The HYBRIDS

摘要

What kind of airplane has a propeller in the front and a jet engine in the back? No, that's not a trick question, but the opening prelude to our story about several different aeronautical machines that attempted to effectively utilize both turbojet and turboprop powerplants in the very same airplane. One of these had one engine, another two different engines, and a third even had a total of three engines onboard. Unfortunately for all of these designs the term "less is more" eventually came into play. We also have to remember that much like the accompanying story on Jet Assisted Take-Off systems in this issue, the aircraft we are about to examine were forthright and stalwart attempts at maximizing the best in available powerplant technology at the very dawn of the jet age. It was a time fraught with promising-looking airplanes that somehow missed the mark of their intended performance, and a time of radically-changing mission requirements as well.