The Air Force Built One Fighter Jet That Was Too Insane Even For Test Pilots

America built some wild weapons during the Cold War.

But one aircraft stands out as particularly nuts.

And the Air Force built one fighter jet that was too insane even for test pilots.

The Pentagon had a bomber problem that required radical thinking

The Air Force faced a serious headache in the late 1940s after World War II ended and the Cold War began.

New strategic bombers like the Convair B-36 Peacemaker could fly all the way to Moscow and back.

That kind of range was impressive for power projection.

But these bombers were sitting ducks without fighter escorts.

Soviet air defenses would shred them to pieces.

The problem was that jet fighters in those days could only fly a few hundred miles before running out of fuel.

That meant bombers penetrating Soviet airspace would be completely vulnerable.

The Pentagon came up with a wild solution borrowed from the Navy.

Aircraft carriers protected their fleets by launching fighters from floating airfields.

So why not turn the bombers themselves into aircraft carriers?

Meet the XF-85 Goblin – the fighter jet with no landing gear

The McDonnell XF-85 Goblin looked like what you'd get if you smashed a fighter jet into a subcompact and kept whatever survived.

This stubby egg of an aircraft measured less than 15 feet long with a 21-foot wingspan.

The designers had to keep it microscopic because it needed to squeeze into a B-36 bomber's bomb bay.

Here's how the insanity worked.

The bomber crew would crack open the bomb bay doors mid-flight and drop a giant trapeze holding the Goblin.

Once clear of the mothership, the pilot fired up his Westinghouse J34-WE-7 turbojet and got the wings unfolded.

He'd disconnect from the trapeze, tuck away his recovery hook, and head out on patrol.

The Goblin carried four .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns for protection.

Weighing just 5,000 pounds fully loaded, the little fighter could hit 225 mph and stay airborne for 30 minutes of combat.

Then came the part that should have scared away any sane pilot.

The Goblin had no landing gear.

Zero. None. Not a single wheel.

The aircraft was designed to never touch the ground because there wasn't room in that tiny fuselage for landing gear.

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If the pilot got lost or ran into trouble, the only option was a belly landing and a prayer.

How the Air Force convinced test pilots to climb into this death trap remains a mystery.

Turbulence turned recovery into a nightmare

The Air Force ordered two prototypes in 1945.

The first captive flight attached to a modified Boeing EB-29B Superfortress happened in July 1948.

The first free flight came a month later.

The Goblin proved surprisingly stable and easy to fly at high altitude with its pressurized cockpit and high-visibility canopy.

Performance was decent for such a tiny aircraft.

But then pilots tried to dock back with the mothership.

The engineers didn't account for the violent turbulence created by airflow over the bomber's wings and open bomb bays.

https://twitter.com/airmainengineer/status/2009845153901555793

An air cushion formed between the fighter and bomber as the Goblin approached the recovery trapeze.

The tiny fighter bucked around so wildly that the best pilots in the service couldn't make the connection.

Half of the seven free flights ended with emergency belly landings after failed recovery attempts.

The prototypes got bent up pretty good.

The pilots experienced moments so harrowing they'd probably need therapy if they talked about it today.

The project died when a better solution emerged

The XF-85 program officially died in 1949.

The recovery problems proved too severe to solve.

But the Goblin also faced competition from a much simpler approach.

In-flight refueling could extend the range of conventional jet fighters providing bomber escort.

That method didn't require sacrificing bomb bay space needed for actual weapons.

And it didn't involve pilots trying to land on a hook while getting tossed around in 200 mph turbulence.

The safer alternative killed the parasite fighter concept for good.

The two surviving Goblin prototypes are now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, and the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska.

These bent-up relics stand as testament to one of the wildest ideas the Pentagon ever funded.

The Goblin proved that sometimes the simplest solution beats the clever one.

Especially when the clever solution involves flying a fighter jet with no wheels that has to catch a hook while getting thrown around like a toy.

Sources:

David Szondy, "Meet the Goblin – the ultra-compact of fighter planes," New Atlas, January 8, 2026.
National Museum of the United States Air Force, "McDonnell XF-85 Goblin," USAF Museum Archives.
Strategic Air and Space Museum, "XF-85 Goblin Parasite Fighter," Museum Collection.