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| Under the company designation Lockheed VZ-120, Lockheed designed and developed two prototypes of a VTOL aircraft using turbojet engines to provide direct lift. The centre fuselage formed a giant ejector duct, more than doubling lift. The first of these was flown on 7 July 1962, but it was not until 20 November 1963 that a first successful flight involving transitions from vertical to horizontal flight, and vice versa, were completed. By then redesignated XV-4A, the two prototypes were handed over to the US Army for whom they had been built under contract. In late 1966 Lockheed modified one of the XV-4As to a new XV-4B configuration, the major change being repalcement of the XV-4A's two 1361kg thrust engines by four each of 1368kg thrust. Testing began in August 1968, but when the aircraft was destroyed in an accident in early 1969 further development was abandoned.
| MODEL | XV-4B |
| WEIGHTS |
| Take-off weight | 5706 kg | 12580 lb |
| DIMENSIONS |
| Wingspan | 8.25 m | 27 ft 1 in |
| PERFORMANCE |
| Max. speed | 745 km/h | 463 mph |
| Bennie Williams, e-mail, 02.05.2009 16:58 My father retired from NAS ATL (Chief Petty Officer),in 1962. He then went to work for Lockheed as an inspector on the afternoon shift at the time of the crash. He worked with the XV-4 HUMMINGBIRD project until the program was canceled after the crash. News of the crash was relayed to my father via a phone call from one of his work mates almost instantly! It was late morning to around noon as I recall. The a /c crashed somewhere north east of McCollum Airport here in Marietta. I was 16 at the time. My father owned an Ercoupe airplane and we drove to airport and climbed up high to view and make one quick pass near the crash site (not too close!!..FAA rules prohibit flying over a crash site!). reply | | John Duncan, e-mail, 01.05.2008 19:06 When my father was stationed at NAS Atlanta,I recall our next door neighbor in Marietta Ga was a test pilot for lockeed. He was flying chase on g
the hummingbird when a nozzle stuck and the aircraft began a flat spin-the test pilot held off ejecting trying to save the aircraft and lost track of altitude and rode it in to the ground fataly. I think this was the second crash for the prototypes. Thats when they scrapped the program. reply |
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