Convair GRB-36F Peacemaker recovers Republic YRF-84F Thunderstreak during FICON (Fighter Conveyor) trials, May 1953
Posted by RLoret@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 32 comments
UW_Ebay@reddit
They caught planes in flight or deployed them?
Raguleader@reddit
Both, but the planes had to be specially equipped for that. IIRC they only tried this with the F-84F and the XF-85 Goblin.
The Goblin, well, it was doing it's best, but the only things it was good at were fitting in bomb bays and being adorable.
GreatScottGatsby@reddit
You are so right, it absolutely adorable.
Raguleader@reddit
It is one of my favorite fighter jets because just look at it.
UW_Ebay@reddit
Haha wow. We used to do some crazy shit.
the_spinetingler@reddit
yes
wildskipper@reddit
Those inline engines on the B36 are very sexy. The jets ruin it a bit though, pushing it into Thunderbirds territory.
TorLam@reddit
The jets weren't for looks but to boost power on takeoff and boost speed in the target area.
Erlend05@reddit
They modified the jet engines to run on petrol!. Thats the most crazy part to me
Lawsoffire@reddit
I'd say the B-36 modified to run on nuclear power (NB-36) is more crazy tbh.
Erlend05@reddit
Didnt they just have a nuclear reactor in the cargo room an a bunch of lead around the cockpit to see if it was feasible and did the actual nuclear plane with some other plane?
Lawsoffire@reddit
It never flew nuclear, but it was intended to as far as i recall. Don't think the program was transferred elsewhere before it was scrapped, and no other attempt was made.
Erlend05@reddit
Oh ok, but yeah thats really cool/insane aswell. Didnt it out raw nuclear waste out the exhaust or something?
Lawsoffire@reddit
No that was the SLAM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missile
designed to loiter around the USSR, poisoning everything in its path, potentially for months before finally descending upon a target to ignite its thermonuclear payload. A terrifying weapon intended to uphold the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction.
DolphinPunkCyber@reddit
Turbines and jet engines can in principle run on pretty much any liquid fuel. But unless the engine was purpose build to use multiple fuels, you would end up having to do modifications.
Lawsoffire@reddit
GRB-36 + NB-36...
We were THIS close to having nuclear powered airborne aircraft carriers. If those pesky hippies...
Polidamn@reddit
Peak Crimson Sky vibes
AliceInPlunderland@reddit
“Two turning, two burning, two smoking, two choking, and two unaccounted for.”
WhistlingKyte@reddit
Six turning four burning? Nah fam maintenance is still shit. Have this instead.
egguw@reddit
and one left behind
Financial_Swing1239@reddit
That’s a huge bitch.
sub-_-dude@reddit
What does "recovers" mean here exactly?
_meshy@reddit
So back in the 60s, Thunderstreaks were just flying all over the US going to different bases. Well, some of the B-36 pilots got bored, and came up with an idea to start catching them. Once they caught them, like you see here, they'd fly back to base and train them to learn how to fight better. Once they got trained up, the bomber pilots would fly to each others' airbases, and make their Thunderstreaks fight one other. The owner of the Thunderstreak that won would get a badge to show that he was the very best trainer. Eventually it got too expensive, so they stopped fighting the Thuderstreaks. But the badge thing is what lead to the creation of challenge coins or something like that. I might be misremembering a few things.
WarmWombat@reddit
Recovery is a term used for aircraft to return to their return platform; the same term applies to aircraft carriers, where landings are referred to as recoveries.
Newbosterone@reddit
The concept was a fighter escort carried by the bomber into battle. It as hoped to overcome the relatively short range of fighters at the time.
WarmWombat@reddit
Interesting to note the YRF-84F has an anhedral swept horizontal stabiliser compared to the standard F-84. It would be interesting to know if this was done as a result to minimise the chance of physical collision with the mothership or to extend the stabiliser away from the mothership fuselage to give it better authority and/or avoid airflow turbulence.
Burphel_78@reddit
When aerial refueling starts feeling too natural, this is what you upgrade to...
UrethralExplorer@reddit
Dude I've thought the same thing! The refueling probe could just be the initial locking point to a retrieval gantry for your flying CV.
PaintedClownPenis@reddit
Believe it or not it went the other way. The B-36 was the gigantic monster it was because it could not refuel. Air-to-air refueling had not been perfected yet, so it carried 40 hours worth of fuel internally. Nothing could escort it very far into hostile territory, so the idea of a mothership and parasite escorts was tested.
It's considerably bigger than the B-52 which replaced it and it carried a larger payload, too. But it was painfully slow at around 400 mph flat out.
lizerdk@reddit
There’s a lot going on here
vonHindenburg@reddit
6 turning... 5? burning?
RLoret@reddit (OP)
Wikipedia article on the FICON project