Packard LePere LUSAC-11

Packard-Le Père LUSAC-11

PaísEua
PapelAviões
Primeiro voo15 de maio de 1918
Construído30

O LUSAC-11 (Lepère United States Army Combat) foi um avião de combate americano de dois lugares. Foi um projeto francês, encomendado e construído nos Estados Unidos durante a Primeira Guerra Mundial e encomendado em grande número pelo Corpo Aéreo do Exército dos Estados Unidos, mas estes foram cancelados no final da guerra, e apenas 30 foram construídos. O tipo foi usado para fins experimentais, estabelecendo vários recordes de altitude durante a década de 1920.

Fonte: Packard-Le Père LUSAC-11 na Wikipédia

Packard LePere LUSAC-11 Walk Around
FotógrafoVladimir Yakubov
LocalizaçãoMuseu Nacional da USAF
Fotos35
Espere, procurando Packard-Le Père LUSAC-11 por você...

Veja também:

Segunda Guerra Mundial: A História Visual Definitiva da Blitzkrieg à Bomba Atômica (DK Definitive Visual Histories) - Amazon Segunda Guerra Mundial: Mapa por Mapa (DK, História, Mapa por Mapa) - Amazônia


A French Design with American Muscle

O Packard LePère LUSAC-11 (Lepère United States Army Combat) was a two-seat fighter designed by Captain Georges LePère of the French Air Service for production in the United States. While it arrived too late to see combat in World War I, it became a legendary testbed in the early 1920s. Armed with the powerful American Liberty Engine, it was one of the fastest and highest-climbing aircraft of its era, serving as the platform for pioneering research into high-altitude flight and turbocharging.

Attribute Technical Specification (LUSAC-11)
Papel Two-Seat Fighter / Reconnaissance
tripulação 2 (Pilot and Observer/Gunner)
First Flight May 15, 1918
Usina 1 × Liberty L-12 water-cooled V-12 engine
Horsepower 425 hp (317 kW)
Maximum Speed 136 mph (219 km/h)
Service Ceiling 20,200 feet (Standard) / 34,500+ feet (Modified)
Armamento 2 × .30 cal Marlins (Forward); 2 × .30 cal Lewis guns (Rear)

Engineering for the Stratosphere

  • The Liberty Engine Integration: Unlike many contemporary biplanes that used lower-powered rotary engines, the LUSAC-11 was designed specifically around the liquid-cooled Liberty L-12. This engine provided a massive power-to-weight ratio for the time.
  • Veneer Fuselage: The aircraft featured a plywood-veneer monocoque fuselage, which was much stronger and more aerodynamic than the traditional fabric-on-wood-frame construction used on most WWI fighters.
  • Turbo-Supercharging Research: The LUSAC-11 was famously used by Dr. Sanford Moss to test the first exhaust-driven turbo-superchargers. This allowed the engine to maintain power even as the air thinned at high altitudes.
  • Staggered Wings: The biplane wings were staggered to improve the pilot’s visibility and aerodynamic efficiency, a hallmark of LePère’s clean French design philosophy.

A Legacy of Records

  • Shattering the Ceiling: On September 28, 1921, Lieutenant John A. Macready flew a specially modified LUSAC-11 to a world-record altitude of 34,509 feet. At this height, the air was so thin and cold that Macready required a primitive supplemental oxygen system.
  • The McCook Field Era: Most LUSAC-11s spent their careers at McCook Field in Ohio, the center of U.S. Army Air Service engineering. They were used to test everything from new propellers to early flight instruments.
  • Late to the Fight: Of the 3,500 units originally ordered, only about 25 were completed before the Armistice led to mass cancellations. Only two were actually shipped to France before the war ended.
  • Survivor: The only remaining LUSAC-11 is a centerpiece of the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, restored to represent the aircraft used in the 1921 record flight.

Visualizações : 1512

Deixar uma resposta

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> 

Necessário

Este site usa o Akismet para reduzir o spam. Saiba como seus dados de comentário são processados.