F-85 Goblin

[ChuckAnderson]

Hi Everyone!

I was wondering if anyone has done any "What-Iffing" with the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin, outside of its intended role as a "parasite fighter"?

Chuck

[RLBH]

Cruise missile? Target drone?

Might be able to make some sort of fast sports jet out of it if you really try. A millionaire's toy sort of thing...

[retro_seventies]

possibly a little gruesome, but alt. pacific war....us kamikaze? carried by b-35/b36, 2 under each wing.

pilots...not sure about how that would work, maybe somebody else can think about that one.
 

[Gervasius]

Early radio-guided cruise missile with nuclear warhead?

[Mossie]

Never thought of it before, but I guess you could pop in a fuselage extenison, it'd probably look pretty much like a F-86.

My favoured option though would be to add larger wings & a twin boom & make an American Vampire/Venom!  Now theres an idea, F-95 Ghost.....

[Lawman]

Vietnam for B-52s?

Experiencing losses from the small Mig 17s and 21s, the B-52s need an escort, so the idea of loading up a couple of B-52s with Goblins comes up. The concept is dusted off, and proves successful, and some are even modified to perform post-strike recon, to do battle damage assessment, rather than flying in dedicated recon planes hours later, which are very vulnerable, since they know they're coming. In each strike package, a couple of B-52s fly in carrying the parasite fighters, putting a stop to the Mig attacks, and reducing losses.  

[Maverick]

Great find Chuck!!

The Goblin is one of those birds that is almost What If just looking at it!

I'd say options are:

Post War Racer - Maybe?  Looks a hell of a lot like a GeeBee in one light

Kamikaze - It's got a bang seat, so there's always the option of punching out & getting picked up later on (hopefully by a US sub or helo & not by the target ship).  Of course that being said, the Kamikaze concept altho wonderfully simple just wasn't as effective as it sounded on paper.  The primary reason for their inception was the acceptance by the Japanese of the shortage of trained pilots for offensive ops.  A bit like Germany's 'Volksjager' program, HJ cadets with glider experience were to make perfect fighter pilots....

RC Cruise Missile, the only sticking point there is that the early bombs were that freaking big & heavy that a Goblin wouldn't have that much space for the warhead even without the pilot, but I guess with the canopy off it's certainly got the look, mayb as an anti-ship weapon like the Russian AS-1 'Kennel'.

My 2 cents.

Mav

[Gervasius]

RC Cruise Missile, the only sticking point there is that the early bombs were that freaking big & heavy that a Goblin wouldn't have that much space for the warhead even without the pilot, but I guess with the canopy off it's certainly got the look, mayb as an anti-ship weapon like the Russian AS-1 'Kennel'.

Small W-7 warhead was relatively lightweight (some 400 kg) and had respectable bang - 40 kiloton. Entered service in 1955.

It would fit in the nose of the Goblin, some lenghtening of the forward fuselage would be necessary. Fit two of those in a B-36, or one in B-47 and B-50 and you have a respectable stand-off instant sunshine delivery.

[Son of Damian]

Expensive government boondoggle only successfully used to convince the Soviets that we could develop a parasite fighter for our bombers when we couldn't, see Jet Pilot. ^_^  

bomb magnet/airfield decoy

early pilotless RC recce drone, like firebee.

[Captain Canada]

Submersable.

Deep Sea attack platform.....sub launched attack a/c ?

Something from the sea, anyway........

 

[ChuckAnderson]

Hi Everyone!

What about a.....

(1) Two-seat Wild Weasel version.
(2) VG version.
(3) High-altitude version with high aspect ratio wings
(4) Zero-length launch point defence fighter


Chuck

[Maverick]

Chuck,

the ZELL bird would be quite a neat idea i guess, the others?  how much F-85 do we want left??  Still, it's whif after all.

Mav

[Shasper]

Now the ZELL idea I'm liken! Lets see. . . Ditch the four 50s for a pair of Colt 20mm cannons, ditch the J34 for something w/a bit more umph (whatabout the J47 from the F-86 or J35 from the F-84?), slipper tanks on the wings to increase endurance, possibly pods of 2.75 HVARS or multiple AIM-9s?

Shas B)

[BlackOps]

I kinda liked the mini-sub idea!

[elmayerle]

Once upon a time, many a moon ago, I doodled up a "F-85B" that was a combination of bits of F-85, A-4, and F-16.  I'll have to see if I can find that again; especially since it was teamed up with a GRB-60B with four T57 turboprops.