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Further Reading

RF-84 FICON

The U.S. Air Force's Global Attack mission really began with the arrival of the jet propelled bomber in the early 1950s. The Strategic Air Command's new B-47s and B-52s could travel long distances without the need for fighter escort. But SAC also depended on its propeller-driven B-36 Peacemakers, especially for the vital reconnaissance mission. These airborne giants would have to fly over the most heavily defended target areas, and were quite vulnerable to an enemy's jet interceptors.

In the late 1940s, a scheme to have B-36 bombers carry along their own fighter protection had come to nothing. Northrop had developed a tiny parasite fighter, the XF-85 Goblin that fit into a bomb bay and could be released to drive off enemy fighters. But the system had too many development problems, and anyway the XF-85 was too small to offer much in the way of protection. The basic concept still seemed to hold promise, however. Could an RB-36 carry along a full-sized reconnaissance fighter to overfly the critical zone and return to the mother ship for the long trip home?

Air Force Headquarters authorized a fighter-reconnaissance project - dubbed FICON - to explore the possibility. A conventional RB-36F was stripped of most of its operational equipment and modified by the addition of a trapeze mechanism in the bomb bay for stowing, releasing, and retrieving the parasite aircraft. The latter was an F-84E with a special "duck-bill" nose probe mechanism installed on top of the forward fuselage for engaging the trapeze boom's forward receiver. Once attached to the boom, the smaller plane could easily be lifted into the bomb bay. Only the canopy area and upper fuselage spine actually fit inside the mother ship; most of the rest rode below, adding significantly to the bomber's drag.

The initial tests of the FICON Project were conducted at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., early in 1953. These validated the parasite operation as "tactically sound," and recommended that a production RB-36 and a recon fighter based on the more advanced RF-84F be made available for operational suitability testing at the earliest possible date.

On Oct. 4, 1955, the AFFTC was directed to conduct operational suitability tests of the mother ship and a modified photo-reconnaissance Thunderflash. The RF-84K was equipped with anhedral (downward-pointing) horizontal stabilizers to clear the bomb bay when in the stowed position. Maj. James O. Rudolph, a Class 1954A graduate of the Test Pilot School, was the project pilot. He flew the modified fighter during the first FICON flight on Nov. 29, 1955.

The ensuing flights revealed that the novel parasite concept was achievable but not practical. Hook-ups with the carrier were difficult enough under ideal flight conditions, and nearly impossible to achieve in turbulent air. In essence, what a trained test pilot could accomplish would likely be unworkable for most operational pilots under combat conditions.

There were other problems as well. Ground clearance with the fighter mounted was very close under the best of circumstances. But the RF-84K, like all the members of its family, was chronically fuel-thirsty and required one or more externally mounted 450-gallon fuel tanks to accomplish most missions. This reduced ground clearance to around 6 inches. The problem of drag was even worse. The stowed fighter reduced the range of the B-36 by 5 to 10 percent.

Rudolph flew the FICON project's final on April 27, 1956, just 45 years ago. By then, however, the outcome was obvious. The Air Force had dropped the requirement for Phase IV testing a few weeks earlier, and the entire project was canceled shortly thereafter.