[hyair]

The Skyray came as a development of Alexander Lippish who mastered in glider flying . The me-163 was
basically a delta glider with a walter rocket engine. The fiying characteristics of it were excellent but the propellant had a tendency to explode in hard landings and the pilots called it the small and nasty. Overall the impact of it was small and insignificant.
Ed Heineman the chief desi gner at Douglas went further with the design and gave the Skyray
bat wings with a sleek body. The contract started in 1947 but only in 1951 the first flight took
place with J35 engine that was installed because the J40 was not ready yet. Even with the low power J35 the Skyray showed good potential.
Now the J40 was installed first without AB and then with AB. In this type the Skyray achieved
the world speed record of 753 mph at low altitude - only 7 mph below the speed of sound or
mach 0.98 . It is to say that the J40 was carefully twicked for this operation.
This was a great achievement for Douglas and the navy as it was the first navy jet to win the world speed record.This was a big event to the NAVY.
After endless problems wit the J40 it was decided t replace it with the J57 engine which was the best at the time but weight much more and was bigger in dimensions something that required redesign of the fuselage.
The one year delay cause delay of entry to service in late 1956.
End of part one !
Will continue - Yair