XF5U Nose Cone

Well, first off I would like to introduce myself. I have been, and still am, fascinated by airplanes, and in particular warbirds. My favorite thing to do has been to study the history of each aircraft, from the design process to the first flight and service record. The biggest question on my mind at this point is what was the purpose of the XF5U's nose cone? Some of you may remember me, because I asked this question a while ago as my first post. I figured I would ask it again and try to introduce myself a little better this time. I hope to generat some more discussion about this than my first post.

Sincerly, FP:cool:

As far as I know, the nose cone on the XF5U-1 was for a radar. Somewhere at home I have a book about the V-173 and XF5U - I'll have a look for it over the weekend and see if it says anything more.

Zack

Thanks, that would be great! Would you mind telling me the title of that book?

I did a search and found some info on the XF5U. If I knew how to link to it I would.:) According to what I found the nose cone was clear plastic and contained a mount for a gun camera and a landing light. The original design of the Flying Pancake had no nose cone, just the leading edge of the fuselage/wing. Radars from this period had huge antennas and would not have fit inside the XF5U's nose.

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Originally Posted by mcmurphy

Radars from this period had huge antennas and would not have fit inside the XF5U's nose.

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While I do not dispute your findings regarding the gun camera and landing light, I would argue that radar had come along further than you might think by the time the XF5U-1 was flying. The nose of the XF5U-1 was plenty big enough for a modern 1945 radar system. Check out the pics of the radar installed on the P-61 and the size of the radar pods on the Corsair and Hellcat night fighters here: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/...ars/index.html

I couldn't find my XF5U book over the weekend, but I hope it will shed some light on this when I find it.

Zack

You're right Zach, I completely forgot about the smaller radars that were used on Navy fighters late in the war. Here is a link to the article with the information I referred to.http://www.scribd.com/doc/52161502/C...lying-Pancakes

Not trying to open another can of worms, but did the early jet fighters have radar? I'm thinking of the F-86 and F-100, neither of which had radomes in the nose. I know one of the variants of the F-86 (D model?) had a larger nose cone. When did radar become standard equipment on fighters? Mike

Thanks for the replies. McMurphy, according to Modern Military Aircraft Anatomy Technical Drawings of 118 Aircraft, 1945 to the Present Day, the F-86 did have radar. Also it indicates that the aircraft you mentioned had radar directed gunsights.

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the F-86 did have radar. Also it indicates that the aircraft you mentioned had radar directed gunsights.

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Only the last 20 or so F-86As (out of 550 built) and F-86E were equipped with the A-1CM gunsight-AN/APG-30 radar which used radar to compute the range of a target. Originally, the gryo gunsights (Mark 18) similar to what was standard during WWII were used.