×
Aircraft / Aviation Vehicles & Artillery Infantry Arms Warships & Submarines Military Pay Chart (2023) Military Ranks
Advertisements
HOME
AIRCRAFT / AVIATION
MODERN AIR FORCES
COUNTRIES
MANUFACTURERS
COMPARE
BY CONFLICT
BY TYPE
BY DECADE
COLD WAR
WORLD WAR 2
X-PLANE
Aviation / Aerospace

CONVAIR XA-44 (XB-53)


Attack Platform / Medium Bomber Proposal [ 1949 ]



The CONVAIR XA-44 emerged from World War 2 as a potential attack platform for the USAAF but ended its days a cancelled project as the XB-53 Medium Bomber.



Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 03/17/2021 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

GO TO SPECIFICATIONS [+]
Advertisements
The period immediately following World War 2 (1939-1945) provided aeronautical engineers with a new chapter in "heavier-than-air" powered flight. The jet age born during the war and progressed at a feverish pace thereafter with many of the wartime participants seeking to perfect turbojet designs and stock their respective air services with the latest combat aircraft. CONVAIR, born in 1943 from the merger between Consolidated and Vultee, went on to present many-a-large aircraft designs during the period - the interesting "XA-44" being one of them.

The XA-44 was born in 1945 as a jet-powered attack platform for consideration by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Its most unique quality was its forward-swept wing mainplanes which were coupled to a tailless aft section - a sole vertical fin making up the rear surfaces of the aircraft. The mainplanes - angled forward at 30-degrees and influenced by German wartime research - were set aft of midships and shoulder-mounted along a squat yet well-contoured fuselage. The cockpit was fitted forward, aft of a nosecone assembly, in the usual way. It was envisioned that the aircraft would carry a standard operating crew of four.

Engineers opted for a tri-engine configuration involving turbojets and these aspirated through side-mounted intakes. The engine of choice became the General Electric J35 which was expected to provide an output thrust of 4,000lb each unit.

The selection of forward-swept wing mainplanes was not a groundbreaking initiative for the time - indeed the Germans researched such a jet-powered aircraft in the Junkers Ju 287 before war's end and were delving into the field as early as 1936. The Ju 287 was successfully flown with turbojets in place and the work went on to fuel some Soviet projects after the war. There proved advantages to such a wing arrangement concerning low-speed flight, rate-of-climb, and maneuverability.

As the USAAF worked to reinvent itself in the post-war years (becoming the United States Air Force -"USAF" - in 1947), the XA-44 designation was revised to become "XB-53" during 1948. As such, the CONVAIR product was reclassified from attack platform to medium bomber and slated to carry 12,000lb of conventional drop ordnance.

With the close of the war came slashed defense budgets and worldwide military drawdown so many promising and advanced aircraft projects were shelved or cancelled outright. This also threatened the XB-53 which was, in fact, competing with another CONVAIR medium bomber design - the "XB-46". As the service could not support both similar projects concurrently, the XB-53 held a slight advantage over the more conventionally-minded XB-46. A back-and-forth battle ensued between CONVAIR and the USAF to which both programs were allowed to gestate a time longer. However both ultimately suffered from waning interest and were given up for good - the X-46 back in 1947 and the XB-53 in 1949.©MilitaryFactory.com
Note: The above text is EXCLUSIVE to the site www.MilitaryFactory.com. It is the product of many hours of research and work made possible with the help of contributors, veterans, insiders, and topic specialists. If you happen upon this text anywhere else on the internet or in print, please let us know at MilitaryFactory AT gmail DOT com so that we may take appropriate action against the offender / offending site and continue to protect this original work.
Advertisements

Specifications



Service Year
1949

Origin
United States national flag graphic
United States

Crew
4

Production
0
UNITS


National flag of the United States United States (cancelled)
(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)
Ground Attack (Bombing, Strafing)
Ability to conduct aerial bombing of ground targets by way of (but not limited to) guns, bombs, missiles, rockets, and the like.
X-Plane (Developmental, Prototype, Technology Demonstrator)
Aircraft developed for the role of prototyping, technology demonstration, or research / data collection.


