My USN advanced jet training squadron was flying F9F-8 Cougars when I came aboard in early 1969. We flew both one and two-seat variants both still powered by centrifugal flow engines. They were built hell-for-stout which enabled them to keep flying despite the sometimes awful student landings. A couple of years later we transitioned to A-4s. I still have the Remove Before Flight pennant from the last Cougar we flew off. She wasn't coming back for it.
Watching it on my mobile at Belgowan South Australia, after a 48 km hike from Moonta Bay. Your voice is making my hurting feet feel a lot better for some reason.
Regarding end of service life: From Wikipedia: "During 1956, the Panther was withdrawn from frontline combat service, having been displaced by new fighter aircraft, including its swept-wing Cougar derivative. However, the type remained active in secondary roles, such as for training and with U.S. Naval Air Reserve and U.S. Marine Air Reserve units, until 1958. .... Some Panthers continued to serve in small numbers into the 1960s." I know, not the best source, but this one seems good researched and it´s just quick and easy. Also, no criticism intended, just wanted to mention the year 1958 as the main date. Quite a few ended up as target drones and some went to Argentinia second hand, the only foreign user. Love your channel, keep up the great work! Early Cold War is my main aviation interest beside WWII. Please do F-101 (maybe one video about A and C and another one on the B interceptor) and Saab Draken (I find it really impressive that Sweden is the only country beside the four major WWII allied powers that has continuously produced state of the art jet fighters since the late 40´s).
I remember posting a comment about a year or so ago on another aviation channel, to the effect that while I've long been pretty familiar with development of hot jets in the 70s and 80s (the ones that were still in service or about to retire as I was growing up) I've long had a blind spot in my knowledge of Gen 1 and Gen 2 fighters and attack aircraft, early naval jets in particular. A couple of months later, up pops this great channel with a slew of excellent documentaries on that very subject!
They’re the most beautiful, with curved lines and elegant tails ends. The Hawker Hunter is gen.2 and shows this in wing and tail plan, with fillets to adjoining elements.
@@fredeagle3912 I've seen a Hunter in person at Fighter World, New South Wales, located just outside Newcastle airport/RAAF Willamtown airbase. It is indeed a very sleek and purposeful looking aircraft. I really like look of the triangular intakes in the wing roots, which I believe was first seen on the Vampire but persisted (in modified form) through several later Gen 2/Gen 3 aircraft like the Vulcan and the Thunderchief before the move to larger slab/ramp style intakes. The tail plans of these early jets, especially many of the carrier based fighter/interceptors, are some of the most elegant "looks good, is good" designs in aviation history, even though they were eventually replaced by more efficient configurations. Fighterworld's Hawker Hunter (F74S RSAF 546) is now on loan to the Hunter Fighter Collection Museum; "Hunter" refers to the Hunter Valley region of central NSW, not the airframe. They have a nice little collection up there, I'm planning to go for a visit with the camera soon. :)
@@fredeagle3912 I've actually seen a Hawker Hunter in the metal, an ex Royal Singaporean Air Force airframe that was purchased by an Australian businessman and was donated to Fighter World in New South Wales (located just outside Newcastle Airport which shares its main runway with RAAF Base Williamtown). It really is wonderfully sleek and elegant looking aeroplane. I particularly like the look of the triangular intakes in the wing roots. By pleasant coincidence, the aircraft is now on loan from Fighter World to the Hunter Fighter Collection Museum (referring to the Hunter Valley region of central NSW), so it's now living out its time as a Hunter in the Hunter. :)
I got buzzed by two Panther jets while walking on the path between the beach and the "Great Highway" in San Francisco in 1952 or '53. It was great! Pretty sure it was some fighter jocks flying their Panthers into Alameda NAS from a carrier returning from duty during the Korean War.
Aurora models box art. Love it. I'm 73 and grew up on Naval Air Stations before spending 20 years in myself, 1970-1990 , as an aircraft mechanic . I do remember the Panthers. We lived at at NAS Miramar, Ca., in the early 50s, where my Dad worked in the operations office. I remember sitting in one at an airshow. I was probably about 5 at the time. I did build the Aurora model that had the same box art.
Born in Coronado, and grew up in Clairemont, not far from where Albert Hickman crashed the Demon to avoid going into Hawthorne Elementary School.. You were there a bit before me, however I attended MANY of the NAS Miramar Air Shows during the 1970's, early 1980's. Like you, I love the old Aurora box art, and built several Aurora kits back in the day. They were very simple, but always finished up as a nice, scale model worthy of display. All the best to you my friend!
I spent my childhood poring over books and memorizing technical data about all sorts of military vehicles. I was told to put that away because it's nerdy and it will never amount to anything. No sympathy, I'm fine, but it makes me happy to know that generations of girls and boys who like weird esoteric shit never have to feel alone anymore. Someone is more nerdy about a subject than them and there's a community of like minds. For all it's fault, bless the internet and bless you, thanks for the content.
