BAe Kingston P.1214 (X-Wing Fighter)

Fighter-Interceptor Concept

United Kingdom | 1980

"BAe Kingston drew up plans for the P.1214 X-Wing Fighter as an advanced STOVL aircraft."

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Power & Performance
Those special qualities that separate one aircraft design from another. Performance specifications presented assume optimal operating conditions for the BAe Kingston P.1214-3 Fighter-Interceptor Concept.

1 x Rolls-Royce RB.422.48 turbofan engine with 3 x Thurst-vectoring nozzles developing 25,500 lb of thrust.
Propulsion

771 mph
1,240 kph | 670 kts
Max Speed

40,190 ft
12,250 m | 8 miles
Service Ceiling

Structure
The nose-to-tail, wingtip-to-wingtip physical qualities of the BAe Kingston P.1214-3 Fighter-Interceptor Concept.

1
(MANNED)
Crew

49.2 ft
15.00 m
O/A Length

33.2 ft
(10.11 m)
O/A Width

22,046 lb
(10,000 kg)
Empty Weight

36,376 lb
(16,500 kg)
MTOW

Armament
Available supported armament and special-mission equipment featured in the design of the BAe Kingston P.1214 (X-Wing Fighter) Fighter-Interceptor Concept provided across 2 hardpoints.

Not Finalized; Most likely to have supported short-ranged and medium-ranged air-to-air missiles as well as air-to-surface missiles, precision-guided bombs, and conventional drop bombs. Possible internal automatic cannon.

X

Hardpoints Key:

Centerline

Wingroot(L)

Wingroot(R)

Wing

Wingtip

Internal

Not Used

Variants
Notable series variants as part of the BAe Kingston P.1214 (X-Wing Fighter) family line.

P.1214 - Base Project Designation.

P.1214-3 - X-Wing planform with tail booms.

R.1214-4 - Conventional swept-back wings with tail booms.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 11/18/2021 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site; No A.I. was used in the generation of this content.

Even before the "Kestrel" and the subsequent "Harrier" jump jet forms emerged from British aerospace development, the country's engineering minds at Bae Kingston were hard at work on the technology. Several designs were being pursued of which many entered the paper stages and others graduated to become subscale models. One of the most intriguing concepts of the period became the P.1214 project which would have given the British Royal Air Force (RAF) a true "X-Wing Fighter", named after the Star Wars universe space fighter (indeed it was known as the "Star Wars Fighter" for a time). The aircraft was named as such due to the crossing nature of the mainplanes through the middle-/aft-end of the fuselage - producing a distinct "X" arrangement when viewed from the top-down profile.

The P.1214 of the late 1970s was developed along the lines of an Advanced Short Take-Off / Vertical Landing(ASTO/VL) fighter design - the aircraft intended to operate from runways, ships, and open fields with equal success. This required a thrusting component to achieve the necessary vertical lift and thus the aircraft would have been powered in such fashion by a PCM ("Plenum Chamber Burning") component fitted under the vehicle - the component utilizing at least three flexible, swiveling vector-thrusters to achieve the desired result.

The core form of the fighter was conventional with a sharp nose assembly featured forward and a tapering middle / aft section towards the empennage. The single-seat, pressurized cockpit would come equipped with an ejection seat and sport a simple two-piece canopy for excellent vision. Under the aircraft would reside the structure housing for the PCM, the forward face showcasing a large, rounded-rectangle intake for aspiration with exhaust jettisoned through the three thrusters.

However, the main physical quality of the fighter were the mainplanes which were swept forward in the design. Engineers were hoping to find performance gains through such an unconventional approach. The wings were well-blended into the roots and joined to the structure were the rearward-swept horizontal tailplanes completing the "X" appearance of the wing arrangement. Booms ran out of the planes to further extend the design aft to which each boom seated an outward-canted vertical plane (rudder). The result was one of the most futuristic fighter concepts of the period that may have worked if put into physical form.

P.1214 marked a series of studies related to some of the same concepts. The aircraft progressed into the P.1214-3 and its finalized form, the P.1214-4 - this offering did away with the X-Wing planform altogether and instead relied on conventional tail booms. By 1984, the novelty of the proposal had worn off and it was further found that forward-swept mainplanes offered little improvement over swept-back approaches. Beyond ending up in some publications of the day, nothing more on the project was had.

Had it achieved operational service, the P.1214 (in its more interesting P.1214-3 form) would have carried advanced short-ranged and medium-ranged Air-to-Air Missiles (AAMs) as well as had provision for missiles and bombs, the latter most likely carried at the forward section of the booms. Wingtip missile mounts were also planned for AAMs.

The subsequent P.1216 proposal borrowed the design lines of the P.1216-4 with its tail booms but equally fell to naught.

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Operators
Global customers who have evaluated and/or operated the BAe Kingston P.1214 (X-Wing Fighter). Nations are displayed by flag, each linked to their respective national aircraft listing.

Total Production: 0 Units
Contractor(s): BAe (Kingston) - UK

[ United Kingdom (abandoned) ]

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The BAe Kingston P.1214 (X-Wing Fighter) Fighter-Interceptor Concept appears in the following collections:

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