The Ryan Aeronautical Corporation of San Diego, California, is best known in the annals of early 20th century American aviation history for building the NYP (Spirit of St. Louis) parasol monoplane that Charles Lindbergh famously used to carry out the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, 1927 as well as the M-1 mail plane and Brougham airliner, but also the ST sports aircraft and military trainer derivatives of the ST for the US armed forces (PT-16, PT-20, PT-21, PT-22, PT-25, NR), not to mention that it also developed the S-C three-seat utility monoplane and YO-51 Dragonfly prototype liaison aircraft. With the US entry into World War II, Ryan did not miss an opportunity to get involved in combat aircraft design, beginning with design studies in 1942 for the US Army Air Force and Navy for the Model 26 dive bomber and Model 27 interceptor, neither of which moved past the design phase. Not too long after the Americans defeated Japanese forces at the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943, Ryan had a stroke of luck when it built one of the world's first mixed jet/piston power combat planes, the FR Fireball, putting Ryan in the same league with Convair in producing a combat aircraft type in quantity in San Diego in World War II.
In late 1942, the US Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics announced a requirement for a fighter plane to utilize a composite piston/turbojet powerplant, an idea first suggested by US Navy Admiral John S. McCain Sr. (the grandfather of the late US Senator John McCain, himself a Vietnam War veteran and the unsuccessful Republican nominee for president in the 2008 presidential election), who noted that early jet engines had sluggish acceleration that would render a fighter aircraft with pure jet power unsafe and unsuitable for carrier operations. In response to this requirement, Ryan proposed the Model 28 fighter with one Wright R-1820 Cyclone radial piston engine and one General Electric J31 turbojet in the rear fuselage, the latter fed by ducts in each wing root, and this proposal was submitted to the Navy in December 1942. The Navy assigned the designation XFR-1 to the Model 28, and on February 11, 1943, a contract was signed for three prototypes (BuNos 48232/48234) plus a static test airframe, with the first two prototypes scheduled for delivery in 14 months. The FR-1 was officially christened Fireball, and on December 2, an order was placed for 100 production FR-1s (BuNos 39647/39746); the Fireball prototypes were known internally as Model 28-1 while the production FR-1 bore the company designation Model 28-2.
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| FR-1 Fireball (BuNo 39657) on display at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California, photographed by me on April 13, 2019. |
The FR-1 Fireball was 32 feet 4 in (9.86 meters) long with a wingspan of 40 feet (12.19 meters), a wing area of 275 square feet (25.5 m²), and a height of 13 feet 11 in (4.24 meters) (the XFR-1 prototypes measured 12 feet 3 in [3.75 meters] high). The Fireball was similar to the F2A Buffalo, F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, and F8F Hellcat in the design of the inner wing section relative to the wing root, and the cockpit design bore uncanny resemblance to that of the F8F Bearcat. However, the most novel design feature of the FR-1 compared to the Buffalo, Wildcat, Hellcat, and Bearcat was the tricycle landing gear, which had been previously developed for the Douglas SB2D/BTD Destroyer and was also utilized for the Curtiss XF15C and Douglas TB2D Skypirate. Armament consisted of four .50 in (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the wing center section outboard of the air ducts for the turbojet, four 5 in (127 mm) HVAR unguided rockets under the outer wing panel, and two 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs carried under hardpoints beneath the center wing section. The composite piston/turbojet powerplant demanded a piston engine whose output could be perfectly balanced with the maximum thrust of the auxiliary turbojet, and the R-1820 was chosen as the piston engine for the Fireball because its output was comparable to that of the R-1830 and significantly less than that of the R-2600, R-2800, R-3350, and R-4360, in which case the output of both the piston engine and turbojet combined would rival the amount of horsepower yielded by the piston engines used to power the Navy's most advanced carrier-based combat aircraft. Due to the location of the auxiliary turbojet in the rear fuselage, the cross-section of the rear fuselage was circular in contrast to the slab-shaped rear fuselage of the F4F Wildcat.
