Martin-Baker MB 4 & MB 5

Today we bring you two fighters for the price of one, being one of them a never-built one.
The Martin-Baker MB 4 was an unbuilt project of refitting a Bristol Centaurus engine into the fuselage of an MB 3, while the MB 5 was the ultimate development of the MB fighter series. Unfortunately not much is known about the MB 4.
Martin-Baker designed the MB 5 to compete in the Air Ministry's F.18/39 specification for an agile and sturdy fighter that could go faster than 400mph (643km/h).
After the crashing of the second prototype of the MB 3, Martin Baker decided to go with a completely new design that used wings similar to those of the MB 3 but had a completely new steel tube fuselage. It was powered by a 2340hp Rolls-Royce Griffon engine that drove two three-bladed contra-rotating propellers. It was armed with four 20mm cannons placed in the wings, just outboard of the retractable landing gear. It was, as every Martin Baker design, very easy to maintain and repair.
The prototype flew for the first time on 23rd May 1944 and both its performance and general instruments layouts were praised by the test pilots and it was considered way better than the Spitfire, in fact, it was expected to enter service during the last weeks of the World War II over Germany. However the Royal Air Force centered their attention in the jet powered fighters (namely the Gloster Meteor or the De Havilland Vampire) maybe because the Griffon engine failed when the airplane was being demonstrated to Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, the Chief of Air Staff and another VIPs. Sadly enough, the prototype ended its days as a target in a gunnery range, so it was destroyed.

Sources:
1. http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,7053.msg60590.html
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin-Baker_MB_5
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Macchi C.204

Today we bring you another never-built Italian fighter from the World War 2.
The Macchi C.204 was another design from engineer Mario Castaldi that never materialized. It was basically the fuselage of the C.202 Folgore prototype attached to an Isotta-Fraschini Asso L121 RC.40 that could deliver between 900 to 1000hp of power. However, in the previous studies that engine was deemed unappropiated  for an interceptor.
The fuselage was identical to the prototype of the C.202 except for the nose which was modified to host the Italian engine instead of the Daimler Benz which powered the original C.202 prototype. The expected armament was a pair of 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns placed in the nose, and, apparently initally it was expected to have a four-bladed propeller, however it was considered excessive for the ordinary power of the engine, that couldn't pass from the 1000hp of power.

Sources:
1. Ali Antiche Magazine - 106 (translated)

Martin-Baker MB 3

The Martin-Baker MB3 was a British fighter project that was designed by James Martin and Captain Valentine Baker using the experience learned from the previous MB1 and MB2. It was powered by a 2000hp Napier Sabre engine with a variable pitch three bladed propeller.
It was designed to meet one of the Air Ministry's specifications and was armed with six 20mm (0.79in) cannons in the wings, three per each wing, making it one of the most armed fighters of the World War II if it had been produced and, following Martin-Baker's tradition, they were easily accessible and maintaineable. Retaining the characteristics of the previous designs, it introduced many new features, as the fuselage was still made in round steel tube but metal place replaced the wood and fabric on earlier models. The wing construction integrated torsion-box construction and a laminated steel spar, giving it that way a strong and stiff structure with minimum flexing. It had also a very effective, simple, sturdy and reliable pneumatically-controlled undercarriage.
It was tested and flew for the first time on 31st August 1942, and it revealed to be highly maneouvrable and easy to handle, however, on 12th September, the engine failed soon after taking off and it crashed unfortunately killing the pilot, Captain Valentine Baker. This leaded to various delays and late deliveries, making the project uninteresting for the Air Ministry.
There were, however, plans to redesign it as an Mk.II version with a bubble canopy and powered by either a Napier Sabre, or a Rolls-Royce Vulture engine. Those versions apparently weren't the MB4 but some developed variants of the MB3. Trully a good looking fighter.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin-Baker_MB_3
2. https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=7053.0
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Macchi C.203

