The Republic XF-103 had its origin in an early-1949 request by the USAF for an advanced interceptor capable of surpassing the speed and altitude performance of new Soviet intercontinental bombers that American intelligence officials warned would soon be available in quantity.
Republic submitted three separate proposals, North American two, and single proposals were made by Chance-Vought, Douglas, Lockheed, and Convair.
The Republic AP-57 was clearly a quantum leap ahead in the state of the art for the early 1950s.
While that was going on, a good dozen hydraulic, electrical, pneumatic, and other systems had to shifted from high-pressure turbine bleed air to low pressure bleed air -- not to mention all the while trying to prevent the internal shock wave from buzzing around and destroying the aircraft.
Republic Aviation was my first job after graduating (1956) with a degree in Physics from CCNY.
I remember one day at Republic that one of the engineers had figured out a way to knock off about 100 pounds from the F105 (55,000 pound aircraft) by redesign of the bomb release/ejection mechanism: They carried him on their shoulders around the entire engineering floor while we all cheered (this was before
The Republic XF-103 Thunderwarrior was an American project to develop a Mach 3 interceptor to knock down Soviet bombers.
Republic was one of six companies to submit proposals.
The Republic proposal, AP-57, was selected for further development on 2 July 1951, along with the Convair design that eventually became the F-102 Delta Dagger.
The Republic P-43 was a direct successor of the Seversky P-35.
Republic Aviation was established in 1939 when the board of directors of Seversky Aircraft ousted Alexander de Seversky as company president because of mounting losses and changed the company's name to Republic.
Republic attempted to diversify, establishing a helicopter division in December 1957 and building the French Alouette helicopter under license.
Второй вариант, которому на Republicе отдавали предпочтение, представлял собой перехватчик с реактивно-прямоточным двигателем (Republic Model AP-57).
Однако предложение фирмы Republic по перехватчику с реактивно-прямоточным двигателем не было отвергнуто.
На Republicе готовились выкатить первый XF-103 из сборочного цеха в феврале 1958 г.
www.airwar.ru /enc/xplane/xf103.html (521 words)
XF-103 by Phil Brandt (Collect-Aire Resin 1/48)(Site not responding. Last check: )
This, BTW, made it necessary to also decrease the width of the movable ejection stabilization platform upon which the capsule is mounted...and also the width of the fuselage opening for the capsule.
The Collect-Aire decals were rather thick and somewhat yellowed, plus they were for the XF airframe, so I substituted SuperScale decals from an old F-102 sheet since there's no reason that the follow-on F-103 wouldn't have used flashy tail logos as did the Deuces and Sixes.
The checkered tail scheme is from the 16th FIS at Naha in the Fifties.
Prototypes for Republic XF-12 used a system to route exhaust and supercharger and accessory waste gases to an oval "jet pipe" exhaust installation on four R-4360-31s, which gained 250-300hp per engine.
Republic proposed a 46-place passenger version with 7 crew, 400mph over 3500 miles, but there were not enough orders to cover development costs.
When Republic realized that it was costing about $13,000 to produce each one, production was shut down in Oct 1947.
Dubbed the "1954 Interceptor," contracts for this advanced supersonic aircraft were given to Convair (XF-102 Delta Dagger) and Republic (XF-103 Thunderwarrior).
The Republic design featured numerous esoteric concepts, including a completely smooth titanium exterior (requiring side-mounted windows), a dual-turbojet-ramjet engine and a fully enclosed pilot's capsule that, in the event of aircraft failure, would be blown out of the bottom of the fuselage (considered the only way to protect a pilot ejecting at Mach 3).
In 1957, while still in the mockup stage, the XF-103 underwent an in-depth evaluation by the U.S. Air Force, which rated it poorly.
