The Berliner-Joyce XF2J was the company's second biplane fighter for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. The XF2J was ordered on 30 June 1931 and although designated as a two-seat fighter, it was used as an observation aircraft.

Design and development

The XF2J's construction was all-metal with a fabric covered rudder. The upper wing was " gulled", with a short, sharply upward-angled section, with the remainder of the wing with a slight dihedral. The lower wing span was shorter than the upper wing, and was braced with "N" struts and wires. A .30 calibre

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

was located in each of the gulled sections of the upper wing and were synchronized to fire through the propeller arc.Forgotten Fighters p 56 The tightly-cowled 9-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1690C Hornet was the engine originally specified, but was changed to the 14-cylinder Wright SR-1510-92 Whirlwind before the aircraft flew. The propeller was a metal constant speed two-blade design. The original open cockpits were modified to sliding canopies shortly after delivery to the navy.

Operational history

The XF2J-1 suffered from the same faults as the P-16, resulting in an unfavourable service trial of the one prototype, which had appeared two years late due to a protracted development phase, exacerbated by financial difficulties that eventually led to the demise of the company Baugher, Joe.
"Berliner-Joyce P-16/PB-1."
''USAAC/USAAF/USAF Fighter and Pursuit Aircraft'', 7 June 1998. Retrieved: 22 June 2007. The poor visibility over the nose and the landing characteristics doomed the XF2J-1, especially in light of the availability of the superior

Grumman FF The Grumman FF "Fifi" (company designation G-5) was an American biplane fighter aircraft operated by the United States Navy during the 1930s.Eden and Moeng 2002, p. 762. It was the first carrier aircraft with retractable landing gear.Winchester ...

-1.

Specifications (XF2J-1)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Bowers, Peter M, ''Forgotten Fighters/1 US Navy, 1918–1941'' ARCO Publishing, New York, 1971, * W.Green, D.Swanborough ''The Complete Book of Fighters'', 2000

External links

Berliner-Joyce XF2J-1
{{USN fighters F2J Gull-wing aircraft 1930s United States fighter aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1933 Single-engined tractor aircraft Carrier-based aircraft