American Rocketplanes
Aircraft
Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.
American manned rocketplane family.
Subtopics
- MX-324 Northrop manned rocketplane. Flown 1944. First U.S. military rocket-powered plane.
- XP-79 Northrop manned rocket-propelled flying wing fighter. Abandoned when pilot was killed in first test flight with turbojet engines in 1945.
- XP-92 American manned delta-wing rocketplane. Never flown with rockets, but flew as a turbojet-powered research aircraft, 1948-1953.
XF-91 American manned rocketplane. The Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor was a mixed-power interceptor, being powered by both a jet engine and by a battery of rocket motors. Although it showed promise, it was not put into production.- FJ-4F American manned rocketplane. The FJ-4F was a US Navy Fury fighter fitted with a Rocketdyne AR1 engine for quick intercept of Soviet bombers. Two prototypes were tested which reached Mach 1.41 at 22 km altitude.
Chronology
1 event
1944 July 5
- MX-324 rocket fighter prototype first flight. - . Crew: Crosby. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Crosby. Spacecraft Bus: American Rocketplanes. Spacecraft: MX-324. The MX-324, first U.S. military rocket-powered plane built by Northrop, was flown by test pilot Harry Crosby, at Harper Dry Lake, Calif..