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Kaiser-Fleetwings XA-39

1942 WORLD WAR 2 X-PLANE

Kaiser Fleetwings XA-39 History

To meet the US Army's continuing need for attack aircraft, the little-known Kaiser-Fleetwings developed a large single-seat/single-engine conventional monoplane called the "XA-39". The genre competed with other collections of similar products, but never got past the model stage.

By this time, the Army had moved from a single-engine heavy attack aircraft to a twin-engine type, and the XA-39 was in the annals of history.

Fleetwings was founded in Bristol, Pennsylvania in 1929 and acquired by Kaiser in 1943 to produce the "Kaiser-Fleetwings" brand label. The brand has rarely seen wartime aircraft designs, but none have gained any notoriety.

The company's activities continued into the postwar years, when it became involved in the U.S. space program and finally closed its doors in 1962.

The XA-39 is designed for ground attack, which means it is a large, rugged, reliable aircraft capable of withstanding the penalties of ground fire and the rigors of dives and quick turns. Range is also an important quality, as loitering in contested areas is a priority.

Often, these types of aircraft have to carry a lot of ammunition - guns, cannons, rockets and dropped bombs. To power the new design, Kaiser-Fleetwings engineers selected a large Pratt & Whitney R-2800 series radial piston engine rated at 2,100 hp to drive the three-bladed front-mounted propeller unit.

Its overall configuration has the engine forward and the cockpit directly aft - although the latter is mounted just ahead of the midship itself. Pilots have relatively good visibility from a light-frame canopy. The wings are monoplane attachments and the tail is a standard monoplane layout. The landing gear is in a typical "tail" configuration.

Cockpit and engine armor and self-sealing fuel tanks were standard, as were other American fighters of that period, especially those expected to "fly at low speeds." The XA-39 has an overall size of 42.8 feet and a wingspan of 55.8 feet.

Proposed weapons include 2 x 37mm automatic cannons and up to 4 x .50 caliber heavy machine guns (HMG), both presumably mounted on the wings. Internal gun bays are designed for bombing needs - 6 x 500lb bombs (or equivalent weight) would be envisaged as standard load.

Engineers estimate that at 16,600 feet, the radial engine combined with the streamlined design would give the aircraft a top speed of 357 mph. The climb rate is 2,040 feet per minute, and service is reportedly capped at 27,800 feet. Range up to 1,400 miles.

As mentioned earlier, during the war (which ended in 1945), Army authorities gradually abandoned single-engine attack types in favor of twin-engine platforms. By the end, the single-engine assault was back at the forefront of the Army's program, and classics like the Douglas Skyraider came into being.