Tucker XP-57 was the designation of a lightweight fighter which was proposed to the
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...
(USAAC) in 1940. Nicknamed the "Peashooter", it was developed by the
Tucker Aviation Corporation under
Preston Tucker
Preston Thomas Tucker (21 September 1903 – 26 December 1956) was an American automobile entrepreneur.
He is most remembered for his Tucker 48 sedan, initially nicknamed the "Tucker Torpedo", an automobile which introduced many features ...
, who later became famous for the
Tucker '48 Sedan.
To minimize weight, the aircraft was to have a steel tubular frame with
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
skin and
plywood wings. The inline-8 engine, designed by
Harry Miller of Indy 500 racing fame, was to sit behind the pilot in a configuration similar to the
P-39 Airacobra
The Bell P-39 Airacobra is a fighter produced by Bell Aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was one of the principal American fighters in service when the United States entered combat. The P-39 was used by the ...
. The USAAC ordered a single XP-57 prototype. However, when design was delayed due to financial problems in the company, the contract was allowed to lapse. No production aircraft was ever built because the USAAC was moving towards larger fighters and had lost interest in the project.
Prototype specifications (XP-57)
See also
References
*
Tucker Military Factory, XP-57 (Peashooter) Fighter (1940)* American Combat Planes, Ray Wagner, Third Enlarged Edition, Doubleday, 1982.
* The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion Books, 1987.
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Tucker P-57