Sunday Aircraft Cheesecake (F-89)
This week's entry is much more of an "interesting" than a "beautiful" plane. In fact, the plane is pretty homely but attractive in that odd way that only straight-wing jet fighters can be. The F-89 Scorpion:
This fighter, aside from having an interesting profile and decent performance for a non-swept-wing jet, was the USAF's first interceptor to be armed with air-to-air nuclear rockets.
You heard me right. In the 1950s, the Air Force developed an air-to-air missile (the AIR-2 Genie) with a nuclear warhead designed to take out an entire squadron of Russian bombers at a time.
The F-89 carries the distinction of being the first (and only) plane ever to fire and detonate a nuclear-armed air-to-air missile, on 19 July 1957. I've looked for pictures of the test-firing but can't find any.
Earlier Aircraft Cheesecake entries here, here, and here.
Update: One of Jonah Goldberg's "military guys" is holding an ugly plane contest. Check it out.
I always liked the wingtip rocket pods, myself.
Posted by: John of Argghhh! at October 4, 2004 09:20 AMMy dad was a Northrop tech rep stationed in Greenland for the F-89. Flew back seat and hated it.
Plenty of stories about that POS but you know what?
It worked.
Plenty of stories including ones about the nuke test.
Brian, Don't leave us hanging... I'd love to hear any stories, especially about the nuke test. Do you know if there are any publicly available pictures from the test?
Posted by: JohnL at October 5, 2004 01:40 PM