Delta Debut

摘要

When the Gloster Aircraft Company came to name its latest and, as it transpired, last of a long line of fighters for the RAF, it was christened Javelin. However, its design was anything but how the Oxford English Dictionary defines a light throwing spear. Very big and with triangular-shaped wings, the machine originated in a design blueprint by Gloster for Air Ministry specification F.4/48, which demanded a two-seat night-fighter. This had evolved from operational requirements OR.227 and OR.228 issued by the Air Staff in late 1947. The resulting Gloster proposal emerged as a large delta-winged design with a similar shaped tailplane atop a massive fin. With a loaded weight of 25,5001b (11,600kg) the twin-seat aircraft was to be powered by two engines with provision for a nose-mounted air intercept (AI) radar scanner of up to 42in (106cm) width, and wing-mounted cannon armament. Much of the data on delta wing design was based on the wartime research of Dr Alexander Lippisch in Germany, and further developed by aerodynamicists at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Farnborough, Hampshire.