I have long been fascinated with airplanes of all kinds. This post is the first of a series of photos of wacky and wonderful aircraft.

We start first with one of the coolest airplanes I have every seen, the Mcdonnell XF-85 Goblin. Only two were built and I saw one of them in the Wright Patterson Air Force Base museum back in the mid 1980’s.

From the Nation Museum of the Airforce site:

The McDonnell Aircraft Corp. developed the XF-85 Goblin “parasite” fighter to protect B-36 bombers flying beyond the range of conventional escort fighters. Planners envisioned a “parent” B-36 carrying the XF-85 in the bomb bay, and if enemy fighters attacked, the Goblin would have been lowered on a trapeze and released to combat the attackers. Once the enemy had been driven away, the Goblin would return to the B-36, hook onto the trapeze, fold its wings and be lifted back into the bomb bay. The Goblin had no landing gear, but it had a steel skid under the fuselage and small runners on the wingtips for emergency landings.

Pretty neat little airplane!