View source for Dayton-Wright XPS-1

{{Short description|First aircraft with retractable landing gear}}
{{Infobox aircraft
  |name = XPS-1
  |image =Dayton-Wright XPS-1.jpg
  |caption = Dayton-Wright XPS-1 during flight testing
  |type = Interceptor fighter
  |manufacturer = [[Dayton-Wright Company|Dayton-Wright Airplane Company]]
  |designer = 
  |first_flight = 1923
  |introduction = 
  |retired = 
  |status = 
  |primary_user = [[United States Army Air Service]]
  |more_users = 
  |produced = 
  |number_built = 3
  |developed_from = [[Dayton-Wright RB-1 Racer]]
  |variants = 
}}

The '''Dayton-Wright XPS-1''' was an American single-seat fighter [[Interceptor aircraft|interceptor]] aircraft built by the [[Dayton-Wright Company|Dayton-Wright Airplane Company]].

==Design and development==
In response to a  [[United States Army Air Service]] Pursuit Alert (Special) requirement for an interceptor aircraft, [[Dayton-Wright Company|Dayton-Wright Airplane Company]] designed an aircraft with the Army designation '''PS-1'''. Using many of the same advanced features of the earlier [[Dayton-Wright RB-1 Racer]] developed for the 1920 Gordon Bennett race. The racing aircraft had a pilot cockpit entirely enclosed in the streamlined fuselage. Construction consisted  of a wooden [[semimonocoque]] fuselage with the cantilever wing constructed entirely of wood and fitted with leading- and trailing-edge flaps.

The XPS-1 differed from its predecessor in having a parasol monoplane configuration with wooden flying surfaces whose fuselage was a fabric-covered steel-tube structure. The main design feature retained from the RB Racer was its retractable undercarriage. The unusual design for the time was a [[Conventional landing gear|tailskid undercarriage]] with the main units designed to retract into the lower fuselage sides. The landing gear was hand-operated using a chain-and-sprocket system.  It could be raised in 10 seconds and lowered in six seconds.

Three aircraft were ordered as the '''XPS-1''', one was used for ground tests while the remainder were slated for flight trials.

==Operational history==
Test flights began in 1923 but the performance was so poor the United States Army Air Service refused to accept the design. The three examples remained the only type produced for the PS category.

==Operators==
;{{flag|United States|1912}}
*[[United States Army Air Service]]

==Specifications==
{{Aircraft specs
|prime units? = imp
|ref=''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985).''
|crew=One
|length ft= 19
|length in= 2
|length m= 5.84 
|span ft= 30
|span in= 0
|span m= 9.14 
|height ft= 7
|height in= 0 
|height m=2.13  
|height note=<ref name="Wegg p39">Wegg 1990, p. 39.</ref>
|wing area sqft= 143 
|wing area sqm= 13.38 
|max takeoff weight lb= 1715 
|max takeoff weight kg= 778 
|eng1 name=[[Lawrance J-1]] 
|eng1 type=radial piston
|eng1 number=1
|eng1 hp= 200 
|eng1 kw= 149 
|max speed mph= 146 
|max speed kmh= 235 
}}

==References==
{{commons category|Dayton-Wright XPS-1}}
;Notes
{{Reflist}}

;Bibliography
{{refbegin}}
* ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985)''. London: Orbis Publishing, 1985. 
* Wegg, John. ''General Dynamic Aircraft and their Predecessors''. London: Putnam, 1990. {{ISBN|0-85177-833-X}}.
{{refend}}

{{Dayton-Wright aircraft}}
{{USAAS fighters}}

[[Category:Dayton-Wright aircraft|PS-1]]
[[Category:Parasol-wing aircraft]]
[[Category:Single-engined tractor aircraft]]
[[Category:1920s United States fighter aircraft|Dayton-Wright PS-01]]
[[Category:Aircraft first flown in 1923]]