Today it's the turn for the Macchi C.203, a never-built Italian floatplane heavy fighter.
The Macchi C.203 was a project for a twin-engined seaplane fighter that never left the desing board. It was presented to compete in an Italian Air Ministry specification in 1937 for a fast reconnaissance seaplane where, together with this one, the Caproni Ca.124, the Caproni Ca.410, the IMAM Ro.55, the FIAT-CMASA Rs.14 and the CRDA CANT Z.510 were also competitors. It was won by the FIAT-CMASA Rs.14 which was mass produced.
It was designed by Mario Castoldi, who had experience with seaplane designs, and it was intended to be twin-engined, armed with three machine guns (one Breda-SAFAT 12,7mm in the nose, and another 7,7mm defensive ones in ventral and dorsal retractable positions) and would've had provision for four 100kg bombs under the wings. It would've been powered by, most probably, the FIAT A.74 engines as they were the only radial engines available for the Regia Aeronautica back then.

Sources:
1. Ali Antiche Magazine 109 - Macchi C.203 - Un intruso tra i caccia della serie '200 (translated)
2. http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=27144.0

14TP

The 14TP was a Polish prototype for a medium cruiser tank that was never completed due to the start of the World War II.
It was designed in 1938 and was heavily based on the previous 10TP with the idea of improving the performance of this last one.
The armour on each side wouldn't be thicker than 35mm and it could have two type of turrets, either one with a 37mm Bofors cannon or one with a 47mm gun and it was planned to be powered by a 300hp Maybach engine to make it more powerful and fast.
The tank was 60% completed by the end of 1938 and the first tests were planned for March 1939, however it turned out that Maybach company (the builder of the engines) had sent two defective copies of the engines, so the tank couldn't be assembled. This leaded to the talks about the replacement of the defective parts with better ones and that, leaded to the halt of the project in the summer of 1939 and, shortly after, Germany invaded and the plans fell into German hands.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14TP
2. Salamander Books - The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Tanks and AFVs

Arado E.555-1

Previous note: As our draughtsman found this airplane irrestible to draw, even being a bomber, we decided to publish it. Does it mean that we're going to post bombers from now on? Not exclusively. Fighters are going to be our main focus, however, from time to time we'll post any type of airplane that we find interesting.

The Arado E.555-1 was first conceived in 1943 to meet the requirement of the RLM for a high speed jet bomber capable of carrying 4000kg of bombs and with a range of 5000km, which is commonly known as the "Amerika-Bomber". Arado studied the project assigning a construction team for the project and, by early 1944 the results were available. They concluded that a flying wing would be the best option in order to achieve high speed and long range.

The study showed up to fifteen designs, labelled E.555-1 up to E.555-15 being the main differences among them the engines and the configuration of those.

The E.555-1 would've been made entirely out of metal being a flying delta wing with a short protruding section of the fusalge to host the cockpit where the crew of three would operate from.
It was planned to have two remote controlled defensive turrets, a dorsal one and a rear one.
The engines would've been six BMW 003A placed in a cluster on the rear upper surface of the wing.

In spite of this very advanced design, the project was suddenly stopped on 28th December 1944 by the EHK (Entwicklungs HauptKommision - Main developtment commission) of the RLM due to the deteriorating war situation as this bomber was going to be very expensive.

Sources:
1. http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2001/09/caisander_ar555.htm
2. http://www.luft46.com/arado/are555s.html
3. http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?topic=46084.0

Arado E.500

This is a special post, as we discovered thanks to the comments, that we had forgotten this airplane, so we are amending that error.

The Arado E.500 was a concept for a heavy Zerstörer airplane dating back from 1936. It would've been manned by a crew of four, a pilot, a co-pilot a dorsal turret gunner and a ventral gun station gunner.
It would've featured a twin-boom configuration with high-mounted wings and running through each engine nacelle and spanning across the top of the gondola type fuselage.
Apparently it had an excellent field of view for every member of the crew except for the ventral gunner who would've laid in prone position and would've controlled using remote controls and a periscope for aiming and firing. It was going to be powered by a pair of Daimler-Benz DB.603 engines placed at the extreme aft of the booms and the tail booms weren't joined but were indepents. The ventral turret had two 20mm guns and same goes for the dorsal one.
Only a 1:1 scale model was made and it seems that it was intended to serve as a flying anti-aircraft battery, just like the American Bell YFM-1 Airacuda.

