In 1952, the US Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics issued a requirement for a jet fighter capable of transonic speeds at 35,000 feet (15,850 meters) and Mach 1.2 in afterburner mode, with armament comprising both guns and/or collision course rockets. The El Segundo division of the Douglas company leveraged its experience with design of the F4D Skyray and the D-591 project to undertake work on a supersonic jet fighter derived from the Skyray in response to the OS-130 requirement, designated D-652 by the company.
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| Three view drawings of the Douglas D-652 sans suffixe (left) and D-652-1 (right) |
Four D-652 designs were worked out by Douglas in early 1953. The baseline design, the D-652 sans suffixe, retained the Skyray's powerplant but differed from the Skyray in having a longer fuselage and thin wings to reduce transonic drag, and it was armed with two 20 mm cannons in the lower lip of each air intake and either two 37-shot fold-fin rocket packages below the outer underwing pylons or one 19-shot rocket package and a Sparrow-air-to-air missile below all the underwing pylons. The D-652A was a scaled-down version powered by one 13,800 lb (61.3 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Avon RA.14 turbojet and measuring 46 feet 4 in (14.12 meters) long with a wingspan of 27 feet 6 in (8.38 meters) and a gross weight of 18,500 lb (8,392 kg). The D-652-1 design utilized the Skyray wing outboard of the fillet and existing associated features such as the main landing gear, and the cockpit was moved forward to allow more space for fuel in the fuselage, The D-652-2 had the existing airframe of the F4D but differed in electronics and provisions for 300 gallon (1,136 lit) external fuel tanks to achieve the required combat radius. Both the D-652-1 and D-652-2 proposals would have used either the J57 or Avon, and they also had a shorter nose than the baseline D-652 design, but were heavier than the D-652A.
In May 1953, the Vought V-383 was declared the winner of the OS-130 competition and became the F8U Crusader, making its first flight on March 25, 1955. In the meantime, Douglas would apply some expertise in the design of the D-652 project to development of the F5D Skylancer.
References:
Buttler, T., 2013. Early US Jet Fighters: Proposals, Projects, and Prototypes. Manchester, UK: Hikoki Publications.
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