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Description
| Manufacturer: | Grumman | |
| Base model: | F11F | |
| Designation: | F11F | |
| Version: | -1F | |
| Nickname: | Tiger | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Navy / Marines | |
| Designation Period: | 1922-1962 | |
| Basic role: | Fighter | |
| Modified Mission: | Special powerplant | |
| See Also: | ||
Specifications
| Not Yet Available |
Known serial numbers
Recent comments by our visitors
| Michael Charleston, SC | The US Navy carrier Yorktown resides in Charleston,
SC. On its flight deck is an F11F-1F, upon which my son had his picture taken (sitting on the wing of the plane) when he was 7 yr old in 1988. In 1961, when I was 7 yr. old I saw my first US Navy Blue Angels flight performance, part of which was actual breaking of the sound barrier as they did "back in that day". As there were only 199 or so of the plane manufactured and they were cycled in and out with fleet active planes, is there any way to determine if the plane on the Yorktown was one that also did some of the "Blue Angel Duty"? Thanks, Michael 04/20/2010 @ 08:09 [ref: 26042] |
| Steve Duncan Kansas City, MO | According to chief Super Tiger test pilot Corky Meyer (his book on the F11F-1F is a very informative read) the full afterburner climb to altitude schedule was accelerate to 500mph pull up to a 30 degree climb angle, maintain 500mph until Mach 0.93 was reached and maintain M 0.93 to altitude. That works out to 22,000 ft per minute. He also stated the climb rate was about 3 times that of the F11F. It should be noted that this was with the original J79-3A Phase 0 engine of 14,250 lbs thrust not the developed 15,600 to 15,800 lbs of the later -7 engines. It would be my guess it could outclimb the F8U Crusader by a fair margin. 12/26/2007 @ 06:44 [ref: 19054] |
| Robert Buenos Aires, VA | Dear Sir:
Rate of climb stated can not be that bad. 8950 feet per minute could be reasonable for a Tiger but not for the Super. I´ve checked with other pages and they seem to be all wrong, perhaps giving the figure in meters and not in Ft. Also, it might be interesting a comparison chart with the F-104G on the matter of climbing,range and payload, as both a/c were competing and had the same engine. Perhaps any available USN report may throw some light on the "SUPER TIGER" dismissal. About the F-104G, although I like the plane a lot, it didn´t fare well in air-to-air combat:i.e. Viet-Nam and Indo-Pak 1971 war.´Thankfully.Robert.- 12/02/2007 @ 19:22 [ref: 18768] |
| Guy E. Franklin Deatsville, AL | The F11F-1F was the designation assigned to a more advanced version of the Tiger that was powered by the General Electric J79 turbojet.
Even before the first flight of the XF9F-9 prototype took place, the Grumman company was already looking into ways in which the performance of the basic design could be improved. One proposal was the G-98A, which involved the use of an afterburning General Electric J73 turbojet. In January of 1954, Grumman considered increasing the wing sweep from 35 degrees to 45 degrees, and redesignated the study as G-98D. Neither aircraft was deemed sufficiently promising to warrant further development. The G-98J study of January 1955 involved the use of the then-new General Electric J79 turbojet, and this project proved to be more promising, so much so that in September of 1955 the Navy authorized the completion of the last two aircraft in the initial F11F-1 contract (BuNos 138646 and 138647) as F11F-2, in which the J65-WE-18 would be replaced by a General Electric YJ79-GE-3 turbojet rated at 9600 lb.s.t. dry and 15,000 lb.s.t. with afterburning. In order to accommodate the increased engine thrust that was now available, the air intakes were extended forward somewhat and were increased in area. This increased engine power promised a significant improvement in performance, so much so that the aircraft came to be known as Super Tiger. The first flight of the F11F-2 took place on May 25, 1956. Ten days later, 138646 achieved a speed of Mach 1.44, even though it was still fitted with a lower-rated J79 engine. Several changes were introduced during flight test, including a 13 1/2 inch extension in the rear fuselage, the addition of 60-degree wing root fillets, and the introduction of a fully-rated J79 engine. On May 2, 1957, Grumman test pilot John Norris took 138647 to a maximum speed of Mach 2.04 and a maximum altitude of 80,250 feet. On April 16, 1958, LtCdr George Watkins set an official world altitude record of 76,831 feet with 138647. Impressive though the performance was, the Navy concluded that the Super Tiger was too heavy for service aboard aircraft carriers and decided not to order the Super Tiger into production. The designation of the F11F-2 was then changed to F11F-1F, the "F" suffix indicating that the aircraft were F11F-1s with special powerplant modifications. 01/08/2007 @ 10:18 [ref: 15134] |
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