XF-90 now on display at NMUSAF

[Thomas_Mac]

Per a post on the weird wings subreddit I see the NMUSAF recently put their XF-90 on display. I was unfamiliar with the type but sounds like this airframe has led quite the life!
The pictures aren't mine so I didn't feel right hosting the pics here. They can viewed here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_XF-90

In 2003, the heavily damaged hulk was recovered from the Nevada test site and moved there. It is currently undergoing minor restoration in one of the Museum's restoration facility hangars. Its wings have been removed, and its nose is mangled from the nuclear blasts. During the decontamination process, all the rivets had to be removed to remove radioactive sand. At present, the museum plans to display the XF-90 in its damaged, mostly unrestored condition, to demonstrate the effects of nuclear weaponry.[6]

[mazdaP5]

Interesting, I can hardly wait to see it.

[JohnB]

Neat. I have been waiting for it to go on display for years.
Too bad there isn't more of it.

It's one of those types that have had more plastic expended in the production of model kits of it than the weight of the materials used in its construction.

[BK]

Saw it a few times a decade ago while taking the restoration hangar tours. The plan all along was to display it as is.

[Steve Nelson]

We were there a couple weeks ago, and they were in the process of setting up the new display. I didn't take any pics, but it looks like it might be interesting. I am kinda glad they hauled it out of the barn.

SN

[Snake45]

It's one of those types that have had more plastic expended in the production of model kits of it than the weight of the materials used in its construction.

Really? Only "mainstream" kit I'm aware of is the ancient Aurora, which hasn't been made in well over 50 years and is now a "holy grail" kit in Model Airplane Collector World. (I found mine in a San Antonio hobby shop in 1972, and it was ultra-rare even then--I couldn't believe my good luck.) There MIGHT have been an obscure vacform of it somewhere along the line.

FWIW, as a child of the '50s, the F-90 was what I always thought a "jet fighter" should look like. The F-90, and the F4D Skyray.

[airnutz]

(I found mine in a San Antonio hobby shop in 1972, and it was ultra-rare even then--I couldn't believe my good luck.)

Snake, that wouldn't have happened to have been that old hobby shop down on Broadway in Alamo Heights was it? The one that had a Helldiver painted on one of its outside walls facing the street?

[Snake45]

(I found mine in a San Antonio hobby shop in 1972, and it was ultra-rare even then--I couldn't believe my good luck.)

Snake, that wouldn't have happened to have been that old hobby shop down on Broadway in Alamo Heights was it? The one that had a Helldiver painted on one of its outside walls facing the street?

I don't remember much about it. I was there for tech school and would go to town every Saturday morning to buy magazines at the big newsstand (Globe?) and maybe a ZZ Top album at Joske's (across the street from the Alamo). Near the end of my stay I looked up hobby shops in the phone book and found this one. IIRC it was maybe three or four or five blocks away from the Alamo. It was in an old building, I don't remember much else about it. Does that sound like the place you mean?

Later I found another hobby shop in a "new" mall about a mile outside the base (Lackland). I bought a Hawk P-51D there--Hawk had gone out of business a couple years before and I'd been buying up all the Hawk kits I could find in my hometown, specializing in the P-51Ds, Bearcats, P-47s, and F-104s. The F-84s, Banshees, and Mr. Mulligans were already extinct. I still have quite a few of those kits, still in their original cellophane wraps with their original $1.00 price tags on them. (Testor, of course, would eventually reissue nearly the whole Hawk catalog.)

[lucky52]

Dibbles?

[airnutz]

3 or 4 blocks from the Alamo? Nope, not it Snake. North of the Zoo and Witte, single story from 40's or 50's, small strip center. White front on either side of glass storefront windows with 6 foot Helldiver painted on one of the white sides. Behind it was a multi-level school with stainless steel tubes from each floor leading to the ground level which were the fire escape slides. Oh well thanks for the memory bank indulgence.

[JohnB]

It's one of those types that have had more plastic expended in the production of model kits of it than the weight of the materials used in its construction.

Really? Only "mainstream" kit I'm aware of is the ancient Aurora, which hasn't been made in well over 50 years and is now a "holy grail" kit in Model Airplane Collector World. (I found mine in a San Antonio hobby shop in 1972, and it was ultra-rare even then--I couldn't believe my good luck.) There MIGHT have been an obscure vacform of it somewhere along the line.

You are forgetting the old Hawk F-90, a kit that makes the Aurora kit look common.
But in its time, it was often seen.

My point was, the F-90 and X-3 (with very long produced kits by Lindberg and Revell) are more famous for their accomplishments in the realm of plastic models than their exploits in real life.

Again, my humorous musings was simply, if you were to weigh the amount of plastic used in all the kits produced, that would likely outweigh the real aircraft.

With a Lindberg kit that that was still in production not all that long ago, the XF-88 could probably also be added to the list.

Then there is long list of aircraft types which may not meet my weight standard, but are overly represented as model kits compared to the numbers built, usefulness to their operators or service life. I would think the F4D Skyray would be on that list.

[Hooligan2]

Was it the XF-90 that Ben Rich described as "that sucker was built!"

[sandiego89]

My point was, the F-90 and X-3 (with very long produced kits by Lindberg and Revell) are more famous for their accomplishments in the realm of plastic models than their exploits in real life.

........Again, my humorous musings was simply, if you were to weigh the amount of plastic used in all the kits produced, that would likely outweigh the real aircraft.

With a Lindberg kit that that was still in production not all that long ago, the XF-88 could probably also be added to the list.

Then there is long list of aircraft types which may not meet my weight standard, but are overly represented as model kits compared to the numbers built, usefulness to their operators or service life. I would think the F4D Skyray would be on that list........

Agree on the XF-88 and X-3. Lindburg in particular seemed to have a knack for cool looking (but not especially successful) subjects that are still evocative today.

Perhaps a few others as model kits that seem to have outshined their actual service:

- Snark Missile- dismal failure as a missile, but neat, long run kit.
- Convair Pogo. Still a neat aircraft.
- Atomic Cannon
- Spruce Goose
- Flying JEEP

[maxum96]

Was it the XF-90 that Ben Rich described as "that sucker was built!"

Yes

[Snake45]

Agree on the XF-88 and X-3. Lindburg in particular seemed to have a knack for cool looking (but not especially successful) subjects that are still evocative today.

Lindberg was on the "cutting edge" in those days and kitted quite a few prototypes where the production version included noticeable changes, and they never updated the molds. Right off the top of my head:

*XF4D
*XF-104
*YF-100
*XF7U
*XF8U

The XF-88 and Convair Pogo and X-3 were of course evolutionary dead ends so those kits were as good as it was gonna get.

And it's a shame that their P-47N and F4U-5 and F-86A weren't just a leeeeeeetle bit better, as it would be decades before those would be properly kitted again--and the F-86A still hasn't been to this day.

And except for the greenhouse, their big TBM is an amazingly nice kit, even today.