F9F (Family)

Vehicles

Rank V

• F9F-2 Panther
• F9F-5 Panther

Rank VI

• F9F-8 Cougar

F9F/F-9 Panther

Development and Design

At Grumman, studies for the development of a jet-powered fighter aircraft began towards the end of World War 2. On 3 April 1946, the Douglas F3D Skyknight was selected over the Grumman G-75 in a competition for a jet-powered night fighter for the US Navy. Despite losing the competition, the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) still contracted Grumman for two prototypes of the G-75 on 11 April 1946. The BuAer designation for the G-75 was XF9F-1, and it was developed as a backup to the F3D Skyknight (in case the F3D project was unsuccessful).

Grumman soon realized that the G-75 was not going to be a successful design, and the project was ended in favor of the G-79 project. BuAer decided not to cancel the G-75 project as they normally would have, but instead changed the contract to two prototypes of the G-79. The G-79 was designated as the XF9F-2 by the Navy. The XF9F-2 prototype first flew on 21 November 1947, and it was powered by the Pratt & Whitney J42; the J42 was a license-built Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene engine, which was chosen over the Allison J33 and Westinghouse J34. There was no space in the wings of the aircraft for fuel tanks, so the fuel tanks were built on the wingtips of the plane. The wingtip fuel tanks increased the rate of roll of the aircraft, a pleasant side effect.

In September of 1949, the XF9F-2 Panther was cleared for carrier operations, but before production began Grumman decided to change the engine to a Pratt & Whitney J48-P-2 (license-built Rolls-Royce RB.44 Tay). During the development, the Allison J33-A-16 was also tested. The aircraft was armed with four 20 mm cannons, which was the standard calibre used by the Navy; the Air Force was still using 12.7 mm heavy machine guns. Hardpoints were added that allowed for rocket pods or 2,000 pounds of bombs to be carried.

The Australian Government considered the F9F Panther in 1949 as a replacement for the Mustang Mk 23 and de Havilland Vampire which were used by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) at the time. They also considered the CAC CA-23 - an Australian design, and the Hawker P.1081. It was seen in the mid 1950's that the RAAF Mustangs were vulnerable to the North Korean MiG-15 jet fighters, so a stop-gap design was chosen - the Gloster Meteor F.8. The Meteor F.8 began operations with the RAAF in 1951, but it was also unsatisfactory in the Korean War against MiG-15 fighters; the Meteor F.8 was replaced by the CAC Sabre in 1954, which was an improved model of the F-86 Sabre with a more powerful engine.

Service

US Navy

The Panther was the main US Navy and Marine Corps fighter aircraft during the Korean War; it flew a total of 78,000 sorties during the war. Panthers of the -2, -3, and -5 versions were able to carry out ground attack missions, even despite heavy anti-aircraft fire. In comparison to earlier propeller-driven planes, pilots saw the air conditioned cockpit as a huge improvement, which were often hot and humid during flight.

Lieutenant, Jr. Grade Leonard H. Plog of VF-51 was the first US Navy pilot to score an air-to-air victory during the Korean War. He shot down a Soviet-built Yak-9 propeller-driven fighter in his F9F-3 Panther on 3 July 1950. In comparison to the MiG-15, the F9F Panther was relatively slow. Despite this, the F9F was able to achieve seven MiG-15 kills during the war, while only losing 2 Panthers. During a UN attack on the Sinuiju bridges (near the mouth of the Yalu River) on 9 November 1950, an F9F-2B Panther flown by Lieutenant Commander William Amen of VF-111 achieved the first MiG-15 kill by a Panther. On 18 November 1950, two more MiG-15 fighters were shot down. During a series of strikes on the port of Hoeryong, North Korea, Lt Royce Williams of VF-781 shot down four MiG-15 jet fighters on 18 November 1952 while flying an F9F Panther. At the time VF-781 was operating off of the USS Oriskany. The MiG-15s were intercepted because of intelligence from the US National Security Agency (NSA). The encounter lasted only 35 minutes, as Williams had lost track of his wingman and ended up in a dogfight with six enemy MiGs. He shot down four of them - all four of which were piloted by Soviet Naval Aviation pilots - and then returned to the USS Oriskany. Once Williams landed it was found that his Panther had been hit by 263 cannon rounds and was unable to be repaired.

F9F-5 Panthers of the Blue Angels flight demonstration team over Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, 9 January 1954.

Neil Armstrong, who would later become the first man to walk on the Moon, flew an F9F Panther during the Korean War. In 1951, Neil Armstrong's Panther struck a wire that had been strung across a valley by the North Korean military, and he had to eject from the aircraft. Red Sox player Ted Williams flew an F9F during the Korean War as well, and so did John Glenn - a future astronaut who would become the first American to orbit the Earth.

