46525

McDonnell, XF-88, Voodoo

from SDASM Archives

• ScOtT said:

  What a incredible looking aircraft!

• mambo1935 said:

  beauty!

• Eagle0025 said:

  XF-88, s/n 46-525. The first of two prototypes. First flew 20 October 1948. Designed by McDonnell Aircraft to compete with the Lockheed XF-90 and North American Aviation YF-93A to fulfill a USAF Penetration Fighter requirement for a bomber escort. Participated in a flyoff where the XF-88 was declared the winner, but the overall program was scrapped when the Boeing B-47's performance proved a bomber escort was unnecessary. Assigned to NACA Langley Research Center, Langley AFB, VA 13 July 1953 to 16 September 1958. The first prototype was modified to the XF-88B as a propeller-research vehicle. First flown 14 April 1953 in this configuration. The propeller was driven by a nose-mounted 2,500 shp Allison XT38 turboprop. The aircraft was used to test three different propellers through 1956, to speeds slightly exceeding Mach 1.0 (the first propeller-equipped aircraft to do so). Both prototypes were scrapped at Langley AFB, VA in 1958. A considerably enlarged version of the XF-88 was chosen in 1951 to meet a USAF requirement for a long-range fighter, the revised design becoming the F-101 Voodoo.