Fairey Delta 2

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Fairey Delta 2
Drawing of the Fairey FD.2 Delta 2
Drawing of the Fairey FD.2 Delta 2
Type: Supersonic test aircraft
Design country:

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Manufacturer:

Fairey Aviation Company

First flight:

October 6, 1954

Number of pieces:

2

WG774, unpainted. The aircraft was later given yellow stripes with a yellow-purple partial paint job before being converted to the BAC 221.

The Fairey Delta 2 or FD2 was a British supersonic pilot, airplane, the Fairey Aviation Company based on the specification ER103 of the Ministry of Supply .

history

The Fairey Delta goes back to the request of the Ministry of Supply at the end of the 1940s, in which an aircraft was required to explore the transonic area. Due to the rapid progress in aviation, the requirements have been increased again so that research in the supersonic range should also be possible. In order to be able to quickly transfer the expected results to a series aircraft, it was required that this aircraft should be built according to the requirements for combat aircraft. The FD2 was built as a prototype for an all-weather interceptor ( specification F.23 / 49 ) advertised by the British Ministry of Defense , the later Fairey Delta 3 , which however never got beyond the drawing board stage.

construction

The Delta 2 was a tailless middle-wing aircraft with delta wings with an angle of incidence of 1.5 °, a thickness of 5% and a nose sweep of 60 °. The wings carried ailerons on the outside and the elevator on the inside. The rudder also had a sweep of 60 ° and a thickness of 5%. The hydraulic control system was simply redundant and artificially generated the usual rudder forces for the pilot. The fuselage had a circular cross-section and was made in a shell construction. The four air brake flaps were attached to the fuselage stern . The engine inlets were in the wing roots. The jet engine was a Rolls-Royce Avon RA.5 with a non-adjustable afterburner .

The Delta 2 had a very long, tapered nose that restricted visibility during take-off and landing. To compensate for this, the nose was designed to be hydraulically pivotable by 10 degrees; analogous to the later developed Concorde . Two prototypes were made: the WG774 and WG777 . The WG774 completed its 25-minute maiden flight on October 6, 1954, flown by Peter Twiss; the second prototype took off for the first time on February 15, 1956.

Trials and world speed record

The first prototype ran through its test program without any problems until an emergency landing at the end of 1954 due to a lack of fuel, in which the machine was badly damaged. It was only ready to start again in August 1955. During flight tests, the machine performed well and easily reached supersonic speed, for the first time in August 1955. It was then decided to beat the existing world speed record.

On March 10, 1956, the aircraft set a new speed record of 1,811 km / h, which was 480 km / h above the old record set in 1955 by an F-100 Super Saber . This record flight was the first flight to exceed the 1000 miles per hour limit, and the pilot was the first person to travel faster than the earth's rotation (at the equator).

BAC 221

The first Delta 2 ( WG 774 ) was converted into the Ogive wing aircraft BAC 221 in 1960 by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) after the takeover of Fairey . This modification was made for the Concorde program. It included new wings, new engine intakes, a modified rudder, a 1.83 m longer fuselage and an extended landing gear to simulate that of the Concorde. The plane flew from 1964 to 1973.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
crew 1
overall length 15.7 m
span 8.2 m
height 3.4 m
Wing area 33 m²
Wing extension 2.04
Empty mass 4,990 kg
Takeoff mass 6,298 kg
Top speed 1,811 km / h
Summit height 14,540 m
Rate of climb 76.2 m / s
Engine a Rolls-Royce RA.5 jet engine
Thrust 4,536 kg

Whereabouts

BAC 221 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton (December 2008)

The WG 774 , in the BAC-221 version, is exhibited next to the British Concorde prototype in the Fleet Air Arm Museum near Yeovilton . The second FD2, WG 777 , is on display in the Royal Air Force Museum on the former RAF Cosford Air Force base, along with many other test aircraft.

Comparable patterns

See also

literature

  • HA Taylor: Fairey Aircraft since 1915 . London: Putnam, 1974. ISBN 0-370-00065-X . (English)
  • Peter Twiss: Faster than the Sun . London: Grub Street Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1-902304-43-8 . (English)
  • Jim Winchester: Concept Aircraft: Prototypes, X-Planes and Experimental Aircraft . Rochester, Kent, UK: Grange books plc, 2005. ISBN 1-84013-809-2 . (English)

Web links

Commons : Fairey Delta 2  - collection of images, videos and audio files