Can you see a tail number in your photo? Is there any way you could email me the photo?
Klaatu83, e-mail, 02.08.2014 04:51
Just after WW-II the Army Air Force issued a requirement for a "penetration fighter". It was supposed to be a jet-powered long-range escort fighter to accompany the bombers of the Strategic Air Command. Unfortunately all of the prospective "penetration fighters" were failures because they were simply too big and heavy.
The F-85 Goblin represented another prospective solution to the bomber escort problem: simply have the bombers carry a fighter with them, like a bomb, to be launched when needed and then recovered again. However the problem, apart from the bombers having to lug all that dead weight around with them, was that it wasn't easy to fly the little Goblin back onto the bomber. Only the most experienced pilots could manage to do it, and even then it was difficult.
p3orion, e-mail, 19.02.2014 18:05
The "threading the needle" comment makes it seem like it would have been unreasonable to expect the pilots to be able to re-engage the trapeze successfully. However, while the Air Force refueling process "flies" the hose to the fighter, in the Navy it is the opposite, with the fighter pilot maneuvering his plane to engage the refueling probe. Furthermore, Naval dirigible airships of the 1930s both launched and recovered parasite fighters. It was the buffeting inherent close underneath the fuselage of a B-36 that made Schoch's attempts s difficult, not the precision of the process.
Detlev, e-mail, 01.02.2012 01:25
I have a photo of one of these with the marking PARASITE below MCDONNELL, then XF-85. Air intakes or machine gun openings high on the front of the fuselage. Does anyone know which one this is?
bombardier, e-mail, 24.05.2011 11:26
The flying egg
John Bickers, e-mail, 08.03.2011 19:31
The Goblin was at one time at the Smithsonian's Silver Hill facility. I saw it there.
Van Mc, e-mail, 10.12.2010 20:23
I know what the guy is saying to the pilot: "You haven't got a hair on your a__ if you don't fly this thing".
Ben Fisher, e-mail, 22.05.2008 02:11
There was an XF-85 on display at Sampson Air Force Base near Geneva NY. I have a picture of it with a group of basic trainees. Does anyone know which of the two were at Sampson??? We would like to know to add to the History of Sampson 1950-1956 The canopy was off on the Sampson Goblin
