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Vultee V-48 / P-66 Vanguard

The Vultee P-66 Vanguard (Company designation V-48) was a United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft.

It was initially ordered by Sweden, but by the time the aircraft were ready for delivery in 1941, the United States would not allow them to be exported, designating them as P-66s and retaining them for defensive and training purposes.

Eventually, a large number were sent to China where they were pressed into service as combat aircraft with mixed results.

The Vultee Vanguard was the product of an idea conceived in the late 1930s by the Vultee Aircraft Division of the Aviation Manufacturing Corporation of developing four aircraft designed for different roles from a set of common wings and aft fuselage and tail assemblies.

The company assigned four model designations: V-48 to a single-seat fighter, BC-51 to a basic combat trainer, B-54 to an advanced trainer, and BC-54D as a basic trainer.

Eventually, the BC-51 would become the Army Air Corps BC-3 and the BC-54D, the BT-13.

In 1938, Richard W. Palmer started the detailed design of the V-48 fighter member of the quartet.

The aircraft featured a metal-covered, semi-monocoque fuselage and fully retractable landing gear, and was powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 air-cooled radial engine.

During construction of the first prototype, a decision was made to lengthen the propeller shaft and install a tight cowling to provide a pointed nose to reduce drag.

The first aircraft flew in September 1939 piloted by Vance Breese and was assigned registration number NX21755.

The fighter was named the Vanguard.

On 9 May 1940, the prototype collided with a Lockheed Sirius while landing at Vultee airfield, the impact severing one main undercarriage leg.

Nevertheless, Breese skilfully landed the airplane with little additional damage.

It was subsequently rebuilt with the orthodox cowling as employed on subsequent machines.

Flight tests revealed the aircraft was suffering from inadequate cooling.

Measures to modify the cooling ducting were of little avail.

After re-evaluating the design and noting that the insignificant drag decrease was not worth the added weight and ducting problems, the second prototype, which was assigned the model number V-48X and registration NX19999, was modified with a conventional cowl and the first aircraft were similarly modified.

The second aircraft first flew on February 11, 1940.

As a result of flight tests, a number of changes were made to the design including substantially increasing the areas of the horizontal and vertical tail surfaces.

Variants

Model 48

Vultee company designation.

P-66 Vanguard

USAAC / USAAF trainer.

V-48

1st prototype.

V-48X

2nd prototype.

V-49C

Export model for Sweden.

Vanguard I

RAF Designation,

 Not used operationally.

Specifications

Crew

1

Length

28 ft 5 in (8.66 m)

Wingspan

35 ft 10 in (10.92 m)

Wing area

196.8 sq ft (18.28 m2)

Empty weight

5,237 lb (2,375 kg)

Gross weight

7,100 lb (3,221 kg)

Max take-off weight

7,384 lb (3,349 kg)

Powerplant

1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1830-33,

14 Cyl twin row radial,

1,200 hp (890 kW)

Propellers

3-bladed Hamilton Standard hydromatic

Performance

Maximum speed

300 kn (340 mph, 550 km/h) at 15,000 ft

Cruise speed

250 kn (290 mph, 470 km/h) at 17,000 ft

Stall speed

71 kn (82 mph, 132 km/h)

Range

740 nmi (850 mi, 1,370 km)

Service ceiling

28,200 ft (8,600 m)

Rate of climb

2,520 ft/min (12.8 m/s)

Armament

Guns

4 × .30 in (7.62 mm) machine guns

2 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns.

 

 

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