Aviation History - March 2016 USA

March 2016 AH 33

What the Navy lacked was any sort of V/STOL
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The obvious solution was the Hawker Siddeley
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American aerospace industry were opposed to the
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All but two were rejected out of hand as unwork-
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of all the proposals, since it was based on totally
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to be fully VTOL capable and to reach a top speed

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airplane was tested on a tether for a few years, but

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a lack of any foreseeable positive results, plans for

a second prototype were canceled and the project

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remains doubtful that it ever could have become

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ment, reconnaissance packs or external fuel tanks

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THE XVF-12A

SEEMS TO HAVE

BEEN CHOSEN

SOLELY ON THE

EXPECTATION

THAT IT WOULD

BE THE LEAST

EXPENSIVE

TO BUILD.

TUNNEL VISION A Rockwell International

engineer prepares a scale model of the XFV-12A

strike fighter for wind-tunnel testing in 1974.

TETHERED TRYOUT The XFV-12A underwent

years of bench-testing but never actually flew.