The Ryan XF2R Dark Shark was an American experimental

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

built 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 ...

that combined

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...

and

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

propulsion. It was based on

Ryan Aeronautical The Ryan Aeronautical Company was founded by T. Claude Ryan in San Diego, California, in 1934. It became part of Teledyne in 1969, and of Northrop Grumman when the latter company purchased Ryan in 1999. Ryan built several historically and tech ...

's earlier

FR Fireball The Ryan FR Fireball was an American mixed-power (Reciprocating engine, piston and jet aircraft, jet-powered) fighter aircraft designed by Ryan Aeronautical for the United States Navy during World War II. It was the Navy's first aircraft with a ...

, but replaced the Fireball's piston engine with a turboprop engine.

Design and development

The XF2R Dark Shark was based on

's earlier

, but replaced the Fireball's piston engine with a

General Electric T31 The General Electric T31 (company designation TG-100A) was the first turboprop engine designed and built in the United States. Design and development The TG-100A benefited from the Anglo/American technology exchange with one of its designers, Gl ...

turboprop engine driving a 4-bladed

Hamilton Standard Hamilton Standard was an American aircraft propeller parts supplier. It was formed in 1929 when United Aircraft and Transport Corporation consolidated Hamilton Aero Manufacturing and Standard Steel Propeller into the Hamilton Standard Propeller C ...

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. The turboprop made for much improved performance over the Fireball, but the Navy showed little interest in it; by that time, they had abandoned the idea of the combination fighter and were instead looking into all-jet fighters. The

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

, however, showed a little more interest; they were at the time evaluating the

Convair XP-81 The Consolidated Vultee XP-81 (later redesignated ZXF-81) is a development of the Convair, Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation to build a single seat, long range escort fighter that combined use of both turbojet and turboprop engines. Altho ...

of similar concept, and asked Ryan to modify the XF2R to use the

Westinghouse J34 The Westinghouse J34, company designation Westinghouse 24C, was a turbojet engine developed by Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division in the late 1940s. Essentially an enlarged version of the earlier Westinghouse J30, the J34 produced 3,000 p ...

turbojet instead of the General Electric J31 used previously. Modifications to the

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

created the XF2R-2, with the jet intakes moved to the sides of the forward fuselage with

NACA duct A NACA duct, also sometimes called a NACA scoop or NACA inlet, is a common form of low- drag air inlet design, originally developed by the U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the precursor to NASA, in 1945. Design Prior su ...

s instead of the inlets in the wing leading edge used before. Although the Dark Shark proved to be a capable aircraft, it never progressed beyond the prototype stage; all-jet aircraft were considered superior.

Specifications (XF2R-1)

Ryan XF2R Dark Shark 3-view line drawing

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Ginter, Steve. ''Ryan FR-1 Fireball and XF2R-1 Darkshark, Naval Fighters Number 28. Simi Valley, CA: Ginter Books, 1995. . * McDowell, Ernest. ''FR-1 Fireball, Mini in action number 5''. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications Inc., 1995. .

External links