McDonnell XF-85 Goblin

The McDonnell XF-85 Goblin was an American prototype jet fighter built by McDonnell Aircraft in the late 1940s as a parasite fighter, a very small escort aircraft meant to be carried inside the bomb bay of the Convair B-36 bomber and launched and recovered in flight on a trapeze. The idea answered a United States Army Air Forces wish for a fighter that could protect new long-range bombers whose range was greater than that of ordinary escort fighters. The Goblin was tiny, with a potato-shaped fuselage, folding swept wings and three fork-shaped tail fins, and it was powered by a single Westinghouse turbojet. Two prototypes were built and flown in 1948 and 1949, using a converted B-29 as the mother ship. Flight tests showed the aircraft was stable once free, but docking with the trapeze proved very hard in the bomber's turbulence, and its performance trailed that of the jet fighters it would have faced. The United States Air Force cancelled the program in October 1949, and both prototypes ended up in museums.