Flying Forever - McDonnell XF-85 Goblin

SAC men who had flown in World War 2 remembered how much difference the P-51 escorts made when they could escort bombers all the way to Berlin, and still wanted fighter escorts into the post-war years.

The McDonnell XF-85 Goblin was designed to meet a USAAF requirement for a single-seat 'parasite' escort fighter that could be carried by a large bomber. Development of two prototypes was ordered in March 1947.

The resulting design was entirely the product of design contraints, which required it to fit into the bomb bay of a B-36 (although it was actually to be tested under a B-29).

A short rotund fuselage was fitted with low/mid set foldable swept wings, of 21 ft 1½ ins. (6.44 m.) span. It was powered by a Westinghouse J34-WE-7 turbojet, of 3000 lb. (1361 kg) thrust.

There was no landing gear except for emergency skids. The fighter was intended to return to the parent aircraft and dock with a trapeze, by means of a retracting hook.

The first flight of the Goblin was made on 23rd August, 1948 from a Boeing EB-29B parent ship. After a little over two hours it became obvious that turbulence around the bomber created difficult control problems.

It was also soon realised that the small fighter could not achieve the speed and manouverability to compete with anticipated hostile aircraft, and the design was abandoned.

The concept was subsequently taken up with the FICON project, using adaptions of a conventional fighter type.

Related links:

More about the XF-85 Goblin from the Edwards Air Force base website.