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From: GT McCoy <gtmccoy@harborside.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 09:40:17 -0800
Fwd Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 13:35:01 -0500
Subject: The Truth About The XF5U-1 Flapjack


Hello, all

Mr. Matthews seems to be enamored of the XF5U-1. Also that we
had whole squadrons of Go-229 (Horten) flying wings zooming over
the snowy slopes of Mt.Ranier-in'47.

Well, the Flapjacks were certainly cutting edge,but wrong
edge,Propellers even those turned by gas turbines even the
abilty to hover was secondary to going fast and far.The steam
catapult, angled flight deck and far more relialble pure jets
(also the breaking of the sound barrier) finished Propeller
driven Naval Aircraft.Period ,no more,with the A-1 skyraider and
the F4U- drived AU-2 soldiering on.

Mr.Barrett Tillman is an execllent aircraft historian, his books
on Naval Aviation are at the top of the Historian's Craft.-With
no mention of any speculation of the XF5U-1 being other than a
one-off (actually there was a static test airframe) prototype.

Another source "U.S.Naval Fighters 1922 to 1980,s" by Lloyd S.
Jones (Aero Pub. 1977.) has a very consistant, accurate,(and a
great three -view of the XF5U-1) account of the whole
V-173/XF5U-1 saga-including the Protoype's Demise at Edwards in
a very public death by wreckingball,exactly 50 years ago to the
day March 17,1949.

Also contained in "Naval Fighters" is a history of all the
Protoypes of fighter aircraft used by the US Navy.Insightful.Why
fool around with nasty, unreilable turboprops such as the
Allison T-40 the only reasonably available big (ah ,notice I
didn't say reliable) Turboprop. by the time the XF5U-1 was at
Edwards, the  N. American F86/FJ-2 was already in  production,
along with the Grumman F9F Panthers and of course that
particularly nasty surprise-the MiG-15 in Korea. It' easy to see
why the XF5U had no merit because of the advances in Technology.