Sources:
1. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_E.500 (translated)
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=664

Atlas Carver

The Atlas Carver (commonly known as CAVA) was a projected multi-role fighter designed by the South African Atlas in order to replace the aging fleet of Blackburn Buccaneer, English Electric Canberra and Dassault Mirage III that were still in service with the South African Air Force during the 1980s.
Initially the Cheetah was just an interim solution until this airplane, the Carver would have entered service, which was expected at the late 1990s. It was necessated by the UN arms embargo against South Africa due to the apartheid.

It was officialy cancelled in 1991 when the president F.W. de Klerk announced it's cancellation together with the South African nuclear programme. Approximately 10 billion rands were spent on the project as well as a mock-up system placement. It's said that wind tunnel tests and a host related work was completed and everything points that the construction of a prototype had started or was about to start.

Even if there aren't official concepts or conceptual work available for the public, there are some very plausible models and blueprints made by enthusiasts all over the internet and we decided to catch one of them. It would've resembled to the Mirage 2000, Mirage 4000 and Rafale.

It was designed to be a fly-by-wire unstable composed by a large percentage of composites.

Source:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Carver

Unbuilt Arsenal VG-90 projects

As most of these are left undrawn, as there aren't blueprints or profile drawings we are gathering them all in one post. The only one that apparently was drawn in a blueprint was the VG-93.

The Arsenal VG-91 was an intended single-seat fighter for the French Air Force and, apparently it was going to be powered by the French Atar C.101 engine and was expected that it would've achieved the speed of 953km/h. It was going to be also a little bit longer.
Arsenal VG-92 was just a regular VG-90 refitted with the newer Rolls-Royce Nene II engine. It was intended for Aeronaval service.
Arsenal VG-93 was a VG-90 powered also by the Rolls-Royce Nene II engine, and it would've featured ramjets placed on the wingtips. It was estimated that it would've achieved speeds of 1095Km/h.
Arsenal VG-94 was also a derivative of the VG-90, intended for the Navy and powered by a Rolls Royce Nene 104 delivering 3100Kgp of thrust and intended to achieve speeds of 1100km/h.

Sources:
1. http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1242.10;imode

Arsenal VG-70 & VG-80

The Arsenal VG-70 was a French experimental airplane developed just after the World War II.

Back in 1939 the engineer Jean Galtier had started to work on the design of a wooden fighter powered by a supercharged Hispano-Suiza 12Y-51 capable of delivering, theoretically, 1000hp of power. That project was called VG-60. That project was relaunched in 1942 around another supercharged Hispano-Suiza 12Z capable of achieving 1200hp of power, but with the liberation, the objectives of the French aeronautical sector, changed radically as the industrial priority was to adquire experience with the newly built jet engines and/or fighters. So, since September 1944 Arsenal de l'Aeronautique made some studies on how to adapt the German Jumo 004 engine on the fuselage of an Arsenal VG-60, which was never fully built.

During the summer of 1943 the engineers at the design bureau of Messerschmitt carried out some wind-tunnel tests at Chalais-Meudon in order to develop the P.1092 programme. That program never materialized, but Jean Galtier had knowledge of the results and decided to use them, so during the autumn of 1945 it was decided to build a swept-wing research prototype resulting in a 38º swept-winged monoplane resting on a retractable tricycle landing gear with a ventral air intake placed just under the cockpit. It was of mixed construction, since the fuselage was made out of metal but the wings and the vertical stabilizers were made out of wood.

It flew for the first time on 23rd June 1948 at Melun-Villaroche piloted by Modeste Vonner. It had the honour of being the second French jet airplane to fly after the SNCASO SO.6000 Triton and it achieved the speed of 760Km/h. It was expected to replace the Junkers Jumo 004 with a Rolls-Royce Derwent and it would've been called Arsenal VG-80, but the programme was abandoned in favour of the Arsenal VG-90.

