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World War 2 had revealed a flaw for the US Navy.
Their convoy ships that resupplied fleets, armies, and bases across the world were vulnerable to enemy air attacks and required excessive protection from warships to ensure cargo reached their destinations. Difficult to do and an effective way for the enemy to tie up resources.
The navy, still traumatized from the war with the nazis, feared that the soviets would play copycat and go after the lucrative cargo ships in the atlantic - if the cold war turned hot.
So the answer would be a new type of plane - one that had the power of a normal fighter interceptor but didn't require a carrier to launch or land...
A plane that could take off vertical - or VTOL from its tail!
In 1949, the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics began a competition to develop this new convey fighter that had the specific ability to be launched from smaller vessles and would protect them until carrier forces could arrive.
This plane would have a new class, called the VF, standing for Convoy Fighter, and have several conditions.
The first, obviously, was the ability to take off from the deck of a convey ship
The second was the ability to fly close to sonic speeds at 45,000 feet. A pretty mean feat considering it had to go sea level to 45k in 5 minutes.
Carry a single pilot with an ejectable pressurised cockpit
Perform a combat role for at least 100 minutes to a range of 100 nautical miles
And land to be rearmed and refueled.
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 their own designs and concepts - one of which, the Convair pogo, we have already covered on the channel.
So what was Martins design for the competition?
