The Lockheed XF-90's vertical stabilizer moving fore and aft for horizontal stabilizer adjustment - a long-range penetration fighter and bomber escort developed under Kelly Johnson in 1949 and not put into production but the plane of choice of the Blackhawk comics
Posted by Xeelee1123@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 25 comments
SexyZombieButtRape@reddit
O look a Mooney!
Hyperious3@reddit
Lot less dead dentists tho...
Outtheregator@reddit
Mooney was never a doctor/dentist killer. That honorific has always belonged to the V-Bonanza and the Cirrus.
Distinct_Register171@reddit
Exactly!
Outtheregator@reddit
Mooney stabilators do essentially the same thing.
AlbinoAkon@reddit
Whats the point of the H Stabilizer? Has it been used on other planes since??
Douzeff@reddit
Probably improve controls during transonic flight.
404-skill_not_found@reddit
Absolutely did👍.
LefsaMadMuppet@reddit
I'd need to deep dive to confirm this, but my guess was that this aircraft still had conventional elevators. By the tail adjusting pitch it would adjust pitch/trim input needs at higher speeds.
Fighter aircraft like the F-86E and later models went away from conventional tails to all moving tails (stabilators). This became the standard way the horizontal stabilizer was for most, if not all, fighters and supersonic aircraft since.
7stroke@reddit
Somehow this bothers me and variable-sweep wings don’t. Go figure.
Paramoth@reddit
Nice
Key-Employee3584@reddit
The last 10 secs or so of the video show an F-100 Super Sabre - looks like an early A model and ASN shows 25757 as being last flown by the famous Bob Hoover who got it into a flat spin and had to eject. Pays to be lucky AND good.
Important-Spring3977@reddit
Getting some F-105 vibes from this one, although that's likely just from the state of aerodynamics in the 1950s.
imjeffp@reddit
That was my thought too. The Thud's grandfather.
HistoricalVariation1@reddit
wow what a beautiful plan
Fine_Town_5840@reddit
You can still see the XF-90 at the NMUSAF in Dayton. It is in two pieces but a cool thing to see.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
The Lockheed JetStar used the same trimming setup.
Corkscrewer45@reddit
That's the jet-planest jet plane ever!
Hyperious3@reddit
If you asked someone completely disinterested in aviation to draw a fighter jet, this would be it
billysugger000@reddit
That messes with my head.
chathamharrison@reddit
When Kelly Johnson designs an all-moving tail he doesn't mess around
Tasty-Fox9030@reddit
This like several of its immediate contemporaries was let down by a generation of jet engines that couldn't quite deliver their promised levels of thrust. It could just about break the sound barrier- in a dive. Sure was pretty though!
The cool part is they made it out of particularly heavy gauge aluminum and then they nuked it- which didn't actually do as much as they had expected. Thing was built.
waldo--pepper@reddit
That is new to my eyes. Thank you.
Setthegodofchaos@reddit
Same here! Never seen a plane do this!
Xeelee1123@reddit (OP)
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_XF-90
Source: https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/198059/lockheed-xf-90/
Source: https://theaviationgeekclub.com/remembering-the-lockheed-xf-90-penetration-fighter-the-precursor-of-the-f-104-starfighter-that-was-featured-on-the-cover-of-the-comic-book-blackhawk/
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhawk_(DC_Comics)
Source: https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Lockheed_XF-90