Finally, as we like to run our imagination wild, we thought that it would've been interesting if the Frenchs, would've armed the aircraft to use it as a rocket fighter.

Sources:
1. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_VG_70 (translated)
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_VG_70

Arsenal VG-37/38/39bis/40/50

Today it's the turn of the unbuilt projects of the VG-30 variants.
There were many.
The VG-37 was a projected extended-range version of the VG-36. We couldn't find further info about it's lookings so we assumed that it would've had extra fuel tanks mounted in the wings, it should be considered as purely hypothetical as it's not based in actual blueprints.
The VG-38 was a regular VG-36 powered by an Hispano-Suiza 12Y-77 which was left unbuilt.
The VG-39bis was a regular VG-39 with the P-51 type streamlined radiator and it was intended to be the production version of the VG-39. It would've been powered by the back then, newly manufactured, Hispano-Suiza 12Z-17.
The VG-40 was another variant projected this time powered by a British Merlin III engine and, the VG-50 would've been a variant powered by an American Allison V-1710-39 engine. The designation VG-50 was also used for another trasatlantic airplane airplane that was left unbuilt.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_VG-33
2. Le Fana de l'Aviation - Arsenal VG-33

Antonov E-153 & Antonov Masha

And now, we continue with another fighter designed by Antonov, the Antonov Masha, AKA Antonov M.

After the OKB abandoned the Antonov Salamandra, they started working on a lightweight tailless fighter in a flying wing configuration. According to official instructions, it had to be powered by two RD-10 engines which had to be feed by root intakes. The wing had 60º of sweep on the leading edge and had full span flaps plus all-flying forward-swept ailerons, the latter forming the outer-wing sections.
Twin fins were used, mounted at the tips inside the ailerons, and it would've been armed with four 23mm cannons or two 37mm plus two 23mm ones, housed underneath the intake and underneath the nose. It would've had a trycicle undercarriage and was named "Masha" or, abbreviated just M as it was designed by A.A. Batumov and V.A. Dominikovskiy.
It was almost completed when the OKB was told to replace the RD-10 with an RD-45 (a copy of the British Rolls-Royce Nene) in 1947, and that required the airplane to be redesigned. In fact, apart from the forward fuselage, the redesign was almost total and, after some wind tunnel tests, the construction of the prototype proceeded with haste.
The redesigned layout of the fuselage had a new wing with a larger span and area and was, in fact, a delta wing. The root intakes and the tip ailerons were also replaced by elevons. It was stimated that it could've reach 5000m in five minutes, having a service ceiling of 10000m and a range, when flying at 8000 of 620km (385 miles). A 1/10 model was built to check the flying and spinning characteristics and make some performance stimations, but it was impossible to make all that with just a scale model, so it was decided to build a scale mock-up glider, the E-153.

The Antonov E-153 was the designation given to a full-sized glider made out of wood which served also a structural and equipment mock-up for the Antonov Masha. It was to be launched using a dolly as an undercarriage, to be jettisoned after having taken-off, whilst a fixed skid was fitted for landing.
However, in July 1948, shortly before the glider flight test, both Masha and E-153 were terminated by order of the Soviet MAP (the Ministry of Aviation Industry) as they considered that there were already many fighter designs.
When the order was issued, the prototype of the Masha was almost completed and Antonov was disappointed as he thought that the Masha would have been far more maneouvrable than any of the other designs and he felt that it should have flown. There was also potential for radar equipment and for a more powerful engine to be fitted.

Source:
1. Midland Publishing - Soviet Secret Projects - Fighters since 1945

Antonov Salamandra

We make a brief visit to the USSR to cover some never materialized projects made by Antonov, which was famous for designing and manufacturing big cargo airplanes, and enormous strategical bombers.

