What happened with that little F-85 Goblin thing?

Question

What happened with that little F-85 Goblin thing?

Answer 1

the fighter conveyance project was an interesting concept, but was flawed from the start. the XF85 was very short range, and very unstable when trying to hook back up to its mother ship. there were success-full re-connections, but as a whole it would never have worked in combat conditions. there was also an attempt using an modified F84, but that too had issues. while it was far more stable in the bombers slipstream, which made re-connection easier, it eliminated the use of the inboard engines on the B36 due to the F84's wings hitting the inboard propellers.

Answer 2

The XF85 Goblin parasite fighter was designed to fit in the forward bomb bay of a B36.  When under attack, the bomber would release the fighter via a trapeze arrangement, then the fighter would hook up to be retracted back into the bomber.

It was actually based on the airship "air carrier" concept of the late 20's.  The Sparrowhawk fighter had a similar device, and actually worked fairly well.  

During the first tests of the XF85, the pilot had difficulty hooking up due to vis problems caused by the trapeze system.  It severely cracked the windscreen, and he had to abort.  It was never tested again.

The one and only version, cracked windscreen and all is still on display at the USAF museum at Wright-Patterson AFB.

Answer 3

The test program was canceled in late 1949 when mid-air refueling of fighter aircraft for range extension began to show greater promise. Also, the USAF droped it because it was unstable. In addition to being unstable as all get-out (which is normally a good thing in a fighter), the control surfaces were so dinky that pilots invariably overcontrolled the li'l beast trying to hook the trapeze for recovery--after a couple of midairs (with the Goblin coming off second-best), common sense eventually prevailed and the Boys in Blue opted to go back to sticking drop tanks on escorting fighters.  

Answer 4

The sole remaining example is on display at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio.

It was a VERY unstable aircraft.