Photograph:
Scale Bell XFL-1 Airbonita VH-OFH (c/n DARAS2010) at Caboolture, QLD (Flight Aware)
Country of origin:
Australia
Description:
Single-seat light sport monoplane
Power Plant:
One three-litre (3000 cc) Toyota 1MZ six-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 9.17 m (30 ft)
- Length: 7.83 m (25 ft 7 in)
- Height: 3.38 m (11 ft)
- Wing area: 18.53 m² (199 sq ft)
History:
In the late 1930s Bell Aircraft Corporation was looking at producing a shipboard variant of the Bell P-39 Aircobra, the design, known as the XFL-1 Airbonita, being powered by an Allison XV-1710-6 twelve-cylinder VEE engine installed behind the cockpit driving a three-blade Curtiss propeller via a shaft through the cockpit. The Airbonita differed from the tricycle undercarriage variant in having a tailwheel undercarriage and underwing radiators, the main undercarriage legs being moved to an attachment point on the front spar; and an arrester hook being installed in the rear fuselage. There was also some re-design of the airframe, it being re-stressed for carrier-borne operations.
Armament consisted of two 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine guns in the wings, and a 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine gun or a 37 mm cannon firing through the propeller hub. A contract was placed for one prototype and this aircraft (serial 1588) flew for the first time on 13 May 1940, being delivered to the US Navy in February 1941. However, it did not pass its carrier trials, was rejected and was returned to the manufacturer. Development then concluded.
In Queensland an 86 per cent scale replica of the Airbonita prototype was built by Dieter Sedlbauer of Morayfield and registered VH-OFH on 12 February 2010 (c/n DARAS2010) powered by a three-litre converted Toyota motor vehicle engine, being based at Caboolture and painted in pseudo Soviet markings.