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| Left: On of the three XFR-1 prototypes in flight, late 1944 Right: Two FR-1s during trials aboard the USS Ranger in May 1945 |
The first prototype of the FR Fireball made its first flight on June 25, 1944, running solely on piston power because the auxiliary turbojet had not yet delivered. When General Electric delivered the J31 to Ryan, the first XFR-1 prototype had the auxiliary turbojet installed and began test flights with both the piston engine and turbojet in July. The second prototype took to the skies on September 20, and the third prototype followed suit on October. Despite offering advantages over the Navy's piston-engine fighters in speed, test flights of the Fireball revealed that the circular cross-section of the rear fuselage suffered longitudinal instability compared to the slab-like fuselage of the F4F Wildcat and that the Douglas double-slotted flaps were unsatisfactory. To improve longitudinal stability, the three Fireball prototypes were fitted with larger vertical and horizontal stabilizers, and the three XFR-1s and the first 14 production Fireballs were also modified with single-slotted flaps, which now were being applied during construction of all FR-1s beginning with the 15th production aircraft. The FR-1 began carrier tests in early January 1945, and despite a few problems with the engine's heating system and nosewheel oleo shock strut, trials aboard the escort carrier USS Charger were successful when using both engines. Deliveries of the FR-1 to the newly established squadron VF-66 began that month, and in March the Fireball entered service with VF-66 aboard the USS Ranger. The Navy increased the number of FRs on order on January 31, 1945, when it ordered 600 more FR-1s (BuNos 92702/93301) and also signed a contract for 600 examples (BuNos 104576/105175) of the FR-2 (Model 28-3), a proposed FR-1 variant powered by the 1,450 hp (1,063 kW) R-1820-74W, which was slightly more powerful than the R-1820-72W used on the FR-1. Despite an incident on May 1, 1945, where two of three FR-1s of VF-66 were damaged while landing on the USS Ranger while qualifying a number of pilots to fly combat missions with the FR-1, the pilots assigned to those Fireballs were qualified in June and entered pre-embarkation leave. In the meantime, all three XFR-1s were destroyed during flight tests, with the first and second prototypes lost on October 13, 1944 and March 25, 1945 respectively due to compressibility effects, and the third prototype crashing on April 5, 1945 when the cockpit canopy blew off during a high-speed pass over Lindbergh Field in San Diego.
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| An FR-1 taking off from the deck of the escort carrier USS Badoeng Strait in early 1947 |
If VF-66 was looking forward to using the FR-1 on its first combat missions in the Pacific theater of World War II, such plans were not to be. On August 14, Japan formally surrendered to the Allies, and after V-J Day, production orders for the FR-1 were reduced to 66 aircraft (BuNos 39647/39712), and thus the FR-1 and FR-2 production contracts signed in January were canceled. On October 18, VF-66 was disbanded and all FR-1s in service and the pilots who flew them transferred to the squadron VF-41. True carrier trials involving the Fireball began on November 5, 1945, aboard the escort carrier USS Wake Island, and on November 6 one FR Fireball unintentionally became the first airplane in history to land on a carrier under jet power when its pilot ignited the J31 for final approach to the Wake Island after the R-1820 radial engine lost substantial power, eventually catching the arrestor wire before hitting the ship's crash barrier. VF-41 was attempting to qualify its pilots to operate the FR Fireball aboard the Wake Island, but only 14 out of 22 pilots made the six required takeoffs and landings, and accidents occurred when the nose gear failed on landing, although the pilots were partly to blame because they slammed the nose landing wheel onto the deck after landing on the main wheels. By March 1946, the FR-1s of VF-41 began serving aboard the USS Bairoko, but nose gear problems persisted and cut short cruises, and despite Ryan modifying the nosewheels of the Fireball fleet with a steel fork, inspections of the aircraft also revealed evidence of partial wing failures, so the Navy required all Fireball to conduct maneuvers that were not to exceed 5 Gs. After three fatal crashes, one involving a collision between two Fireballs that killed both pilots, VF-41 was renamed VF-1E on November 15, 1946, and in March 1947 the rechristened squadron conducted carrier qualification aboard the USS Badoeng Strait but only eight pilots successfully qualified, largely because the Fireballs lacked the structural strength to endure repeated carrier landings. During one brief deployment in June aboard the USS Rendova, one FR-1 broke in two after a hard landing, and when the US Navy recognized that the entire FR-1 fleet had many signs of structural failure, the Fireball was withdrawn from service on August 1, 1947.
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| Top: The XFR-4 (BuNo 39665) in flight Bottom left: The sole XF2R-1 (BuNo 39661) in flight, early 1947 Bottom right: A full-scale mockup of the XF2R-2 at the Ryan factory in San Diego, mid-1946 |
