Northrop F-89J 'Scorpion' | Planes of Fame Air Museum

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Northrop F-89J 'Scorpion'

HISTORY

Development of the Scorpion began in 1945, in response to a USAAF requirement for an aircraft to replace the P-61 Black Widow. The F-89 was the first jet-powered American all-weather interceptor. It was a twin-engine air- craft, with a crew of two, featuring a large mid-mounted wing. The aircraft was the first to incorporate 'decelerons,' split ailerons that could be deployed to act as aerial brakes. The shape of the tail, with its high-mounted horizontal stabilizer, evoked the name "Scorpion."
The XP-89 prototype flew from Northrop's Hawthorne, CA facility for the first time on 16 August 1948. The first production F-89A entered USAF service in September 1950, with upgrades to the -B and -C models following rapidly. A series of mid-air wing failures revealed structural problems, resulting in rework of all of the early airframes.
The F-89D was the major production model of the Scorpion, with 682 being built. The 4-canon armament of the earlier models was replaced by 104 2.75-in. Folding Fin Aerial Rockets (FFARs, 52 on each side) mounted in large pods on the wing tips.
The -E, -F, and -G models of the Scorpion were paper studies only. The F-89H had redesigned wingtip pods, each of which carried 3 GAR-1 or -2 Falcon missiles on retract- able launchers and 21 FFARs.
The final variant, the F-89J, was created by modifying 350 existing F-89Ds to replace the wingtip rocket pods with large fuel tanks and installing a pylon under each wing to mount a MB-1 Genie nuclear air-to-air missile. An F-89J test fired a live Genie on 19 July 1957, the first and only aircraft to do so. F-89Js served with the Air Defense Command until 1959, then with the Air National Guard until 1969.
First aircraft designed as an all-weather interceptor and the first equipped with guided missiles and air-to-air nuclear weapons (photo not of the museum's aircraft).