"Dan Thomas" wrote in message
om...

Read recently (in an article I cannot now find) about an
airplane designed and built in the '60s or '70s that had a turbojet
engine in the tail and a huge turboprop in the nose. Supposed to be a
fighter or fighter-bomber. Only two were built, and after one flight
the test pilots didn't want to fly them any more. They were LOUD in
the cockpit or anywhere else. It hurt bad. Very few test flights were
carried out. I imagine they were designed to defeat the enemy through
intimidation alone. Apparently most of the noise came from the prop
tips, which were running supersonic or transonic, even in static
runups.
One of the pilots lived ten miles from the airbase, and he could
hear the techs running it up, on the ground, all the way from his
home. That has to be pretty bad.
Anyone here remember what it was?

Dan

IIRC, the Ryan "Fireball" was a prop up front and a jet out the rear...

But, I think it was built before the 60's/70's time frame...

FWIW...