Length
79.4 ft
(24.20 m)
Width/Span
80.7 ft
(24.60 m)
Height
23.7 ft
(7.22 m)
Empty Wgt
31,758 lb
(14,405 kg)
MTOW
59,999 lb
(27,215 kg)
Wgt Diff
+28,241 lb
(+12,810 kg)
(Showcased structural values pertain to the CONVAIR XB-53 production variant)
Installed: 3 x General Electric J35 turbojet engines developing 4,000lb of thrust each.
Max Speed
581 mph
(935 kph | 505 kts)
Ceiling
42,651 ft
(13,000 m | 8 mi)


♦ MACH Regime (Sonic)
Sub
Trans
Super
Hyper
HiHyper
ReEntry
RANGES (MPH) Subsonic: <614mph | Transonic: 614-921 | Supersonic: 921-3836 | Hypersonic: 3836-7673 | Hi-Hypersonic: 7673-19180 | Reentry: >19030


(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the CONVAIR XB-53 production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)
PROPOSED:
Up to 12,000lb of internally-held conventional drop stores / drop bombs.


Supported Types


Graphical image of an aircraft conventional drop bomb munition


(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)
XA-44 - Original attack platform designation for the USAAF
XB-53 - Revised medium bomber designation of 1948 for the USAF.


Military lapel ribbon for Operation Allied Force
Military lapel ribbon for the Arab-Israeli War
Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Britain
Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Midway
Military lapel ribbon for the Berlin Airlift
Military lapel ribbon for the Chaco War
Military lapel ribbon for the Cold War
Military lapel ribbon for the Cuban Missile Crisis
Military lapel ribbon for pioneering aircraft
Military lapel ribbon for the Falklands War
Military lapel ribbon for the French-Indochina War
Military lapel ribbon for the Golden Age of Flight
Military lapel ribbon for the 1991 Gulf War
Military lapel ribbon for the Indo-Pak Wars
Military lapel ribbon for the Iran-Iraq War
Military lapel ribbon for the Korean War
Military lapel ribbon for the 1982 Lebanon War
Military lapel ribbon for the Malayan Emergency
Military lapel ribbon representing modern aircraft
Military lapel ribbon for the attack on Pearl Harbor
Military lapel ribbon for the Six Day War
Military lapel ribbon for the Soviet-Afghan War
Military lapel ribbon for the Spanish Civil War
Military lapel ribbon for the Suez Crisis
Military lapel ribbon for the Ukranian-Russian War
Military lapel ribbon for the Vietnam War
Military lapel ribbon for Warsaw Pact of the Cold War-era
Military lapel ribbon for the WASP (WW2)
Military lapel ribbon for the World War 1
Military lapel ribbon for the World War 2
Military lapel ribbon for the Yom Kippur War
Military lapel ribbon for experimental x-plane aircraft


Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective aerial campaigns / operations / aviation periods.

Images Gallery



1 / 1
Image of the CONVAIR XA-44 (XB-53)
Image from the Public Domain.


Advertisements




Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Cookies


2023 Military Pay Chart Military Ranks DoD Dictionary Conversion Calculators Military Alphabet Code Military Map Symbols

The "Military Factory" name and MilitaryFactory.com logo are registered ® U.S. trademarks protected by all applicable domestic and international intellectual property laws. All written content, illustrations, and photography are unique to this website (unless where indicated) and not for reuse/reproduction in any form. Material presented throughout this website is for historical and entertainment value only and should not to be construed as usable for hardware restoration, maintenance, or general operation. We do not sell any of the items showcased on this site. Please direct all other inquiries to militaryfactory AT gmail.com.

Part of a network of sites that includes GlobalFirepower, a data-driven property used in ranking the top military powers of the world, WDMMA.org (World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft), WDMMW.org (World Directory of Modern Military Warships), SR71blackbird.org, detailing the history of the world's most iconic spyplane, and MilitaryRibbons.info, cataloguing military medals and ribbons.

View day-by-day actions of the American Civil War with CivilWarTimeline.net. View day-by-day actions of World War II with SecondWorldWarHistory.com.


©2023 www.MilitaryFactory.com • All Rights Reserved • Content ©2003-2023 (20yrs)