North American Mach 3 XF-108 Rapier Mockup. July 1959. The Missing Century Aircraft [1543X1000]

Sez some... Others maintain the Arrow was actually BETTER than the Rapier, which led to pressure being put on the Canadian PM during the height of the Cold War to scuttle the Arrow in favor of the Rapier, which was then cancelled anyway.... Don't know if the timelines work out or even come close, but the designs are similar enough to make you wonder a little.

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Old_Wallaby_7461@reddit

We know what the Arrow was supposed to be. It was functionally equivalent to a big Delta Dart. XF-108 would've been, if built, better in every way. YF-12 was built and it was better in every way.

Canada had no plans to buy Rapier or YF-12. Couldn't even afford F-14 when it was shopped to the RCAF. The replacement was BOMARC.

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sixth_snes@reddit

The Arrow was cancelled as a cost-cutting measure, the Canadian government thought they could get more bang for their buck buying a smaller fleet of cheap off-the-shelf fighters (F-101 Voodoos) supplemented by long-range SAMs (Bomarc B). Buying a different leading-edge interceptor that was still on the drawing board was never in the cards.

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atomicsnarl@reddit

By the time the High - Fast attack model aircraft were being tested, it was replaced by the Low - Fast penetration model. Instant obsolescence due to doctrine changes.

We laugh today at the WWII turret fighters (could shoot 360 everywhere except down/forward) but were cutting edge for the time. Battle tested, turned out to be defeated by manouever, alas. Same for many aircraft designs since. Pure interceptors gave way to multi-mission group aircraft, etc. "Not a pound for air to ground" gave way to fighters that carry more bombs than the B-17 while still deadly dogfighters.

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atomicsnarl@reddit

Was just about to say that.

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One-Internal4240@reddit

NAA was a powerhouse in this era.

Something to keep in mind, a lot of these high mach designs were built with zip fuels in mind, with an eye to transitioning ALL combat air to boranes. You can see the appeal, as a borane fuel has nearly twice the energy density of JP. As practical propellants, though, corrosion, abrasion, and...oh, yeah, did I mention the poisonous part? And it makes your exhaust poisonous? Not "toxic", which wasn't a problem in the 1960s, but more like kind of a "watch ground crew drop dead as you roll past" kind of poisonous.

Modern materials and more advanced chemistry, though, might see the zip make a return.

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vonHindenburg@reddit

Anyone on this sub who hasn't read Ignition needs to go do so now.

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SuDragon2k3@reddit

Time to order some FOOF.

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SergeantPancakes@reddit

Funnily enough some YouTubers actually made some recently

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PL_Teiresias@reddit

Reminded me of this: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-dioxygen-difluoride

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Arbalete_rebuilt@reddit

Just read that book, truly amazing stuff. It takes some deep chemical knowledge to get through without skipping pages. Which I did when the autor dives into the details. Nonetheless highly recommended reading to realise what goes into the term 'rocket fuel'.

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RocketCello@reddit

Not to mention the deposits of solid boron nitride on turbine blades. Harder than diamond, with a comparable sublimation point.

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Atellani@reddit (OP)

XF-108 Rapier Documentary

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Sprintzer@reddit

Since it got posted, does anyone know if that channel is AI? Or at least the narrator is AI?

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BunkWunkus@reddit

There's no way there's no a lot of AI/automation involved. The channel has pumped out more than 12 hours of narrated and edited videos in the past 2 weeks.

A 2.5-hour documentary like this should take weeks (at a minimum) to compile, timeline, and edit -- not two days.

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Sprintzer@reddit

Thanks, I’ve avoided watching that channel because I came to the same conclusions.

And I mean I’d rather watch a 10-20 minute documentary, 2 hours is a bit much

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FORDTRUK@reddit

Does it go into any detail of just how they stole the design for the Avro Arrow ? Probably not.

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Busy_Environment5574@reddit

Thx for posting.

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Atellani@reddit (OP)

You are welcome

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TorLam@reddit

One of my favorite never was aircraft. The XF-103 was the other missing Century aircraft.

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Kytescall@reddit

Even more so the XF-109, since not only was the aircraft (Bell D-188) never completed, the XF- designation was never officially applied to it, only informally.

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Atellani@reddit (OP)

XF-103

You might be interested in this interview with Republic's President Sanator. He mentions the XF-103 https://youtu.be/4YdG7A8sJpU It is quite a rare interview, and a very interesting one as well.

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