Vought V-326

The Vought V-326, also written Vought-Sikorsky VS-326, was an American experimental aircraft used by Pratt & Whitney as a high-altitude engine test bed. Vought began work on it in 1941 at Pratt & Whitney's request as a flying test bed for the 28-cylinder R-4360 Wasp Major radial engine. The airframe was based on the XTBU-1 Sea Wolf and used components from the F4U Corsair. It was a low-wing monoplane with a pressurized two-seat cockpit, main landing gear that rotated 90 degrees and retracted rearward into the wings, and a ballast compartment in the rear fuselage. The V-326 first flew on 18 June 1943 with Pratt & Whitney chief test pilot A. Lewis McClain, and pressurization troubles kept most flights below 40,000 feet. A second aircraft, the V-326A, flew once on 30 August 1944. Both were scrapped in 1946, the V-326 having logged only 111 hours.