The Plane with the Propeller – Martin 262 convoy fighter

This defensive fighter, which was to be the cornerstone of the Navy’s defense and usher in the era of helicopter-like aircraft, was soaring through the air with its propellers whirling at supersonic speed. It also had a hidden weapon: it could take off and land vertically. But let’s look at the Lost Martin model 262 Convoy fighter as this never happened.

The Convoy Ships that resupplied fleets, armies, and bases around the world were vulnerable to enemy air attacks and required excessive protection from warships to ensure cargo reached their destinations safely and on time. Defending these convoys was a difficult task and an efficient way for the enemy to tie up resources. World War II revealed this flaw in the U.S. Navy.

The Soviet Union was dreaded by the Navy, which was still scarred from the fight with the Nazis, for copying them and attacking the profitable cargo ships in the Atlantic. If the Cold War escalated, the solution would be a new sort of aircraft with the strength of a conventional fighter Interceptor Interceptor but without the need for a carrier to launch or land a jet, one that could take off vertically or horizontally from its tail.

The Soviet Union was dreaded by the Navy, which was still scarred from the fight with the Nazis, for copying them and attacking the profitable cargo ships in the Atlantic. If the Cold War escalated, the solution would be a new sort of aircraft with the strength of a conventional fighter Interceptor Interceptor but without the need for a carrier to launch or land a jet, one that could take off vertically or horizontally from its tail.

First and foremost, it had to be able to launch from the deck of a convoy. Second, it had to be able to fly at nearly Sonic speeds at 45000 feet, which was a pretty impressive feat considering that it had to ascend from sea level to 45000 feet in five minutes. Finally, it had to be able to carry a single pilot in an ejectable pressurized cockpit and engage in combat rolls for at least 100 minutes at a range of 100 nautical miles.
and land to refuel and rearm.

To get the best possible design they recruited five different aircraft contractors. 

The first, and the hero of our story was Gleen Martin Company of Baltimore. In addition, there was also Lockheed, Northrop, Convair, and Goodyear. Each with its own designs and concepts – one of which, is the Convair pogo.

So what was Martins’s design for the competition?

so the competition was pretty Fierce for
Martin and they would have to come up with a stellar new idea to win this
contract.

It was a series of three turboprop Fighters, designs A, B, and C, that had some very peculiar features. You see, the propeller wasn’t actually required to be in the front of the plane; one of the designs, C, had it closer to the tail behind the pilot and the main fuselage. This would allow for a better center of gravity and a smaller tail, which was very crucial as well as impactful.

Despite being the lightest design, they also contained B that

The list of benefits and drawbacks for each of these aircraft indicated that Martin planned to do more wind tunnel testing to choose which design to forward, as each had improved stability and shooting accuracy attributable to the propeller being in the center of gravity.

This would not only be a standard Scout plane but would also transport a substantial two loaded 20 mm guns mounted on the wings to serve as the weaponry.

Sidewinders would have been a great choice down the line if this aircraft was still in service at the time because of their ability to hover. The plane would also need to have a much smaller tail to prevent gusts of wind from pushing it off course when landing or into the boat that was nearby. Other weapons considered were rockets and even simple missiles that could have been attached under each wing for interception had this been built. and to make Landings easier the plane’s pilot would be able to rotate their seat 45 degrees giving them an excellent view out of a window that was built into the fuselage and let us talk about that Landing for a second because this is kinda crazy Martin quickly realized that the challenge of Designing this aircraft would be the takeoff but instead the complex landing something that they had to approach very different from anybody else in the competition the Navy had made a major mistake in its Assumption of the Convoy fighter that during Landing the pilot would have
perfect conditions and perfect control over the plane in this make-believe 8scenario the pilot could land the aircraft back onto its tail on a small patch of the deck in just a few minutes whilst the ship was rolling 15 degrees side to side and also pitching forward and back four degrees but Martin with experience actually building and testing airframes knew that this was absurd thus they instead assumed some of the worst conditions known to man a storm a bad pilot and even stressed from flying combat missions where you’ve lost half your wingman that these Pilots would not be able to easily land the aircraft back on the deck so they designed all three of their Concepts to not land on the deck of a ship but rather right on the side of the middle using a special platform form to catch the plane whilst it hovered vertically the advantage of this was that the pilot didn’t have to match the pitch or the role of the deck but would simply have to match the speed of the vessel a crew member on board who wasn’t burdened with flying a plane vertically at the same time would move a stabilized platform towards the plane that would cancel out any rolling of the Sea The Fighter would then have a vertical Spike retract out and catch itself onto the platform the pilot would have a little window to look through the floor so he could see exactly where that Spike was aiming and this Spike would catch on a 10 by 10-foot area and slot in this Spike would then fall and arresting cables would catch it if the pilot bounced off the platform or wasn’t able to get the spike through it would simply be deflected backward and could have another attempt the whole plane would then be attached to the platform and then would be row rotated horizontally in times of bad weather the model 262 would have a small radar beacon on board that would allow it to appear on a small TV screen at the platform this screen would help the operator directs the pilot to land correctly in all weather conditions moving the aircraft’s pitch and location as necessary for launching of the whole concept could be reversed with the pilot starting the engine horizontally and it moving off the rails into the sky once vertically this concept would mean that nearly any ship in the Navy could carry Convoy Fighters with little to no modification even if they didn’t have the deck space and for land operations they designed a truck that was able to carry the platform as well with carry the platform as well with the design sorted in the landing issues solved it was time for Martin to enter the competition because no one had ever built an aircraft like this before Martin planned out a whole wind tunnel test phase and plan to develop two prototypes similar to the A model that they proposed but small and without weapons to test the concept in addition they also went back to the drawing board on their Landing system and came up with alternative ways to get the plane on Deck including a platform that rolled in the opposite way of the Waves, some of these are like what we use today with helicopters on Naval vessels confident that they had all the bases covered they went to Washington so what exactly happened next Martin’s obsession with options would be it’s undoing when they presented the findings to the Navy they showed three different models a b and c and they showed a prototype airframe that was different from a and alternative Landing arrangement from the vertical platform and they couldn’t even decide on a budget that’s right they didn’t even want to give an accurate cost to the Navy because they which admittedly is very honest and thought the whole project would blow out this lack of confidence and put the Navy off but the final blow might have been the weight Martin estimated that their aircraft would weigh 16000 pounds much to the Navy’s own estimate of 17 and a half thousand pounds arguing that the Navy was wrong and their idea warts and all was Superior the Navy decided against them and went with the lighter Lockheed and the lighter conveyor and the Martin 262 with all of its funny propellers was sunk to the bottom of the Lost Aviation sea.