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Thanks for that: I have a 1/32 scale kit of the XF-85 and that will help!Not sure if this photo has been published before, it shows a lot of XF-85 detail from an angle that isn't often seen.
I can see thatI still say it looks like an Electrolux.
Tom tom
One and only one. It NEVER made production, therefore never existed.
Yeah we were (I thought we were) talking about the one left in a scrap heap display. But thanks for in info.TWO.
46-0687 was the first, 46-0688 the second.
-7 had two non-afterburning J34s for aerodynamic flight testing, but -8 had afterburning J34s and was the first USAF jet with an afterburner and the first Lockheed jet to fly supersonic, albeit in a dive.
After losing the penetration fighter to McDonnell's XF-88 in Sept. 1950 the two prototypes were retired to other testing roles.
The first aircraft (46-687) was shipped to the NACA Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio in 1953 for structural tests. It was no longer flyable, and its extremely strong airframe was tested to destruction.
The other (46-688) survived three atomic blasts at Frenchman Flat within the Nevada Test Site in 1952. In 2003, the heavily damaged hulk was recovered from the Nevada Test Site and moved to the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton Ohio. Its wings have been removed, and its nose was mangled by the nuclear blasts. During the decontamination process, all rivets were removed to purge radioactive sand. The aircraft is now on display in the museum's Cold War gallery in a diorama depicting it on the Nevada Test Site.
Here is -8 at the test site:
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And both in flight sans tip tanks:
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The first one often used RATO due to the lack of take-off thrust:
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zee Germans, LTG 63