McDonnell XF-88 Voodoo

The McDonnell XF-88 Voodoo was a long-range twin-jet fighter that McDonnell Aircraft built as a prototype for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s. It grew out of a 1946 requirement for a penetration fighter able to escort bombers to their targets, a jet replacement for the wartime P-51 Mustang in that role. Two prototypes were ordered, the first flew on 20 October 1948, and the second was fitted with afterburners to cure the underpowered first design. The type won the Air Force penetration fighter competition against the Lockheed XF-90 and North American YF-93, but the requirement was cancelled in August 1950 and it never entered production. One prototype was later rebuilt as the XF-88B propeller research aircraft, the first propeller-equipped aircraft to exceed Mach 1. Its layout, with swept wings and engines in the lower fuselage, was enlarged into the supersonic F-101 Voodoo.