Beyond the cockpit's appearance and interesting crew placement, one of the other unique physical aspects of this machine was its proposed turbojet placement: over the aft dorsal section of the fuselage spine, in essence also forming the base of the single vertical tail fin. The single engine installation was to be aspirated by an intake found over midships and exhausted through a circular port under the rudder fin with a relatively uncomplicated duct system in-between to ease construction, maintenance, and general airflow. The engine of choice became the Rolls-Royce Avon RA.10 series afterburning turbojet engine (9,150 to 11,400lb thrust output) - though technological advances ultimately made by the Rolls-Royce company eventually led to the RA.12 afterburning turbojet (12,550lb thrust output) becoming the focal powerplant. Engineers also included support for Rocket-Assisted Take-Off (RATO) equipment to get the machine into the air as quickly as possible (acceleration in early turbojets proved limited so rocket power was used to offset this).
As for the 4 x 30mm ADEN autocannons, these would be seated ventrally in the fuselage under the cockpit floor - two cannons to a fuselage side - and a "gun-training" radar unit would have been installed in the right wing member to aid accuracy. To this was added twin housings for up to 36 total (2 x 18) aerial rockets at the fuselage sides in positions located aft of the main landing gear doors. Of course, provision was also drawn up for the carrying of the required air-to-air missiles (up to four) mentioned in the original requirement.
On paper, the P.148 would have been an excellent combination of performance, range, and firepower. As penciled out, the fighter was to have had a maximum speed reaching nearly 700 miles-per-hour with a ceiling near 50,000 feet (requiring cockpit pressurization as well as ejection seats), and a rate-of-climb of 12,320 feet-per-minute.
In any event, the P.148 project went nowhere and the eventual product to fulfill the Royal Navy fleet defense role became the classic "Sea Vixen" twin-boom fighter from de Havilland. This aircraft first-flew in September of 1951 and finally entered service in July of 1959 with a modest total of 145 units completed for the Royal Navy. These flew into 1972.
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