Article 2982 of rec.aviation.military:
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From: jfb@usgp1.ih.att.com (Joe Baugher)
Subject: New Fighter Series--Grumman F-9 Panther/Cougar (1 of 13)
Message-ID: <Cx895n.550@ssbunews.ih.att.com>
Summary:  Panther, XF9F-1, never built
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Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 01:22:35 GMT
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The Grumman F9F Panther was the first jet-powered aircraft to be built 
by Grumman, a long-time manufacturer of carrier-based fighter aircraft for 
the US Navy.  The Panther bore the brunt of carrier-based jet fighter 
operations in the Korean War, and had the distinction of downing the 
first MiG-15 to be destroyed by a US Navy plane.  However, it was to 
be in the ground attack role that the Panther was to gain its primary 
claim to fame.  The next few articles in this series will deal with
this important aircraft.  

As compared to some of its competitors, the Grumman Aircraft 
Corporation of Bethpage, Long Island was rather late in getting into 
the design of jet combat aircraft.  However, between July of 1943 and 
November of 1944, Grumman undertook some preliminary work on several 
different jet-powered designs, some of them powered by a mixture of 
jet and piston engines.  The first of these was the G-57, which was to 
have been powered by an R-2800 piston engine plus a small turbojet.  
Next was the G-61, which was a development of the F6F Hellcat with a 
turbojet engine in the tail.  However, both of these projects had to 
be shelved in favor of higher-priority work on the G-58 (XF8F-1 
Bearcat), a conventional piston-engined fighter.  Later, Grumman began 
work on projects G-63 and G-71, which were both small single-jet 
designs.  This was soon followed by the G-68, which was a single seat 
fighter to be powered by a TG-100 turboprop.  However, none of these 
wartime projects attracted very much enthusiasm, and all of them were 
abandoned almost as soon as they were begun.  

Serious Grumman work on jet-powered fighter aircraft did not really 
get underway until after the war was over.  The G-75 was a postwar 
project begun by Grumman in September of 1945 in response to a Navy 
Request For Proposals for a two-seat radar-equipped jet-powered 
carrier-based night fighter.  The G-75 was to be capable of flying at 
speeds of 500 mph and at altitudes of 40,000 feet and was supposed to 
be able to detect the presence of enemy aircraft at ranges as great as 
125 miles.  The G-75 looked very much like a jet-powered F7F Tigercat, 
and was to be powered by four 3000 lb.s.t.  Westinghouse 24C-4B 
turbojets mounted two each side-by-side in midwing-mounted nacelles.  
A radome was to be mounted in the nose, and the armament was to have 
been four 20-mm cannon.  

Competing proposals from Curtiss, Douglas, and Fleetwings were also 
submitted to the Navy in response to the RFP.  On April 3, 1946, the 
Navy deemed the Douglas proposal as being the best of the lot, and 
ordered three prototypes under the designation XF3D-1.  However, on 
April 11, a Navy contract was issued for the construction of two G-75 
prototypes under the designation XF9F-1 as a backup in case the 
Douglas design did not live up to expectations.  

The XF9F-1 was appreciably larger and heaver than the XF3D-1.  In the 
summer of 1946, further design studies indicated that the Grumman 
design was considerably less promising than the Douglas design, and 
the Navy considered cancelling the XF9F-1 contract altogether.  

This would ordinarily have been the end of the line, but Grumman had 
fortuitously been working on another totally-unrelated project under 
the company designation of G-79 that had been initiated only a month 
before the two XF9F-1 night fighter prototypes had been ordered.  As 
originally conceived, the G-79 was a much smaller single-seat fighter 
powered either by a single centrifugal-flow turbojet fed by wing root 
intakes and exhausting underneath the rear fuselage, by two 
wing-mounted Westinghouse J34 axial-flow turbojets, or by two 
Rolls-Royce Derwent centrifugal-flow turbojets mounted in the wing 
roots.  Alternatively, during the early summer of 1946, Grumman 
proposed the use of a single 5000 lb.s.t.  Rolls-Royce Nene 
centrifugal-flow turbojet which would be built under license in the 
USA as the J42.  In case the J42 ran into unexpected difficulties, the 
4600 lb.s.t.  Allison J33 was considered as a possible alternative, 
since it was about the same size as the Nene but was somewhat less 
powerful.  

Enough interest was generated in this list of projects that the Navy 
was persuaded to amend the XF9F-1 contract rather than cancel it 
outright.  On October 9, 1946, the XF9F-1 contract was amended to 
provide for the construction of three single-seat prototypes (BuNos 
122475/122477), a static test airframe, plus design data for a 
swept-wing version.  By November, the Navy had narrowed its choice of 
powerplant options and specified that two of the G-79 prototypes 
should be completed as XF9F-2 powered by Rolls Royce Nene turbojets 
and that the third should be powered by an Allison J33 turbojet and be 
designated XF9F-3.  

Sources:

    United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911,  Gordon Swanborough and
    Peter M. Bowers, Naval Institute Press, 1990.

    The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.

    Grumman Aircraft Since 1929, Rene J. Francillon, Naval Institute
    Press, 1989.

    American Combat Planes, 3rd Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner,
    Doubleday, 1982.

Joe Baugher			  **************************************
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