Aircraft Quiz #40

Quiz #39 has not been resolved yet, but I thought to provide another one for you to chew on. Sort of like attacking on two fronts.

There have been many X- aircraft developed in America for the eventual use by our Armed Forces.

1. Name the X-? aircraft that IS the longest-lived of the "X-plane" programs.

2. What is its common name?

3. What year was it first developed? By who? Why?

4. How many are still in service as X-?

The right answers may surprise you.

Thanks for the input SunvisorFlyer, but No, this X-? aircraft is ssssoooo amazingly old in service that it might possibly be older than you. And I write that without knowing you!

And yes, the last question is critical and true.

Thanks Walt, I did no computer searches on this ahead of time, but will give you the official USN position/nomenclature on the X-?-plane program of Quiz #40. You basically nailed it and more and I appreciate the photo. Well done!

1. X-26A, 1967-to the present-(48 years). It is the longest lived of the X-plane programs.

2. FRIGATE

3. 1967, developed by the U. S. Navy to train test pilot school aviators in yaw/roll coupling. They based the X-26A on the Schweizer SGS 2-32 sailplane.

4. Four X-26As were initially procured (these may have been under a Lockheed contract). Now there are just two X-26As remaining in service at the USNTPS, (U. S. Naval Test Pilot School) at NAS Patuxent River, MD. in support of its curriculum.

Of interest is that the USNTPS uses the U-6A BEAVER, a military version of the deHavillland DHC-2 BEAVER, flown as the tow aircraft for the X-26A FRIGATE. The U-6As began service there in 1968 and now incorporate modern digital avionics systems.

I was TDY once in 1967 to Pax River on the Navy BIS (Board of Inspection and Survey) trials of the Vought A-7B CORSAIR II while working at the Naval Missile Center, Point Mugu, CA. Their task was to wring out the flight qualities of the A-7B, our job was the missile integration aspects. Pax River was unable to do the acoustical testing of both the cockpit environment and the noise at low and high fire rates of the A-7B's rotating 'gatling' gun before releasing the test aircraft to Mugu. So, they requested I perform those tasks while working in the Bioacoustics Branch at Pt. Mugu. One civilian engineer each year at Mugu was chosen to attend the TPS at Pax River. A close friend of mine was chosen and also took the optional flight training offered, stating "It's no fun unless you can do touch and goes in the TA-4". The TPS curriculum is nearly a year in course length, as I recall.

Here is some further information on some of the developed versions of the X-26A that Walt included above and showed a photo of a NASA application. (Does that photo look like a mockup drawing?, Just wondering.)

The U.S. Army became interested in the X-26 program beyond the Navy's Test Pilot School training requirement and took two Schweizer SGS-2-32 sailplanes for Lockheed to modify under a then secret program called QT-2, for Quiet Thruster. The first QT-2 flew on 26 August 1967.

The QT-2 had a fiberglass enclosed "hush house" with Continental O-200 engine mounted behind and above the 2-32 canopy with a long aluminum drive shaft to a forward gear-reduction drive housing mounted on the thrust line. A bit weird-looking, perhaps. Various tractor propeller designs from three to six blade configurations were used to achieve a low acoustic signature at low rpm. A tail fairing and a propeller spinner were also added, and landing gear modified. Lockheed's nomenclature for the QT-2 became X-26B under the military contract.

The Army's purpose was to develop an observation and reconnaissance aircraft to use in the Vietnam War, having a long patrol endurance duration and low acoustic signature. Secret tests were done domestically and then two QT-2s were tested in Vietnam in 1968 combat conditions. They contained many sensors seeking enemy jungle movements. They operated at very low altitudes and could not be easily detected audibly unless the ground enemy was directly under their flight path. This led to the follow-on Q-Star and the YO-3A four seat observation aircraft developments.

Of interest, some Lockheed YO- quiet aircraft were owned by a tenant group at Point Mugu during the the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s, parked on the ramp behind the NAS Control Tower building together with some Piper large twin aircraft models that were apprehended and confiscated from drug smugglers. From 1983 on I parked my car near that ramp as my office then was upstairs in the adjacent Weapons Program Management Dept. hangar.

Lockheed X-26B SPECS

Crew: Two

Power: one 100 Hp Continental O-200 piston engine

Max speed: 115 mph

Max altitude: 13,000'

Wing span: 57' 2"

Length: 30' 9"

Height: 9' 3"

Gross weight: 2,128 lb