The first project to cover is the Antonov Salamandra. Back in the days when Antonov design bureau was newly founded, they had a go at fighter design, even if they had their design staff cut by a third. During the World War II, Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, worked for the design department of Yakovlev as a deputy. He was impressed by the Heinkel He.162 "Salamander", which was designed and produced incredibly fast during the closing stages of the war. That aircraft, as it's widely known, had the engine mounted on top of the fuselage and also twin tail fins to keep the rudders out of jet efflux, so it comes no surprise that the Antonov design copied this layout and was also called Salamandra (Salamander). The design began in the spring 1946, just after the completion of the Antonov An-2 design.

Antonov Salamandra

It was powered by a single RD-10 engine on the back of the fuselage and this position removed the risk of ingestion and foreign object damage coming from rough field operations, which was the intended field of act of this airplane and also made the maintenance of the airplane easier.

A wind test model was tested on 6th April 1946, but Antonov received intructions from the NKAP (the Soviet bureau of new technology) ordering them to concentrate in a new fighter design powered by two RD-10 engines. Therefore, Antonov abandoned the project and concentrated on the Antonov M or Antonov Masha.

Unfortunately as we couldn't find blueprints of profile drawings for this one, we couldn't draw it. However we found two pics of the wind test model.

Antonov Salamandra

Source:
1. Midland Publishing - Soviet Secret Projects - Fighters since 1945

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.21

Today we go back to the early 1930s to post about this forgotten never-built airplane.

The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.21 was a project submitted by Armstrong Whitworth for the F.7/30 air ministry's specification that was eventually won by the Gloster Gladiator.

The design was a monocoque monoplane made in steel tube (something not very common for those days). It featured also a retractable landing gear, feature that was neither common for the early 1930s.

It was going to be armed with two 0.303 Vickers machine guns and it was expected that it could carry four small bombs under the wings. It would've been powered by the failed Armstrong Siddeley Hyena engine.

Source:
1. http://p-d-m.livejournal.com/242051.html (translated)

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.169

This design, as it's obvious, was based on the AW 166. It was going to be made out of light alloy materials that allowed for an adequater strength and stiffness margin up to a specified 'dive speed' of Mach 2.55.
A detailed study concluded that various problems, derived from the high altitude, high speed and high maneouvrability requeriments mixed with the large thrust and stringent fuel demands, all of them combined, gave a high gross weight. Therefore Armstrong Whitworth established that the actual weight grow factor rose too fast with increased military load and devoted much time to the restriction of this item which prevented the aircraft from being excessively large (even if it was already enormous), gross take-off weight finishing in the region of 54000lb(24494Kg).
At sea level the engine performance was limited to Mach 1 in order to maintain a reasonable structure and power plant weight in an aircraft intended basically for high altitude operations.
From the performance point of view, it could easily reach up to Mach 2.7 at any height.

The wings were very thin so any substantial fuel and storage capacity was limited and all of them were carried in the fuselage. The four Gyron Junior engines were to be slung in paired nacelles under the wings to keep complete continuity of the main spar structure. This particular engine layout gave a convenient location for the main undercarriage wheels between air intake ducts keeping, that way, drag to the minimum. Air intake had moving centre bodies with variable convergent-divergent nozzles. A Spectre rocket motor with variable thrust was installed under the fuselage to provide the thrust needed for high altitude acceleration and maneouvrability and the all-moving tail was located on the fin.

Wind-tunnel models were built and even a replica of the cockpit at the factory of Baginton. The main radar dish was on the nose which was an X band Air Interception radar system of 20miles (32km) range. It had an additional Q-band installation in one of the nacelle centre-bodies to give range information on a jamming target up to about 8 miles (13km) range. It would have carried only two missiles at the wing tips, which was considered the best position to reduce the drag.
Armstrong Whitworth considered that the proposal could be accomplished by 1962, but further developments delayed the design. From a January 1956 ITP first flight was predicted to be in June 1959 entering it into squadron service in April 1962. However it was delayed indefinitely.
It was expected that, if more powerful engines had been installed, and if it was made out of stainless steel, it could've achieved Mach 3.0.

Source:
1. Midland Publishing - British Secret Projects - Jet Fighters since 1950

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.166

This project started, like other Armstrong Whitworth aircrafts, as a research airplane on mach speeds.

