What looks like a flying egg, was never designed to land, and was so light it could be thrown off course by its own guns? Introducing the Goblin XF-85 – the Cold War compact fighter designed to be carried in the belly of a nuclear bomber.
What the engineers didn’t take into account was that the airflow over the bomber’s wings and fuselage along with the open bomb bays generated violent turbulence. Added to this was an air cushion that formed between the fighter and the mothership as the former attempted to dock. When the Goblin went for the hook, it would buck about wildly so that even highly-skilled test pilots couldn’t manage the maneuver.
During the test program, half of the seven free flights ended with emergency belly landings after recovery attempts failed. Needless to say, the prototypes got a bit bent and the pilots ended up in full white-knuckle mode.
The problem was so severe that the XF-85 program was officially cancelled in 1949. Aside from being something of a death trap, the Goblin idea also fell to an alternative approach of in-flight refueling for extending the range of escorting jet fighters – a much safer way of fulfilling the mission that didn’t need to take up bomb bay space needed for munitions.
28·10 days ago