Nothing Can Stop the USAF

OK, first stop on the trip was the US Air Force museum in Dayton, OH. I had always heard the legends about how it has three times the number of aircraft as any other aviation museum and all that. Sure enough it completely delivered on that. There are three buildings that are around the same size as the single building that makes up the massive Udvar-Hazy air and space museum near Dulles airport. Obviously I can't even begin to scratch the surface of what they have on display. What I'll do is highlight what I though what most interesting: the Goblin. It turns out that during the cold war they knew that they could make a bomber with range and capacity to deliver nuclear warheads to the adversary and they did. It was called the B-36 and they have one at the museum and it is a awesome sight in and of itself. The problem was that fighter escorts just didn't have the range to protect this sitting duck. Air to air refueling really had not proved itself so the solution was the XF-85 Goblin pictured here. The fighter is so small that the propeller on the bomber looks bigger that it! The Goblin would ride in the belly of the b-36 and then be lowered out, unfold its wings, start the engine, go chase away bad guys and then fly back under and hook up to a trapeeze to be recovered. Here is why I think Nothing Can Stop The USAF: You can bet your ass there were guys lining up to fly this bizarre looking aircraft with its horrible deathwish mission. Inflight refueling matured and this bizarre method of defending bombers went by the wayside but the point is these guys would have done what ever it took. Click on the picture below to see more bizarre detail. Truly commendable.