Grumman XP-65

The Grumman XP-65 was a twin-engine fighter developed alongside the F7F Tigercat and cancelled in early 1942, before any prototype was completed. After the XP-50 was lost on 14 May 1941, the Army Air Corps moved its funding to the XP-65 project, which Grumman had originally designated G-51. It was to be an advanced version of the XP-50, using the more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp, an air-cooled 18-cylinder radial engine. The design had thick mid-fuselage wings with a straight leading edge, engines housed in nacelles partly under the wings, a narrow but tall oval fuselage, a cockpit just ahead of the wing leading edge and a tricycle undercarriage. Grumman hoped one basic design could serve both the Army Air Forces and the Navy on a single production line, but the Army version would have used turbochargers while the naval version would drop them and add arrester hooks and folding wings. The naval version of the G-51 went on to become the XF7F-1.