North American YF-93A Penetration Fighter

Description

This is an English-language book or magazine about aircraft and/or aircraft modeling.

The YF-93A was a prototype long-range invasion fighter developed by North American.

In the late 1940s, the U.S. Army Air Corps needed a long-range fighter to escort its bombers, but early jet aircraft had the disadvantage of short range.

In 1947, the U.S. Air Force asked various aircraft manufacturers to build prototype long-range fighters.

North American proposed the F-86C, which used the wings and tail of the F-86A. The following year, a contract was signed for 118 aircraft for mass production, and the two prototype F-86Cs were renamed the YF-93A.

The fuselage of the YF-93A was thicker and longer in order to carry a larger amount of fuel, and the main landing gear had double tires due to the increased weight.

The nose-mounted radar was installed, so the intakes were moved to the sides of the fuselage, and the first prototype adopted flush inlets developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

However, with the development of the B-47 jet bomber in 1947, the development of a long-range invasion fighter became less of a priority, and the following year the contract for the production version, the F-93A, was cancelled.

The YF-93A was then transferred to NACA, where it was used to evaluate the performance of the Flash Inlet.