Tight budgets meant that less important programs such as the XF-85 were canceled.
The increasing range of jet escort fighters (along with the advent of in-flight refuelling) allowed them to accompany bombers on their full missions.The XF-85 was no match for the conventional enemy fighters it would have to engage to defend the bombers - it was slower and much more lightly armed.(On the other hand, Chuck Yeager stated that Schoch was particularly incapable of formation flying. Docking with the bomber "host" proved much more difficult than thought even an experienced test pilot had trouble.The cancellation was the result of a number of factors: The Goblin had flown six times with a total flight time of about two and a half hours Schoch was the only person who ever flew it. McDonnell considered adding a telescoping extension to the docking trapeze, but the XF-85 program was cancelled in mid-1949 before it could be done. Although Schoch had flown dummy dockings with a Lockheed F-80 fighter with no problems, the Goblin was lighter and more sensitive to turbulence than the F-80. However, the test pilot, Ed Schoch, found it difficult to hook the Goblin to the bomber's trapeze. In flight, the tiny fighter was stable, easy to fly and recovered well from spins. On the first flight, after a little over two hours it became obvious that turbulence around the bomber created difficult control problems. As a prototype B-36 was unavailable, all XF-85 flight tests were carried out using a converted Boeing EB-29 Superfortress parent ship. Consequently, the second aircraft was used for the initial flight trials its first flight was on 23 August 1948. During wind tunnel testing at Moffett Field, California, the first prototype XF-85 was damaged.
McDonnell built two Goblin prototypes (USAF Serial no. XF-85 Goblin #46-523 in the National Museum of the United States Air Force
The fighter was intended to return to the parent aircraft and dock with a trapeze, by means of a retracting hook.
There was no landing gear except for emergency skids. It was powered by a 3,000 lb (1,400 kgf) Westinghouse J34-WE-7 turbojet. The B-36 was the intended mother ship that would carry as many as three Goblins.Ī tiny, short fuselage was fitted with low/mid-set foldable swept wings, of 21 ft 1.5 in (6.44 m) span.
The resulting design was entirely the product of design constraints, which required it to fit into the bomb bay of a B-36 (although it was first tested under a B-29). Development of two prototypes was ordered in March 1947. The McDonnell XF-85 Goblin was designed to meet a USAAF requirement for a single-seat "parasite" escort fighter that could be carried by a large bomber.