Made out of light alloys, Armstrong Whitworth stated that a steel wing would be lighter due to the substantial loss in effective depth of the spar box when using a very thick light alloy flanges.
As it was designed the airplane would only reach Mach 1,5 at sea level unless it was made entirely of steel. Armstrong Whitworth preferred to base it's proposals on the more familiar design and fabrication of light alloy to reduce riveting and stiffening, but steel was chosen in the parts of the all-moving tail for stiffness.

The specification ER.134T required a top speed about twice of the current fighter prototypes with a wing around half the present thickness/chord ratio. Armstrong Whitworth's 4% needed moving surfaces on both leading and trailing edges and the high wing loading was considered to be an advantage in obtaining very high speed at moderate altitude, but, on the downhill, it also meant that a standard low maneouvrability had to be accepted.
The wing was originally drawn tapered 10º on both edges. A later proposal made the inner wing straight but the outer one swept 55º. It would've been powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire Sa.7 engines mounted in underslung mid-wing nacelles with two position nozzles and variable centerbody intakes, with reheat providing 25% static thrust augmentation.
The AW.166 was going to have a bicycle undercarriage with the wheels folding into the engine nacelles and a 900gl (4091liters) fuel tank would've been placed in the fuselage. That amount of fuel was considered more than enough by the company.
The aircraft would've reached Mach 2 between 10973 and 15240m high for the required 10 minutes.
Armstrong Whitworth considered Mach 2 at sea level to be easy to achieve apart from cockpit cooling and conversion to all steel and, in spite of the difficulties meeting the ER.134T specification, Armstrong Whitworth was satisified as it seemed that this design would achieve speeds of Mach 2 and beyond with barely any difficulty.

A small unrequested brochure was presented for an AW.166 for Australia, powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire Sa.10,equipped with an Ai.18 collision course interception radar, a fatter nose and unspecified wing tip missiles (most probably the Firestreak or the Red Top).

Sources:
1. Midland Publishing - British Secret Projects - Fighters since 1950

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.165

The Armstrong Whitworth AW.165 was a study for a new type of fighter that could've been denominated big, or very big fighter.
It started as a private venture as there wasn't any requirement whatsoever.
The first draft appeared in an internal brochure of the Armstrong Whitworth company dated back from November 1952 and described the aircraft as a supersonic fighter that would be the first of a family, being the other ones the AW.166 and AW.169.

As the latest generation bombers relied on their higher speed and altittude to evade the interceptors, Armstrong Whitworth thought that a good interceptor should sacrifice range in order to achieve great speeds and service ceilings, that's why, when they designed this aircraft, they would have limited the speeds of this airplane to mach 1.0 or 1.2 as it felt adequate to catch the latest bombers.

Initially it was considered by the designers of the company as a replacement for the Gloster Javelin, the equipment required by a two-seat all-weather fighter ruled out a small aircraft. The layout was conventional bar heavy sweep back on wing and tail but a high lift for maneouvrability at altittude was achieved by means of wing fences. Low speed performance was also achieved by fitting plain trailing edge flaps. It would've been powered by two Sapphire Sa.7 engines delivering each of them 11000lb (48.9Kn) of thrust power mounted in tandem using a common air intake which divided internally in order to feed both engines.
Upper nose would house the interception radar scanner, which was considered a handicap for supersonic airplanes but, back then, there wasn't any other way of locating airplanes in battle.
Undercarriage would have retracted into the fuselage because the wings would haven't been depth enough. An all-moving tail was mounted on a special ring which encircled the rear jet pipe and all controls were power operated using a system that was fully duplicated as long as one of the engines continued to function.
It would've been armed with two wing-root mounted 30mm Aden guns or two batteries of 40 unguided rockets in the fuselage and/or two underwing Blue Jay missiles. The design was used for private aerodynamic research and it was completed well into 1954 in spite of the lack of support from mid-1953. According to some source, the MoS lacked interest on it as it viewed it as 'too short a step in performance and too large and complex compared to the then official concept.

