Originally Posted by
uncljoe
No not the P 61 "Black Widow"
1.Looking for a designed "Nocturnal"aircraft
2.Twin power plants.
3 Designed around a radar system
How about the Douglas F3D Skyknight? Thanks; Ernie P.
The Douglas F3D Skyknight (later designated F-10 Skyknight) was a
United States twin-engined, mid-wing
jet fighter aircraft manufactured by the
Douglas Aircraft Company in
El Segundo, California. The F3D was designed as a carrier-based all-weather
night fighter and saw service with the
United States Navy and
United States Marine Corps. The mission of the F3D-2 was to search out and destroy enemy aircraft at night.
The F3D Skyknight was never produced in great numbers but it did achieve many firsts in its role as a night fighter over
Korea. While it never achieved the fame of the
North American F-86 Sabre, it did down several Soviet-built
MiG-15s as a night fighter over Korea with only one air-to-air loss of its own against a
Chinese MiG-15 on the night of 29 May 1953.
The Skyknight played an important role in the development of the radar-guided
AIM-7 Sparrow missile which led to further guided
air-to-air missile developments. It also served as an electronic warfare platform in the
Vietnam War as a precursor to the
EA-6A Intruder and
EA-6B Prowler. The aircraft is sometimes unofficially called "Skynight", dropping the second "k". The unusual, portly profile earned it the nickname "Willie the Whale". Some Vietnam War
U.S. Marine veterans have referred to the Skyknight as "
Drut", whose meaning becomes obvious when read backwards. This may be in reference to its age, unflattering looks or its low-slung air intakes that made it vulnerable to
foreign object damage (FOD).
The F3D was not intended to be a typical sleek and nimble dogfighter, but as a standoff night fighter, packing a powerful radar system and a second crew member. It originated in 1945 with a US Navy requirement for a jet-powered, radar-equipped, carrier-based night fighter. The Douglas team led by
Ed Heinemann designed around the bulky air intercept radar systems of the time, with
side-by-side seating for the pilot and radar operator. The result was an aircraft with a wide, deep, and roomy fuselage. Instead of ejection seats, an escape tunnel was used, similar to the type used in the
A-3 Skywarrior.
The XF3D-1 beat out
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation's G-75 two-seat, four-engined,
Westinghouse J30-powered night fighter design and was issued a contract 3 April 1946. The US Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (
BuAer) also issued a contract to Grumman for two G-75 (company designation) XF9F-1 (BuAer designation) experimental aircraft on 11 April 1946 in case the Skyknight ran into problems. Grumman soon realized that the G-75 was a losing design but had been working on a completely different, single-engined day fighter known as the Grumman G-79 which became the
F9F Panther.