Xf 11
![xf 11 xf 11](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/05/32/c4/0532c456a48dbc983c47e8d24bd98f18--coffee-shops-howard-hughes.jpg)
It looks a little like a P-38 Lightning.Now there's a pool pump for demanding high-capacity applications that's energy efficient, whisper-quiet and dependable. Howard Hughes was a nut case, a gifted pilot & designer and probaly a genious, but still a nut case. The performance of the XF-11 in hi altitude is superior and the range of the Huges is far superior.Īnd it isn't a fighter, is the father of the U-2 and SR-71. Joris, the XF-11 is twice the weight and is twice the size of the P-38. Looks like an advanced P-38!Dunno why it wasn´t used as a fighter. Howard Hughes frequently said P-38 was an unauthorized copy of his original project (the D-2 Convoy Protector fighter), but Kelly Johnson at Lockheed started early on 1937 to design his more lucky creature. It could be an excellent recon plane, maybe not a fighter and it would not to be. Obviously related to or inspired U-2 & SR-1 type operations It was designed from the D-2 to be a recon plane, nothing else. It couldn't have been used as a fighter because of its small ailerons and slow turn rate. How did the original counter rotating props work? Like so maney of Lockheeds airframes this bird was long and sleek> I love itĪlthough this plane was great at high altimtudes it had poor low speed and low altitude performance. This had the longest range (5,000 mi.) highest service cieling (45,000 ft.) highest multi-engine unofficial speed (480 mph w /CR hydromatic props) and with external fuel had the greatest time aloft potencial of any piston engined aircraft made, it was an elitist dream come true! The P38 saw limited use as a recon plane and had in those planes a camera mounted in the nose of the center section but is was NOT A LONG RANGE RECON plane nor cvould it fly as high. It was slow reaction to changes in the control surfaces and tended to slop and slide if pushed in aerobatics because of small control surfaces at low altitudes would never lend it to combat. This aircraft was not designed to be a fighter! It is a high altitude recon air craft with long range capability. Why does every nut keep on harping on it being a redesign of a p38 which was a awwaaaii fighter aircraft and a good one two. The only other aircraft built to meet the AAF specification for which Hughes designed the XF-11 was the equally spectacular Republic XF-12 Rainbow, which was an even larger four-engine aircraft. I suppose the most appropriate comparison would be to say that this was aircraft was meant to have been the SR-71 of the 1940s.
![xf 11 xf 11](http://www.parkscalemodels.com/images/IMG_8096.jpg)
Apart from everything else, with a take-off weight of over 58,000 pounds, it would have been far to big and heavy ever to have been a fighter. The F-11 was not a fighter, it was specifically designed to be a long-range, high-altitude, high-speed photo-reconnaissance platform.
![xf 11 xf 11](https://fullfatthings-keyaero.b-cdn.net/sites/keyaero/files/imported/2021-06-25/img_46-1.jpg)
There was no relation between the P-38 and this aircraft, except for the fact that they shared the same basic twin-boom configuration. The reversal of pitch of one of those contra-rotating props caused the crash of the first prototype, nearly killing Hughes. The photos show the second prototype, which was built without the contra-rotating propellers which caused Hughes so much trouble. Does anyone know what happened to the 2nd prototype 47-1056? This plane is another example of the government not buying the best plane for the job. A second aircraft flew on 5 April 1947 and subsequently went to Eglin Field, Florida (now Eglin Air Force Base), to be tested, but the US Air Force cancelled the programme in favour of utilizing the much more economical Boeing RB-50 to meet the long-range photo-reconnaissance requirement. The flight ending in a crash that nearly cost pilot Howard Hughes his life. Twin-engined, twin-boom monoplane flew for the first time on 7 July 1946 but lost a propeller, Designed specifically for long-range photographic reconnaissance, the Hughes XR-11 (formerly XF-11)