In 1956, the F9F was removed from front-line service, and it was only used as a training aircraft until 1958 in the US Naval Air Reserves and US Marine Air Reserve units. Starting in 1951, the F9F Panther became the main aircraft of the US Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team; the Blue Angels used the Panther/Cougar for four years, and it was the first jet to be used by the Blue Angels. A small number of F9F Panthers were used into the early 1960's, and after the Tri-Service aircraft designation system of 1962 any remaining F9F aircraft were redesignated as the F-9 Panther.

Note: The specifics of the F9F Panther and Cougar in Blue Angels service will be covered in the F9F Cougar section of this page.

Argentine Naval Aviation

The only nation to purchase the F9F Panther was Argentina. The Argentine Naval Aviation purchased 28 ex-USN F9F-2B aircraft in 1957, with 22 entering service and the remaining 6 used as spares. The Argentine F9F Panther first flew in December 1958, and the last Panther entered service in January 1961. Initially, the Panthers operated only from land, as the ARA Independencia (the only Argentine aircraft carrier) did not have strong enough catapults to launch them. The first landing of an F9F Panther on the ARA Independencia was in July of 1963.

The Argentine Panthers saw combat during the 1963 Argentine Navy Revolt, notably strafing and bombing the Army 8th Tank Regiment while it was moving towards the Punta Indio Naval Air Base (along with AT-6 Texans and F4U Corsairs). The attack left a number of M4 Sherman tanks destroyed, 9 dead and 22 wounded; only 1 F9F was destroyed, with two other attacking planes destroyed as well. The Argentine Panthers were also mobilized during the border clash with Chile in 1965, but no armed conflict occurred. The F9F Panthers were removed from service in 1969 because of a lack of spare parts; they were replaced by A-4Q Skyhawks. The Argentine Navy also operated the later F9F Cougar.

Variants

XF9F-1: The proposed model for the night-fighter competition, with four wing-mounted jet engines. The Grumman designation was G-75; none built.

XF9F-2: The prototype for the F9F-2 Panther. It featured a Pratt & Whitney J42 turbojet engine, and the Grumman designation was G-79; two built.

F9F-2: The first production model of the F9F Panther, based on the XF9F-2; 567 built.

F9F-2B: An upgrade of the existing F9F-2 Panthers, equipped with underwing hardpoints for bombs and rockets. All F9F-2 aircraft were upgraded to this standard, and the B designation was dropped afterwards; 567 converted.

F9F-2P: Photo-reconnaissance variant, with the four 20 mm cannons removed and replaced with photographic equipment; 36 built.

XF9F-3: Prototype fitted with the Allison J33 engine; one built.

F9F-3 (F-9B): Production model equipped with the J33 engine; 54 built. All F9F-3 were later fitted with the standard J42 engine.

XF9F-4: Prototype with a lengthened fuselage and increased fuel capacity, and powered by the J33 engine; two built.

F9F-4 (F-9C): Production model of the XF9F-4, retaining the lengthened fuselage, increased fuel capacity, and J33 engine. They had blown-air slot flaps in order to reduce the stall speed; 109 ordered, all completed as F9F-5.

F9F-5 (F-9D): F9F-4 aircraft refitted with the Pratt & Whitney J48 engine; 616 built.

F9F-5P (RF-9D): Photo-reconnaissance variant, with the four 20 mm cannons removed and replaced with photographic equipment in an elongated nose; 36 built.

F9F-5K (QF-9D): F9F-5s converted to unmanned target drone aircraft after being withdrawn from operational service.

F9F-5KD (DF-9E): F9F-5Ks converted to drone control aircraft.

Operators

• Argentina
  • Argentine Navy
    • Argentine Naval Aviation
• United States
  • United States Navy (USN)
  • United States Marine Corps (USMC)

F9F/F-9 Cougar

Design and Development

The Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter jet was first seen at air shows in 1949, and it was the first swept-wing fighter jet of the Soviet Union. The US Navy did not focus on the designing of swept-wing fighters at the time, because the focus was on interceptors - which would intercept enemy bombers and would escort friendly bombers. This changed in 1951 - mainly because of the superiority of the MiG-15 in the Korean War, and a contract for a swept wing fighter was awarded to Grumman.

The prototypes for the new swept-wing fighter were created from F9F Panthers, and they were designated as the XF9F-6. The new aircraft - which would be named the Cougar, was still not capable of supersonic speeds, but it had a much greater performance than the earlier F9F Panther. Notably, the Cougar used spoilers instead of ailerons for roll control. The spoilers extended from the wing fences to the wing tips. Also, the rudder pedals only controlled the part of the rudder below the horizontal tail surface, while the upper rudder was controlled by a yaw damper; this allowed the F9F Cougar to fly relatively well if the upper portion of the tail was shot off, or lost by some other means.

