Subject: Number Forty-Eight in the Series--Douglas XP-48

From: [email-masked]
Date: 4 Feb 93 18:21:36 GMT

>From [email-masked]

In early 1939, the Douglas Aircraft Company of Santa Monica, California 
submitted a proposal to the USAAC for an ultra-lightweight single-seat 
high-altitude fighter.  The project was given the company designation 
of Model 312.  The general arrangement drawings of the Model 312 that 
have survived show a rather unusual-looking low-wing cantilever 
monoplane sporting a wing with a rather high aspect ratio.  Power was 
to be provided by a supercharged Ranger SGV-770 twelve-cylinder 
inverted-vee liquid-cooled engine offering 525 hp.  A three-bladed 
propeller was to be used.  A tricycle undercarriage was to be fitted.  
The wing was so thin that the main undercarriage members had to be 
attached to the fuselage, the mainwheel members retracting rearward 
into recesses within the rear fuselage.  Armament was to consist of a 
0.30-in and a 0.50-in machine gun, both mounted in the upper fuselage 
deck and synchronized to fire through the propeller arc.  

The dimensions of the proposed Model 312 were to be wingspan 32 feet, 
length 21 feet 9 inches, height 9 feet, and wing area of 92 square 
feet.  Weights were only 2675 pounds empty and 3400 pounds gross.  The 
Douglas designers projected a maximum speed of no less than 525 mph 
for the Model 312 design! 

The USAAC looked over the Douglas proposal, and were sufficiently 
interested that they reserved the pursuit designation of XP-48 for the 
design.  However, upon further investigation, the USAAC concluded that 
Douglas' performance estimates were grossly over-optimistic, and the 
project was not funded.  Consequently, the Douglas company pursued the 
Model 312 project no further.  

Sources: 

  McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920: Volume I, Rene J. Francillon, 
  Naval Institute Press, 1988.  

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.  

Joe Baugher       AT&T Bell Laboratories    2000 North Naperville Road 
		  Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033.   (708) 713-4548