XF-87 Blackhawk

The Curtiss‑Wright XF‑87 Blackhawk was a prototype jet fighter‑bomber developed in the United States shortly after World War II. Conceived in 1945 to meet the U.S. Army Air Forces’ demand for a high‑speed, long‑range interceptor, the aircraft combined a sleek, swept‑wing layout with a twin‑engine configuration that housed two Westinghouse J30 turbojets buried within the fuselage. Its all‑metal stressed‑skin construction incorporated a pressurized cabin, tricycle landing gear, and a ventral fuel tank that gave the Blackhawk a combat radius of roughly 900 km. Armament plans called for six .50‑caliber machine guns and an internal bomb bay capable of carrying up to 1 000 lb of ordnance or rockets. Flight testing began in early 1947 at Edwards Air Force Base; the prototype demonstrated excellent climb rate and stable handling at transonic speeds, but the emergence of more powerful single‑engine designs such as the Lockheed F‑80 and North American F‑86 rendered the twin‑engine concept obsolete. Though the XF‑87 never entered production, its aerodynamic studies and systems integration contributed valuable data that influenced later Curtiss‑Wright jet projects and helped shape United States jet‑fighter development during the early Cold War era.