Convair XF-92 // USAF - NASA Airplane Model

This airplane was the world's first jet aircraft to fly using the radical delta-wing configuration pioneered by Germany's Dr. Alexander Lippisch during the 1930s. The Convair Model 7002 was completed in 1948 as a flying mock-up for the proposed delta wing XP-92 interceptor. (In 1948 the Air Force changed the designation from P for pursuit to F for fighter). The XP-92 was to be powered with a new propulsion system that would consist of a ramjet engine with several small rockets inside the combustion chamber. It would have been a short range, Mach 1.65 interceptor with a flight time at altitude of 5.4 minutes. The Model 7002 was designed to investigate delta wing behavior at low and high subsonic speeds. When the XP-92's engine proved to impractical to build the project was shelved in 1948. Even as the XP-92 program was ending, the Model 7002 was being prepared to fly. The 7002 was initially powered by an Allison J33-A-23 turbojet engine and later the J33-A-29 turbojet with afterburn