XFV-12 Rockwell; The American YAK-141

Suggestions Aircraft
1

XFV-12 Rockwell

The XFV-12 Rockwell was an attempt by Rockwell international to create a Mach 2 capable VTOL aircraft with the missile capacity of the McDonnell Douglass F-4 Phantom and intended for use aboard US Sea Control Ships. From a paper standpoint the aircraft appeared to be superior to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier however the prototype remained in an incomplete state after it failed the VTOL take off process without any form of tethering and subsequent failure of the performance requirements due to this. This could be due to its use of a similar VTOL system to the previous XV-4 Humming Bird being a far inferior system to existing VTOL aircraft. This aircraft has unfortunately been mostly forgotten to time due to the obscure nature of it and unfortunate end to the program which held promise had the engine been more reliable or powerful.

Weapons

In accordance with the declassified documents and manuals that have been made available by NASA and Boeing the Rockwell was armed with the following ordinance;

  • 1 20mm M61 Vulcan with 639 rounds of ammo
  • 2 AIM-7 F/M (Unconfirmed which) Sparrows AND 2 AIM-9Ls
  • Or 4 AIM-7F/M Sparrows
    *Or 4 AIM-9L Sidewinder
    Counter measures were never mounted to the prototype
    The prototype never had a radar mounted into it however plans were made for it to eventually receive one as to allow it to utilize its AIM-7 sparrows, likely would have received one similar to the F-4S Phantoms of the time.

Flight Capabilities

The XFV-12 Rockwell was slated to be an incredibly high performance VTOL aircraft with a top speed of Mach 2.2-2.4 and above average turning through the use of extremely large Canards that nearly qualified it to be a jet powered tandem wing aircraft. The aircraft in real life was incapable of producing enough thrust to make an untethered Vertical take off however its standard take off run was accomplished and slated to be about 300 feet at 24,000 pounds with a thrust to weight ratio of 1.5 (Conventionally). The aircraft was powered by a Pratt And Whitney F401-PW-400 after burning turbofan engine that was capable of producing 30,000 LVT of force when after burning though proved to be incredibly unreliable which was a key factor in the programs cancellation.

Images

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Sources

https://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2008/december/i_history.pdf

[Would you like to see this in-game?]
  • Yes
  • No
0 voters
3 Likes
2

This thing is CRAZY! Love it! +1

3

Same man, it’s a shame they canned the program

1 Like
4

+1, would make for a cool premium

5

It would be an extremely interesting addition!

6

I shall direct you chaps to this youtube video about whether or not it should be added: https://youtu.be/ZneQVx-Zpfo?si=iIgysh-cCEB5QXMS

My answer is IF THIS aircraft comes to the game. It should NEVER be allowed to do vertical takeoffs unless carrying no (or lightest) missiles with absolute minimum fuel. It never could with normal fuel loads and missiles or medium fuel loads be able to take off vertical.

But honestly I do not think it should come to the game, IT NEVER FLEW firstly so there is 0 information for aircraft performance meaning anything on it coming to game would be fake presumption/speculation and this lack of informational flight data on characteristics is normally the last nail in the head to stop aircraft like this coming to the game.

3 Likes
7

+1 why not

8

Event or premium alright

9

+1

10

Did they ever test whether it could STOVL with an actual load? Or would STOVL have even worked with this system?

11

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If wikipedia is to be believed, the 1.5 t/w ratio is only conventional and the level of ducting degraded it to the point of 0.75:1 t/w. Now that is very chronic and I don’t know any aircraft other than jet bombers with similar thrust to weight, so I doubt with load STOL was feesable hence the dissolvement of the project.