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Now
this is the stuff of which Saturday matinee serials are made: an
airship with a hanger in its belly to drop fighter planes from.
The Popular Mechanics cover wasn't pure fantasy.
It was based on the American Navy's Skyhook project of the 1920s and
'30s, which carried out extensive tests on how to wed biplane and
blimp. However, aircraft carriers just turned out to
be too sexy an alternative and airships had too much of a "please,
shoot me down" air about them, so the blimp idea sort of floated away.
After
the Second World War, the United States Army Air Force realised that
the key to victory in any future conflict was going to rest with the
bomber forces and the bomber forces depended on their being provided
with fighter cover. Only problem was that fighters couldn't
carry much fuel, so they often had only a few minutes of combat time
over the target area; if they could reach the target in the first
place.
One novel solution was to update
the Skyhook idea and design jet fighters that could be carried in the
belly of a bomber. That way the bomber force could carry their
fighter cover with them much as a small boy can tote around a jar full
of wasps.
Enter the McDonnell XF-85
Goblin. This specially made pocket fighter was intended to be
carried inside a B-36 where it would be dropped from a hook, carry out
its mission, and then return to the mother ship. To save on
weight, the Goblin hadn't any undercarriage, which made it about as
popular as a case of herpes with pilots. So was all the
turbulence around the bombers, which made launching and recovery
operations like trying to catch a wiffle ball in a wind storm.
The biggest problem, however, was that a fighter plane small enough to
fit in a bomber was too small and slow to take on conventional fighter
jets and as midair refueling technology developed the parasite fighter
was quietly stuffed to the back of the cupboard.
"No landing gear, huh? And I'm going to get into
this thing why?"
Now
this is the stuff of which Saturday matinee serials are made: an
airship with a hanger in its belly to drop fighter planes from.