Source:
1. Midland Publishing - British Secret Projects - Jet Fighters since 1950

Armstrong Whitworth A.W.59

Armstrong Whitworth saw two problems. Firstly it believed that an equipped aircraft able of reaching supersonic speeds needs to be solved without the aid of rockets.  Secondly was the means of varying wing sweep with every mechanical engineering difficulties involved in rotating a surface with heavy loads which must remain rigid all the time despite the restricted depth of any pivot placed within the wing.
In order to solve the first problem, a minimal frontal area was needed and, in order to solve it the engine should be some fuselage mounted Sapphires placed in tandem and fed by a common air intake even if additional area was needed to house the swept-back mechanism and the undercarriage, if fitted. The frontal intake was prefered to a side one as it behaved better at supersonic speeds.

It was designed in the 1950s and would've been armed by 2x 30mm Aden cannons plus some more air-to-air missiles, more probably firestreak missiles placed at the tip of the wings and even at a hardpoint under these. Overall it was a project to research the feasibility of the swept-wings.

Sources:
1. Midland Publishing - British Secret Projects - Jet Fighters since 1950

Armstrong Whitworth Meteor unbuilt variants & Armstrong Whitworth A.W.58

Today we post about various Armstrong Whitworth projects which never materialized, and therefore we haven't drawn them since there aren't even line drawings of them. Here they are:

• Armstrong Whitworth A.W.60: Meteor NF.11 powered by Armstrong-Siddeley Sapphires engines.
• Armstrong Whitworth A.W.61: Meteor NF.11 powered by Rolls-Royce Nenes engines.
• Armstrong Whitworth A.W.62: Meteor NF.11 powered by de Havilland Goblins engines.
• Armstrong Whitworth A.W.63: Meteor NF.11 equipped with the American APQ-43 radar.
• Armstrong Whitworth A.W.64: Meteor NF.11 with staggered side-by-side seats.

And now about the Armstrong Whitworth AW.58. This project appeared at first in November 1948 to cope with a contract for the MoS that was drawn with a 60º swept wing and an all-moving variable incidence tail-mounted high on the fin.

As it was requested also to have fighter capabilities, inside the nose intake there was also going to be a housing to fit a radar scanner while the guns were expected to be in the wing roots where also space was allocated to fit ammunition boxes. It was expected to have an undercarriage retractable into the fuselage and the fuel capacity was going to be of 217gal. (986 litres). Apparently another version powered by two jet engines was rejected by Armstrong Whitworth before it was submitted to the MoS. 

Due to some design and specification problems made Armstrong Whitworth to reconsider the designs and, on 1950 the A.W.58 design was redrawn again to turn it into a delta winged, T-winged more solid design with the wing placed high on the fuselage with a fuel capacity of 340gal (1546 litres). 

It was expected that this new design could achieve mach 1.1 speed at 36000ft (10973m) high. However, it was considered that Fairey's design was better, and these designs were discarded in favour of the also failed Fairey-Delta III.

Sources:

1. Hall Park Books - Warpaint Series 22 - Gloster Meteor

2. Midland Publishing - British Secret Projects - Jet Fighters since 1950

Armstrong Whitworth F.11/37

Armstrong Whitworth designed this fighter with the aim of attacking targets in front of it, therefore it had the pilot seating in the nose with the gunner and the turret just behind him and above.

It would've been powered by a pair of Merlin engines in pusher configuration located in the wings, in order to allow the gunner a good field of fire, as his turret couldn't turn 360º and the guns couldn't be lowered into horizontal.

This was Armstrong Whitworth's first project which hadn't fabric-covered surfaces, using stressed skin light alloy construction being used throughout and was also the first one to have a tricycle undercarriage complete with a steerable nosewheel.
The two petrol tanks were going to be located just behind the turret, in the upper part of the airplane. A bomb container and a rack were also going to be placed in a lower fuselage bay behind the turret with a capacity for 250lb of bombs (113Kg)

Sources:
1. Midland Publishing - British Secret Projects 1935-1950 - Fighters and Bombers
2. http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,10408.0.html