I suspect that the imprint of the great Alexander Kartveli is all over that one…wonder if that can be documented? Anyway, great find. Variable geometry VTOL, no less!
This beauty was initially designed under Republic Aviation by Kartveli in 1958 (although the 1961 US Patent shows a different arrangement) and tested by NASA in 1961 in the 12 foot Langley Tunnel as a FFT Model. Republic bought a 20% share in Fokker in 1960 and both companies combined to submit a very similar design for NATO NBMR 3 in mid 1961. Swing Wings and VTOL were both rather immature technologies at the time so this Mach 2.3 strike/reconnaissance aircraft represented a major risk. Initially designed around the phlenum burning (PCB) Bristol-Siddeley BS.100, the D-24 featured 2 bilateral directional nozzles (4 in all), a minimum leading edge sweep of 16 degrees and a retracted l.e. wing sweep of 70 degrees, although the original Republic configuration of 1960 featured 80 degree sweep back. Of interest is the horizontal stabilzer/elevon arrangement which was revised at least three times between 1961 and 1964, as was the canopy and bilateral air intakes and variable ramps. At sea level a speed of Mach 1.1 to 1.2 was estimated by Fokker, but given the design, longitudinal control at sea level at speeds above Mach 0.78 were severely “dampened” as noted by gust response data in the Z plane from 1962. Anyways, midway at Phase II of the proposal the powerplant was upgraded to the more powerful BS.100/3 in direct competition with Dassault’s nine engined submisson. Eventually the design and projected powerplant lost favour and amounted to no direct hardware. Very sad – this plane could have competed with the General Dynamics F-111 easily, and at least 5 years earlier!
PS-the photo shown on this page is the Republic-Vought VG SOR 183 proposal (pre TFX program) dated November 1960. Technically, the Fokker-Republic D-24 is a direct descendent of this pictured mock-up, but very different.
Hush-Kit 
I suspect that the imprint of the great Alexander Kartveli is all over that one…wonder if that can be documented? Anyway, great find. Variable geometry VTOL, no less!
I’ll be writing a little history on this concept soon.
This beauty was initially designed under Republic Aviation by Kartveli in 1958 (although the 1961 US Patent shows a different arrangement) and tested by NASA in 1961 in the 12 foot Langley Tunnel as a FFT Model. Republic bought a 20% share in Fokker in 1960 and both companies combined to submit a very similar design for NATO NBMR 3 in mid 1961. Swing Wings and VTOL were both rather immature technologies at the time so this Mach 2.3 strike/reconnaissance aircraft represented a major risk. Initially designed around the phlenum burning (PCB) Bristol-Siddeley BS.100, the D-24 featured 2 bilateral directional nozzles (4 in all), a minimum leading edge sweep of 16 degrees and a retracted l.e. wing sweep of 70 degrees, although the original Republic configuration of 1960 featured 80 degree sweep back. Of interest is the horizontal stabilzer/elevon arrangement which was revised at least three times between 1961 and 1964, as was the canopy and bilateral air intakes and variable ramps. At sea level a speed of Mach 1.1 to 1.2 was estimated by Fokker, but given the design, longitudinal control at sea level at speeds above Mach 0.78 were severely “dampened” as noted by gust response data in the Z plane from 1962. Anyways, midway at Phase II of the proposal the powerplant was upgraded to the more powerful BS.100/3 in direct competition with Dassault’s nine engined submisson. Eventually the design and projected powerplant lost favour and amounted to no direct hardware. Very sad – this plane could have competed with the General Dynamics F-111 easily, and at least 5 years earlier!
PS-the photo shown on this page is the Republic-Vought VG SOR 183 proposal (pre TFX program) dated November 1960. Technically, the Fokker-Republic D-24 is a direct descendent of this pictured mock-up, but very different.
Erm. No. Thats the Replublic TFX, not the D-24.
good spot!