Even as the FR-1 began to be deployed, Ryan worked out two variants of the FR-1 with more powerful auxiliary turbojets, and when the US Navy announced the SD399 requirement in mid-1945 for a fighter plane to be powered by a turboprop in the nose and an auxiliary turbojet in the tail empennage, two derivatives of the Fireball with one General Electric T31 turboprop substituted for the R-1820 were conceived, the Model 29 with one General Electric J31 auxiliary turbojet and the Model 30 with one Westinghouse J34 auxiliary turbojet. The XFR-3 (Model 28-4) would have used the R-1820-74W of the FR-2 and replaced the J31 with a 1,985 lb (8.8 kN) thrust General Electric J39 (I-20), and the XFR-4 (Model 28-5) was similar to the XFR-3 but was powered by one Westinghouse J34 turbojet in the rear fuselage, necessitating an extension of the rear fuselage by 8 inches (20 cm), the wing intake ducts, and installation of NACA-type flush fuselage intakes. The XFR-3 did not leave the design phase before the end of World War II, but the XFR-4 design reached the hardware phase when one FR-1 (BuNo 39665) was converted to XFR-4 configuration, making its first flight in about late 1945 or early 1946*. The XFR-4 exhibited stellar performance during flight testing, being 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) than the FR-1 variant, and since it was intended to test the J34 planned for the Model 30, the Navy was duly so impressed by flights of the XFR-4 that it approved the Models 29 and 30 for full-scale development by late 1945, designating the Model 29 as XF2R-1 and Model 30 as XF2R-2. The XF2R-1 was 36 feet (10.97 meters) long with a wingspan of 42 feet (12.80 meters), a wing area of 305 square feet (28.3 m²), and 14 feet (4.27 meters) in height, and it had a gross weight of 11,000 lb (4,990 kg), a top speed of 497 miles per hour (800 km/h), and provisions for four 0.50 in (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns outboard of the air intakes for the J31 on the leading edges of the wing center section. The XF2R-2 had the same wingspan and wing area as the XF2R-1 but differed in having a slightly longer fuselage measuring 37 feet 4.5 in (11.39 meters) in length to fully accommodate the J34 turbojet in the rear fuselage as well as air intakes for the J34 on the forward fuselage, and it was to have a gross weight of 15,763 lb (7,150 kg), a top speed of 533 miles per hour (858 km/h) with both engines running (386 miles per hour [621 km/h] with the turboprop only), and a service ceiling of 52,200 feet (15,911 meters), while armament would comprise four 20 mm cannons in the wing roots and eight 5 inch (127 mm) HVAR unguided rockets below the inner wing panels. One FR-1 (BuNo 39661) was converted into the sole prototype of the XF2R-1, and two prototypes of the XF2R-2 (BuNos 39713/39714) were ordered in late 1945, with a full-scale mockup of the XF2R-2 being completed for inspection in mid-1946. The first flight of the XF2R-1 took place on November 1, 1946, flown by Ryan test pilot Al Conover, and test flights of the aircraft revealed good performance and maneuverability. On May 2, 1947, the XF2R-1 set an altitude record for a turboprop-powered aircraft when Conover took the aircraft to 39,160 feet (11,936 meters). Although "Dark Shark" is often cited in many publications for the F2R, Ryan company documents indicate that the XF2R-1 and XF2R-2 were actually called Dark Shark Fireball, in which case "Dark Shark" was an unofficial moniker for the F2R by Ryan to point out the shark-like nose of the F2R. Despite being impressed by the performance of the XF2R-1, the Navy did not order the XF2R-1 into production because of the deployment of its first generation of pure jet fighters, and for that reason the XF2R-2 project was canceled before construction of the two prototypes could begin. Before long, Ryan had envisaged a backswept wing derivative of the F2R in April 1946, the Model 34, which would have had a length of 39 feet 4 in (12 meters), a wingspan of 36 feet 8 in (11.18 meters), and a gross weight of 13,390 lb (6,074 kg), while using the same powerplant as the XF2R-2, but this project found no favor with the Navy.
* Although Norton (2008) notes that the exact date of the XFR-4's first flight is uncertain, he points out that a November 1944 timeframe given by some published sources for the first flight of the XFR-4 is erroneous given the timing of the development of this variant.
After retirement from service, all FR-1s were scrapped except for a few that continued to fly for testing purposes until April 1948, when the last airworthy FR-1 made its last flight en route to the Naval Air Technical Training Center at NAS Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee. This aircraft along with another FR-1 that had been retired to NAS Memphis were later given to the Mississippi State University, two Fireballs were lent to Lewis Institute of Technology in Romeoville, Illinois, as instructional airframes; the current whereabouts of these aircraft are unknown. One FR-1 (BuNo 39657) is now on display at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California, and another Fireball (BuNo 39707) was initially given to the US Navy's airplane collection at the Smithsonian Institution before being placed on display at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, where it remained until it was destroyed by a fire in 1978.
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| The TR-1 half-scale mockup of the FR-1 (nicknamed "Winged Victory") at the San Diego Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 1946 (courtesy of Secret Projects forum). |
As a side note, Ryan built a half-scale wooden model of the FR-1 Fireball, called TR-1 (Tournament of Roses, Model 1) by the company, that was used as a float for the Tournament of Roses Parade in San Diego on New Year's Day 1946. The float, which was nicknamed "Winged Victory" (a virtual pun on the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Hellenistic sculpture of the Greek victory goddess Nike standing on a warship's bow found on the Greek island of Samothrace in the 1860s), received sponsorship from the San Diego city and county governments and as well as the San Diego-California Club and Junior Chamber of Commerce.
References:
Friedman, N., 2016. Fighters over the Fleet: Naval Air Defence from Biplanes to the Cold War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing.
Ginter, S., 1995. Ryan FR-1 Fireball and XF2R-1 Darkshark (Naval Fighters Number 28). Simi Valley, CA: Ginter Books.
McDowell, E., 1995. FR-1 Fireball (Mini in action number 5). Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications.
Wagner, R., 2004. American Combat Planes of the 20th Century: A Comprehensive Reference. Reno, Nevada: Jack Bacon & Co. ISBN 0-930083-17-2.
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