rocket launchers accommodating a total of 72 2-inch rockets or four 20-millimeter cannons, with two Sparrow II air-to-air missiles on underwing pylons. 03/02/2005 @ 19:19 [ref: 9589] |
| Lyall McRae Huntington Beach, CA | The F5D wasn't canceled for more F-8s. The Chief of Naval Operations decided to cancel it and wait for the F4H & F8U-3 to take over the all-weather role. The F5D was swept up in a vacuum between the F4D/F3H due to their late service entry and the expected first flights of the F4H/F8U-3. The F8U wasn't capable or equipped to do the same job as the F5D. Steve Ginter has a book in Naval Series (#35) that includes a summary of fighter performance that included in the memorandum to cancel. It's interesting that the Mach numbers are low and no projections for GE J-79 are included.
02/13/2005 @ 21:12 [ref: 9430] |
| Tom Brown , OH | Lots of confusion here that the readers have attempted to correct. The YF5D-1 Skylancer was a follow-on all-weather development to the Douglas F4D-1 (F-6) Skyray that began life as the XF4D-2N. As engineering progressed, the designation was changed to XF5D in recognition of the radical airframe and engine revisions. As for the F4D-1, it was redesignated the F-6 in 1962 when the U.S. Navy simplified and combined its aircraft designations with the USAF. The Skyshark was a third Douglas aircraft -- the A2D turboprop replacement for the AD (A-1) Skyraider.
The Navy rejected the F5D-1 in favor of the Chance-Vought (LTV) F8U (F-8) Crusader. Two prototypes and two service test models were constructed, and one of the prototypes and the final service test model were tranferred to NASA. The latter, flown by Neil Armstrong as part of the Dyna-Soar program, is displayed outside the Neil Armstrong Museum in Wapakoneta, OH. Examples of the F5D are NOT found at either of the collections listed above. 12/18/2004 @ 21:44 [ref: 8898] |
| Willard Ritchie Lancaster, CA | The F5D That was at NASA to fly weather hops before the X-15 flights is at the Air Force Musuem at Wright Patterson
AFB, Dayton Ohio. The F8U won the fly off with the F5D if you can believe that. The fire control system for the F5D was tested in F4D's, flying out of the Naval Ordnance Test Station, (NOTS) China Lake, CA to other ranges with Douglas test pilots. I was a photgrapher in the back seat of a T2V. 04/06/2002 @ 00:09 [ref: 4666] |
| William Rutherford , CA | The F5D was a follow on A/C to the F4D. It was larger and somewhat more angular than the F4D. 03/17/2001 @ 14:57 [ref: 1839] |
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