Meet the XF-85 Goblin: The 'Parasite' Jet Built to Defend Nuclear Bombers

Sebastien Roblin

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A pretty unique design. Sadly, this jet ended up being obsolete nearly the second it was built.

However, turbulence from Monstro’s air-cushion buffeted Schoch as he attempted to gently guide the Goblin back onto the hook for recovery. The two-ton fighter weighed less than half the weight of the F-80 jet he had practiced hook-up approaches with earlier.

Its manufacturer called it the “Goblin”—and by looks alone, the egg-shaped jet certainly deserved the name. The McDonnell XF-85 jet resembled little more than a pressurized cockpit on top of a bulbous J34 turbojet engine, with small stubby swept-back wings that could fold inwards. Rounding out its ghastly appearance were an unusual three tail stabilizers, three shark-like belly-mounted fins, and a giant extendable hook rising from the open snout of its jet intake.

To top off the Goblin’s disreputable looks, it lacked landing gear, and had to make do with a retractable steel skid for emergencies. That’s because the XF-85 was a “parasite fighter.” It was designed to be carried aloft by a huge nuclear bomber and air dropped to defend its ponderous mothership from attacking enemy fighters. Upon accomplishing its mission, the Goblin was supposed to use its protruding hook to snag a ride back to home base attached to its mothership.

The XF-85 was intended to protect gigantic B-35 fly-wing and B-36 Peacemaker strategic bombers designed to fly thousands of miles carrying nuclear weapons in their capacious bomb bays. These had fuselages large enough to fully enclose a Goblin in their bomb bays.

Though it may sound like a concept strait out of a Rescue Rangers cartoon, parasite fighters actually had a long but obscure history. The first were British biplanes that were tested hooking up to military airships during World War I. Then during the 1930s the Navy deployed F9C Sparrowhawk biplanes on board 239-meter-long helium-filled rigid airships Akron and Macon. The Sparrohawks also used hooks to “land” onto a trapeze extended from the airships. However, both scouting airships had crashed by 1935.

During World War II, the Soviet Union briefly mounted I-16 fighters onto a hulking TB-3 bombers for air strikes in 1941, and Japan deployed rocket-powered Okha (“Cherry Blossom”) kamikaze plans on G4M bombers.