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The original swing wing jet!


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Everyone is familiar with the F-111 Aardvark and the even more famous F-14 Tomcat, but if not for this predecessor, the Grumman XF-10F Jaguar, they wouldn't have been the innovative, successful planes that they were! It was the Jaguar in the mid 50s that tested, worked out the bugs, and proved the viability of a wing with variable sweep ability while in flight.

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This is the 1/48 Combat vacuform XF-10F Jaguar in its initial configuration with the Delta T tail. I had to draw and paint the Jaguars for the fuselage on decal paper. I built this back in the 80s.

 

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The is the 1/48 resin Collectaire Jaguar in the prototype's last configuration, where they'd added an "all flying tail" from a Cougar. Built this one in the 90s.

 

I'm probably the only guy with TWO 1//48 XF-10F Jaguars built in their collections! Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Way to go, Gil! It looks great! Best,

 

Mark

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  • 4 years later...

Gil, Mark & Dave,

All of your Jaguar models are very well done.  BUT at the risk of raining on y'all's parade, the XF-10F was not the original swing wing jet.  Nor was the XF-10F the aircraft that had all the bugs worked out so the F-111 and F-14 could be built.  The progenitor of the swingwing design traces all the way back to Nazi Germany and the Messerschmitt P.1101.  While not a swingwing, it was a positionable wing design and the immediate predecessor to the swingwing concept.  When Germany collapsed, Bell Aircraft got their hands on the P.1101 and built a dead copy of the aircraft with one additional feature: Functional variable geometry wings that could change their sweep in flight.  The aircraft?  The Bell X-5.  Next up was the XF-10F Jaguar, which...in spite of actually flying onto and off of carriers...had to deal with the same problems as the X-5.  Namely a shift in the center of gravity since it was believed that the wing pivot point had to be at the centerline of the aircraft.  The first successful variable geometry (or swingwing) aircraft...as well as the first operational v.g. aircraft was the General Dynamics F-111.  Reason?  Because of the famous NASA glove box that moved the wing pivot point outside the fuselage, thus eliminating the c.g. problems resulting from a centerline pivot location.  Grumman was an early partner with General Dynamics but bowed out when McNamara's commonality policy was unsuccessful in the F-111B being a practical design for carrier service.  At the same time, lessons learned by Grumman during its F-111 adventure laid the groundwork for the F-14.  Bottom line is that the F-111 deserves the credit as the the world's first successful, operational variable geometry swingwing aircraft.  Those that came before it have their own place in aviation history, but without the F-111 and the NASA glove box, variable geometry aircraft designs that are as common today as mushrooms after a rain would not exist.

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