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From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: SeaDart
Message-ID: <1990Aug23.014313.961@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 23 Aug 90 01:43:13 GMT
References: <1990Aug10.010802.29891@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug15.032235.26328@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug21.025500.2527@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington IN.
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From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib)
>
>>The SeaDart (may have been XFY-1... I was eight years old at the time,
>>don't remember too well) had delta wings, a pointed nose, twin air intakes
>>high on the fuselage aft of the cockpit, and most unusual: retractable
>>water skis, on which it took off and landed.  I watched some of those
>>flights from my home overlooking San Diego Bay.  As I remember, they built
>>two SeaDarts.  One day one of them blew up in flight.  I was sitting in
>>third grade class, and heard the explosion.


Check out the Sea Dart article in Model
Aviation magazine (sometime last year). 
Great photographs, quite a bit of history.
The main problems with the Sea Dart were:
extreme buffetting during takeoff, and 
instability on takeoff. Also, the take-
off "roll" was unacceptably long, at a 
mile to a mile and a half. Three proto-
types (I believe) were built. Both one-
and two-ski gear were tried. The author 
suggests that the airplane, with little 
modification, sould have been used as a 
"Snow Dart" in Alaska. The airplane, when 
at rests, sits on its fuselage in the 
water (like a duck). The twin air in-
takes were high on its back for this 
reason. The first prototype was lost
in full view of the public, disintegra-
ting in the middle of a demonstration 
flight over the Bay, during a high speed
pass. The design eventually evolved into 
the Delta Dart.