This aircraft is a textbook example of what changing requirements, military mismanagement, and vacillating officialdom can do to a promising military aircraft project. It started life as a fairly straightforward development of an existing fighter, evolved in stages into an escort fighter, then into an attack plane, then into a bomber, then into a tank buster, and then finally into a bomber destroyer. These incessant changes in requirements, combined with several changes in powerplants, resulted in this aircraft, which started life in 1940, being delayed until nearly the end of the war. The aircraft was scheduled for delivery in August of 1942, and to meet this deadline the project team grew to a peak of 187 people by October of 1941. However, following Pearl Harbor, it was assigned a lower priority and most of the engineering staff were moved off to other more pressing projects. However, shortly thereafter, the military began to go through a protracted series of flip-flops in their thinking about the ultimate mission for the aircraft. By early 1943, the program was in utter chaos because of the constantly changing requirements. The prototype was finally completed in June of 1944, more than four years after its design had begun. When it rolled out of the factory it was really only half-finished. It made its initial flight from on June 6, 1944. Twenty-five flights were made prior to the delivery to the military in October, 1944. These flights were marred by turbosupercharger problems. The aircraft quickly became a white elephant; maintenance of the prototype proved to be such a headache that it was very rarely flown. In early 1945, it was transferred for use as a non-flying instructional airframe. The eventual fate of the aircraft is unknown; The second prototype was abandoned before construction could be completed.
Name this aircraft. Answer by PM only. Do not answer " Was It " or with a question mark. No changing of an answer after your original submission. Any answer submitted after 1200 hrs E.S.T on the day the answer will post will not count. Answer will post on 10/12/07 at 1200 hrs E.D.T.
Brian [C):-)]