Northrop F-89

Northrop F-89 Scorpion
Northrop F-89D "Scorpion" of the 59th Fighter Squadron
Type:	All-weather interceptor
Design country:	United States
Manufacturer:	Northrop Corporation
First flight:	August 16, 1948
Commissioning:	September 1950
Production time:	1949 to 1958
Number of pieces:	1,050

The Northrop F-89 Scorpion was a twin- engine all - weather interceptor made by the American manufacturer Northrop from the early days of the Cold War .

construction

The F-89 was a mid -wing aircraft with different versions of Allison engines . Design features were the two containers with unguided rockets on the wings and the two engines placed under the fuselage.

history

The F-89 was to serve as a jet-powered successor to the P-61 Black Widow and was developed in accordance with a requirement of the ATSC (Air Technical Service Command) from March 1945. It was supposed to carry air-to-air missiles , the folding guards of which only unfolded after they had been fired. The model was the R4M used by the German Air Force in the last days of the war . After the development contract was signed in May 1946, USAAF ordered two prototypes of the aircraft in December. The first flight of an XF-89 took place on August 16, 1948. The prototype showed such good flight characteristics that after a last comparison flight in October 1948 with the Curtiss XF-87 , the USAF placed a series order for 48 F-89A in January 1949. The first series production aircraft flew on November 25, 1950, and scheduled deliveries began in 1951.

Two F-89Ds were involved in the Battle of Palmdale on August 16, 1956 , in which the aircraft failed to shoot down a target drone that had become uncontrollable. The mission failed in particular because of the inadequate automatic aiming for the unguided rockets that missed the drone and instead caused severe property damage in the town of Palmdale and its surroundings.

On 19 July 1957, a F-89J fired under the Plumbbob-John - nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site for the first and only time a nuclear air-to-air missile from. It was an AIR-2 Genie that was launched at an altitude of 4,600 meters. The 1.7 kT nuclear warhead exploded a short time later.

From 1957 to 1969 the F-89 was replaced by the Convair F-102 ; the F-89 joined the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard squadrons . Some machines have also been converted to drones and missile control aircraft.

Versions

F-89H Scorpion

F-89 Scorpion with AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missiles

The F-89A was the first production version. She was powered by two Allison J35-A-21 jet engines. From this version 19 aircraft were built.

The F-89B had improved on-board equipment (e.g. a Lear autopilot and an ILS on-board system). Of this version, 30 (according to other sources 64) aircraft were built.

The F-89C got a new tail unit and more modern equipment. Of this version, 164 aircraft were built with different variants of the engine.

The next model came in 1953, the F-89D, in which the six 20-mm bow cannons were omitted; Containers for 52 unguided rockets were added to the wing ends. It also received a Hughes fire control system. Of this version, 682 aircraft were built, 350 of which were later converted to F-89J. This high number of the following series versions resulted from the need to compensate for the losses from the Korean War , for which numerous older aircraft of the air defense units were parked.

Then came some versions (YF-89E, F-89F, F-89G) in which either the drive or the armament were to be changed, but which were not built in series.

The last newly built production version was the F-89H, which was similar to the F-89D. However, it received more powerful engines and new containers for three Hughes Falcon guided air-to-air missiles at the wing tips. Another six rockets could be carried under the wings. 156 aircraft were built from this version.

The conversion of the F-89D resulted in the F-89J as the last version, of which 350 were completed from mid-1956 to March 1958. At the ends of the wing there were fuel tanks instead of the rocket containers. Under the wings it could accommodate one unguided rocket with an atomic warhead (Douglas MB-1 Genie) and four Falcon rockets. This made the Scorpion the first fighter with nuclear weapons; an F-89J fired the first air-to-air missile with a nuclear warhead on July 19, 1957.

A total of 1,085 Scorpions were produced.

production

Acceptance of the F-89 by the USAF:

version	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	TOTAL	price
XF-89	1								1	$ 2,800,000
XF-89A	1								1	$ 2,800,000
F-89A		3	8th						11	$ 1,085,882
F-89B			37						37	$ 1,085,882
F-89C			48	115					163	797,202 USD
F-89D				5	58	290	298	31	682	$ 804,724
YF-89E						1			1
F-89H							2	154	156	$ 1,011,750
TOTAL	2	3	89	120	58	291	300	185	1,052

On June 30, 1957 there were 152, on June 30, 1958 342 F-89Js in the USAF. A total of 350 F-89Ds were converted into F-89Js from Northrop, Hawthorne. These aircraft were delivered between November 1956 and February 1958. This version was priced at $ 988,884.

Technical specifications

3-sided crack of the F-89J

Parameter	F-89D Scorpion data
length	16.49 m
span	18.18 m
height	5.32 m
Wing area	60.38 m²
Empty mass	11,490 kg
Max. Takeoff mass	19,140 kg
Engine	2 afterburner engines Allison J35 -A-35, -33A, -41 or -47 each with 2430 kp thrust without and each 3260 kp with afterburner
Top speed at 3230 m	1017 km / h
Rate of climb	42.40 m / s
Service ceiling	14,995 m
Range	normal 2190 km, maximum 4184 km
Armament	F-89D: 104 unguided 70 mm missiles in containers on the wing tips F-89H: 42 unguided 70 mm missiles and 6 Falcon guided missiles F-89J: 4 AIM-4 Falcon and 2 AIR-2 Genie, plus 104 unguided rockets like D-version possible.
crew	2

Web links

Commons : Northrop F-89  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Northrop F-89J Scorpion. In: US Air Force Fact Sheet. National Museum of the United States Air Force , May 29, 2015, accessed July 28, 2020 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistical Digest of the USAF 1949. pp. 164 f .; 1951, p. 158; 1952, p. 158; 1953, p. 185 f .; 1954, pp. 70 f .; 1955, p. 80 f .; 1956, p. 91 f., P. 83.
2. ↑ Statistical Digest of the USAF 1957. p. 120; Statistical Digest of the USAF 1958. p. 105.
3. ↑ Knaack, Marcelle Size: Encyclopedia of US Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems, Volume 1, Washington, DC 1978, pp. 96 f.