Bell XFL Airabonita
| XFL Airabonita | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Role | Fighter |
| Manufacturer | Bell Aircraft |
| First flight | 13 May 1940 |
| Status | Cancelled |
| Primary user | United States Navy |
| Number built | 1 |
| Unit cost |
$125,000
|
| Developed from | Bell P-39 Airacobra |
The Bell XFL Airabonita was a United States experimental shipboard interceptor aircraft developed for the United States Navy by Bell Aircraft Corporation of Buffalo, New York. It was similar to and a parallel development of the U.S. Army Air Corps’ land-based P-39 Airacobra, differing mainly in the use of a tailwheel undercarriage in place of the P-39's tricycle gear. Only one prototype was manufactured.
The XFL-1 (Bell Model 5) was powered by a single 1,150 hp (858 kW) Allison XV-1710-6 twelve cylinder, two bank Vee, liquid-cooled engine installed amidships behind the pilot and driving a three bladed Curtiss Electric propeller in the nose through a 10.38 ft (3.16 m) extension shaft. The aircraft had provisions for a single 37 mm (1.46 in) Oldsmobile T9 which could be replaced by a .50 in (12.7 mm) Browning M2/AN machine gun firing through the propeller shaft and two .30 in (7.62 mm) machine guns in the fuselage nose. It first flew on 13 May 1940.
Although based on the P-39, the XFL-1 utilised a conventional tail-wheel undercarriage and the coolant radiators were housed externally in fairings under the wings instead of within the wing center section. The Allison engine was the first of its type to be tried out by the Navy and lacked the turbosupercharger fitted to the XP-39.
In January 1938, the U.S. Navy issued a specification for a light carrier-based fighter to replace the obsolete biplanes then in use. On 11 April 1938, Bell, Brewster, Curtiss, Grumman and Vought-Sikorksy submitted proposals but only three received contracts. Two of them were awarded contracts for one prototype each on 30 June 1938; these were for the Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket and the Vought-Sikorsky XF4U-1 Corsair. The third contract, which was signed on 8 November, went to Bell Aircraft for one XFL-1 Airabonita. All three aircraft made their first flight in 1940, the XF5F-1 on 1 April, the XFL-1 on 13 May and the XF4U-1 on 29 May.
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