XF8B-1
The XF8B-1 3,500 hp was the largest and heaviest single-seat, single-engine pistion-powered fighter developed by the US. The XF8B-1 was intended to fulfil the roles of interceptor, long-range escort fighter, dive-bomber, torbedo-bomber and horizontal bomber. Its B-29-like fin branded it unmistakably as a product of Boeing, It was the first fighter Boeing built after the P-26 "Peashooter" of 1936 and the last before the F/A-22 in 1990.
The XF8B-1 was a big aircraft, as dictated by its long-range mission. The long cowl housed the amazing 28 cylinder Pratt & Whitney XR-4360.10 "Corncob" powerplant, generating 3,000 hp and driving a six-bladed, contra-rotating propeller assembly. But 1945 saw the dawn of the jet age and the XF8B, along with its Corncob-powered counterparts including the F2G Corsair, was consigned to the trivia pages of history.
By 1943, the U.S. Navy was preoccupied with a requirement for a long-range shipboard aircraft suitable for operations against the Japanese home islands from carryers cruising in the Pacific outside the normal range of Japanese land-based aircraft. The Navy issued a requirement for a single-place, single-seat fighter-bomber with specifications that at the time must have seemed like science-fiction: a top speed of 500 MPH, a range of 3000 miles, and the ability to meet these speed and range requirements while carrying a 2000 lb. bomb load.
The Boeing company designed a large, multi-purpose fighter suitable for such operations and which, on May 4, 1943 was awarded a prototype development contract as XF8B-1. The cost, however, was a singularly massive airplane powered by the then-new Wasp Major 28-cylinder radial engine. The XF8B was even larger than the Douglas Skyraider, then also under development, and included an internal bomb bay. Boeing, which immediately began its design under the designation Boeing Model 400.
Submitted to the US Navy, Boeing's design study was sufficiently interesting to warrant the award of a contract for three XF8B-1 prototypes on 4 May 1943. The first of these aircraft, which made its initial flight during November 1944, was the largest single-seat piston-engine fighter to be built in the US. In fact, it subsequently proved to be one of the most powerful single-engine fighters to be developed by any nation involved in World War II, for its powerplant consisted of a Pratt & Whitney XR-4360-10 radial piston engine, which had four banks of seven cylinders, the 2237kW power output being used to drive two Aeroprop three-blade contra-rotating metal propellers. In addition to the alternative built-in armament of six 0.5-in, six 20-mm. wing-mounted guns, it could carry a 6,400-lb. bomb load or two 2,000-lb. torbedoes under the fuselage and inboard wing panels.
Three prototypes of the XF8B-1 were ordered, but only one of these was completed and flown before the end of the war in the Pacific. Teething problems with the Wasp Major led to a flight engineer's station being added behind the cockpit during testing. Though these problems were eventually overcome, by the time the plane was finally ready it was obvious there was no shortage of carriers, which cooled Navy enthusiasm for the project. The aircraft never went into major production because changing wartime strategy required that Boeing concentrate on building land-based large bombers and transports. The two remaining prototypes were completed after the war, and one of these was evaluated at Wright Field by the USAAF. By that time the overriding interest in the development of turbo-jet aircraft meant that further test and evaluation of the XF8B-1s was abandoned.
In September 1945, a Boeing XF8B-1 aircraft crashed near Rochester, NY. The aircraft was on a test flight when the aircraft`s engine died. The pilot made a crash landing in a sugar cane field. The pilot had suffered a broken arm. The aircraft was badly damaged and never flew again.
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