by Ron Peterka, NASA no. 869
Over the years, because the aircraft produced by the Grumman Corp. were so tough, the company earned the nickname of "The Ironworks". Not all their aircraft were completely successful though. The Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket is one design that didn't go as well as the company would have liked, yet, because of its unusual configuration, has a personality all its own.
Grumman had built a series of biplane fighters bought by the Army and the Navy until just before WWII. There was the F1F, the F2F and F3F, all biplanes. There was also a number of amphibians including a biplane called the 'Duck' and the famous twin-engine 'Goose' and Widgeon'. It was the end of the biplane era and in 1936 even the Navy could see a need for an all-metal single-seat monoplane fighter for shipboard operations. The Navy placed an order with Brewster Aviation but, hedged their bet by ordering a biplane XF4F-1 model from Grumman.
The XF4F-1 turned out to be not much faster or better than the F3F's it was intended to replace, so the Navy changed the specifications to a monoplane fighter designated XF4F-2 which in turn was inferior to the Brewster competition. War was imminent and the Navy placed an initial order with Brewster and sent the prototype XF4F-2 back to Grumman for improvements which eventually led to the "Wildcat" F4F fighter.
In all the turmoil, Leroy Grumman decided that what the Navy really needed was a twin-engine fighter. It would have the radial engines the Navy demanded and would have a revolutionary design. The result is the aircraft known as the 'Skyrocket' and designated XF5F-1. The Skyrocket was accepted as a prototype, and in 1940 flight testing began.
Testing was a problem for Grumman and the Navy. At the Navy's insistence, Grumman made change after change but problems persisted. Poor visibility while landing, engine overheating, and a request by the Navy to lower the cockpit were only a few of the troubles plaguing this plane. Only one skyrocket was built. In 1944, after the landing gear collapsed once again, the prototype was scrapped.
The XF5F-1 was replaced by an 'improved' version designated XP-50 with tricycle landing gear, equipped with self sealing gas tanks, and some pilot armor.
The new Skyrocket came in second in the fly-offs for lucrative Military contracts. To top everything off the new aircraft blew a turbo-charger and destroyed the one and only XP-50 in flight. It wasn't a total loss for Grumman, however, since the company went on to produce a successful twin-engined fighter know as the F7F "Tigercat".
The color scheme would be pretty easy, with all aluminum surfaces and a colorful roundel star on each wing surface, the only other detail would be black stenciled numbers and lettering. I have not yet been able to get accurate specifications for the full size aircraft, but, a good model could be built by scaling up one of the three view versions shown here. Plans are available for 0.25 sized engines and another has shown up in the magazines powered by a couple of Zenoah G62's.