Arsenal VG-90
Страна: Франция
Год: 1949


Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation
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Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation

Arsenal VG 90 (France)
   Designed as a single-seat naval strike aircraft. The first two prototypes were powered by Hispano-Suiza Nene turbojet engines. Both were destroyed in accidents. Fhe third prototype, built in 1952, was powered by a SNECMA Atar 101 turbojet engine.
The Arsenal VG 90 shipboard fighter, the first prototype of which is illustrated by the photograph.
Arsenal VG 90.
The Arsenal VG.90-01, F-WFOE, in its initial configuration at Melun-Villaroche. The VG.90 was a larger development of the same design team’s VG.70 research jet aircraft, which had an unusual air intake scoop arrangement on the underside of the forward fuselage, and which proved to be inefficient. More conventional underwing intakes were incorporated on the VG.90.
The Nord 2200 and the VG.90-01 at Bretigny-sur-Orge in early 1950. The VG.90 has the modified shortened rudder and fairing atop the fin and its new mainwheel doors. The Nord 2200 is still in its first configuration. No armament was fitted to the sole example, and it is not clear where the 30mm cannon would have been located.
Following its first flight, the VG.90-01’s fin was modified several times, first by reducing the height of the rudder, the fin being fitted with a tip fairing, and again, as seen here, with an extended slightly tapered slab section in an attempt to provide more fin and less rudder. The latter was reduced in size again, a 15cm (6in) fillet replacing its lower portion.
The VG.90-02 was coded “M” (its registration appears to be unknown or it may not have been allocated one) and is seen here being prepared for a flight. The production version of the VG.90, designated VG.91, was to be further modified with a revised thinner wing and powered by a Snecma Atar 101C turbojet. The entire project was cancelled, however.
The second VG.90 in flight, with its undercarriage and flaps extended. After its first flight at Orleans-Bricy in June 1951, the VG.90-02 went to Melun-Villaroche, where Claude Dellys completed 15 test flights in 45 days. Dellys was killed ferrying the aircraft from Melun-Villaroche to Istres on February 21, 1952.
Two previously unpublished photographs of the navalisation equipment fitted to the third VG.90. On the left is the wing-folding mechanism and on the right, the ingenious arrester hook device which doubled as a thrust-reversal system. The caught deck-wire pulled the hook rearwards and activated the thrust-reverser plate.
ARSENAL VG.90-01
ARSENAL VG.90-02. The second VG.90 was all-metal, the VG.90-01 having had birch plywood skins on the wings and tailplane. The type sat low to the ground, and the second prototype incorporated a revised undercarriage to avoid the rear fuselage potentially striking the deck when alighting on a carrier.