Service

US Navy

At the end of 1952, the first F9F-6 Cougars were assigned to VF-32, but the Cougar was first deployed with VF-24 from the USS Yorktown in August 1953; the Cougar arrived too late to see combat in the Korean War. The Cougar was retired from front-line service between 1958 and 1959, but it served with the Naval Reserves into the 1960's. The Cougar was replaced mostly by the F11F Tiger and F8U Crusader. Despite their continued usage with the Naval Reserves, the standard combat, single-seat Cougars did not participate in the Vietnam War.

The TF-9J (renamed from F9F-8T in 1962) trainer version of the Cougar, on the other hand, did see service during the Vietnam War. Four Cougars at a time served at Da Nang with US Marines Headquarters and Maintenance Squadron 11 (H&MS-11) and Chu Lai with H&MS-13. They were used in the airborne command and forward air control roles, directing air strikes against enemy positions between 1966 and 1968. The TF-9J two-seat trainer variant was used until February 1974, when Training Squadron 4 (VT-4) was re-equipped with the TA-4F Skyhawk trainer variant - the plane that replaced the Cougar in the training role.

Transcontinental Speed Record

On 1 April 1954, the F9F Cougar set the transcontinental speed record. Three F9F-6 Cougars of VF-21 flew 2,438 miles across the continental United States in under four hours. The fastest time was achieved by LCDR F.X. Brady setting the fastest time, coming in at 3 hours, 45 minutes, and 30 seconds. That flight was the first to cross the US in under four hours. While flying over Kansas the three planes completed an aerial refueling from an AJ Savage, using a new and experimental refueling probe mounted on the nose.

Blue Angels

The Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team flew four different versions of the F9F from 1951 to 1957. They first used the F9F-2 Panther, but it was replaced by the F9F-5 Panther, which was used from until 1953, when it was replaced by the F9F-6 Cougar. The F9F-6 Cougars were soon called to service with the fleet before they had even been used at an air show, and the F9F-5 Panther was used once again. In 1954, the F9F-5 Panthers were replaced with the F9F-8 Cougar, which was used until 1957. In 1957 the F9F-8 Cougar was phased out in favor of the F11F-1 Tiger, but one F9F-8T two-seat training aircraft was used for VIP and press flights.

Argentine Naval Aviation

The only nation other than the United States to use the F9F Cougar was Argentina, which had also operated the earlier F9F Panther. In 1962, two F9F-8T training aircraft were purchased, and they served until 1971. In Argentina, the F9F Cougar was the first aircraft to break the sound barrier and reach the speed of sound. One of the two aircraft is on display at the Naval Aviation Museum at Bahía Blanca, while the other was sold to a United States citizen but was destroyed in an accident in 1991.

Variants

XF9F-6: Prototypes based on the F9F-5 with a swept wing design; 3 built.

F9F-6 (F-9F): Production version of the XF9F-6, retaining the swept wing design; 646 built.

F9F-6P (RF-9J): Photo-reconnaissance variant, with the four 20 mm cannons removed and replaced with photographic equipment; 60 built.

F9F-6D (DF-9F): Conversion of F9F-6 Cougars to drone director aircraft.

F9F-6K (QF-9F): Conversion of F9F-6 aircraft to unmanned drone targets for training purposes.

F9F-6K2 (QF-9G): Improved version of the F9F-6K target drone.

F9F-6PD (DF-9F): Conversion of F9F-6P aircraft to drone director aircraft.

F9F-7 (F-9H): Improved version with an Allison J33 engine; 168 built; most later upgraded with the Pratt & Whitney J48 engine.

F9F-8 (F-9J): Improved version with an elongated fuselage, redesigned wing, strengthened cockpit canopy, in-air refueling probe, increased fuel capacity, and AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile (AAM) capability; 601 built.

YF9F-8B (YAF-9J): Prototype attack-aircraft version, converted from F9F-8; one converted.

F9F-8B (AF-9J): Conversion of F9F-8B aircraft to ground attack fighters.

F9F-8P (RF-9F): Photo-reconnaissance variant, with the four 20 mm cannons removed and replaced with photographic equipment; 110 built.

YF9F-8T (YTF-9J): Prototype two-seat training aircraft; one built.

F9F-8T (TF-9J): Production version of the YF9F-8 two-seat training aircraft, retaining the armament of four 20 mm cannons; 377 built.

NTF-9J: TF-9J airframes used for testing purposes; two built.

YF9F-9: Designation of the F11F-1 Tiger aircraft prototypes,which first flew on 30 July 1954, and was redesignated in April 1955.

Operators

• Argentina
  • Argentine Navy
    • Argentine Naval Aviation
• United States
  • United States Navy (USN)
  • United States Marine Corps (USMC)