My life long dream is to basically have detailed blueprints for every single aircraft that was ever made from 1930 to 1990. Not only to model them in 3d and have them in my favorite flight sim, but also to preserve history so we know exactly what these aircrafts look like and how they were built. Also, scale modeling and CFD analysis 🤤
Another fine example of the "Grumman Iron Works" build philosophy, tough, reliable planes to bring their pilots home , even missing bits of wing, holes in the tail, even on fire !. The spirit of WW2 Grumman Wildcat and Hellcats were strong here . !
Greatly influenced by Men of the Fighting Lady and Bridges of Toko-Ri, the Panther has always been one of my favorite aircraft. Thanks for featuring her on the channel.
IIRC, Ted Williams was actually too big to safely eject from the Panther, but being a fighter he talked his way into the aircraft. He probably would not have survived ejecting, since his legs would have been mangled, if not amputated outright by the instrument panel.
Early ejection seats used a blank 37mm shell to blast the crew clear... the thing about that is... It's just a tube of boom... unlike a solid rocket motor that can be packed to provide a (comparatively speaking) "measured" acceleration force over time... When a shell fires you get ALL of the impulse RIGHT THE FUCK NOW. Honestly, I'd ride a rocket seat for shits and giggles. Seriously. I'd ride that fucker for free right now, gimme a helmet, a well packed chute and saddle me up. Helluva carnival ride, right? a seat using a blank cannon shell ? Yeah... fuck that. You'd have to pay me to voluntarily take that ride. Like high seven figures at least. 0 to HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK?! in .10 of a second.
@paulmanson253 IRRC, skyraiders used what they called a "traction rocket" ejection seat, it was a rocket motor that fired separate from the seat, which pulled the seat up a track and out on some sort of teather So the rocket motor would have a softer start, and the teather that attached it to the seat probably had some sort of dynamic stretch built into it so it would take some of the initial shock as it came taught.
Thank-you for this excellent video. My father flew F9f-5s off of the Tarawa on a round the world cruise in 1954. I remember him leaving from Jax NAS to join the carrier, only to have to return because he took the car keys. Oh well, a bit more flight time, he always liked that. I have some of his log books and instruction manuals.
Wonderful video! This arrived much sooner than I expected, and it's a very well done look at one of my favorite jets. Looking forward to further videos that may go further into the respective McDonnell and Grumman lineages going up through the Cold War.
My dad serviced Panthers on the Princeton during the Korean war. They've always held a place in my heart. Neat plane. I later became and A&P, though never worked on military aircraft, but I've come to appreciate the technology and resourcefulness of folks from that era. I've watched more than a dozen documentaries on the Panthers/Cougars, and I'm pretty sure in several it's said that Grumman proposed the swept wing but it was the military that rejected the idea (as opposed to what you reported here). Are you sure about that? That detail caught me off guard. Regardless, excellent documentary. Thanks so much.
Wow! I immediately recognized your thumbnail photo as being the box art from the old Aurora Model Co., Grumman F9F Panther, 1/48 scale, plastic model kit. It was one of Aurora's first plastic models along with their Lockheed XF-90 kit from the mid 1950s (allegedly, both were copied from the Hawk Model Co. kits of the same aircraft leading to some legal action on the part of Hawk against Aurora). Interesting, detailed story on the iconic, U.S. Navy Panther and thanks for sharing!
At 67 now, I have been building models since I was about 10. I've built many a Panther kit. I remember the old Aurora kits, but today's kits are so much better detailed, but some older kits are still available. The old 1/48 Academy kit of the Panther is still found today.
The XF-90 was a stunner of an aircraft, absolutely beautiful. Too bad it was underpowered and there aren't any intact examples left today. Just part of one that got wrecked in a nuke test.
My favorite Grumman plane is the Cougar, the swept wing version of the F9F Panther. I saw both of them fly at an air show at Grummans Calverton plant in 1967. My dad and brother worked at Grumman, and took me for my birthday. The Blue Angels were flying the F11 Tiger. Also made by Grumman.
Then you have no imagination. A good test pilot is USUALLY extremely knowlegeable about aerodynamic...otherwise they'd be to uncertain to perform effectively. It's not G.I. Joe cartoon/comic book shit. It's a serious business and despite what some would have you believe, they don't choose expendable idiots for test pilots.
@@craigwall9536 So instead of just trying to enlighten me you decided to be abusive. I suppose you think that makes a big man by doing that but truth is is just make you small and petty
In its Dash 2 iteration, the Panther is simply the most beautiful jet aircraft ever built IMHO. Even the Dash 5 scrubs up nicely. Thank you for another excellent presentation.
@shawnmiller4781 I had, in the 1960s as a child a little red plastic toy plane that was the F9 swept wing! Loved that little plastic toy! To me, that is the quintessential fighter plane! So it takes the top spot in my heart!
Corky Meyer’s gun gas flight was much more dramatic than it is made to sound here. The entire nose cone left the plane and the resulting drag almost caused the plane to decelerate below stall speed even at WOT. Only be entering a slight dive was he able to maintain flight. The question was whether he would make landfall before running out of fuel. He did make landfall but for safety he landed at Republic’s airfield.
Also, the only reason he made this flight was that he had never fired a Panther’s guns so the operations honcho scheduled one more flight with Meyer as the lead pilot. He hadn’t been briefed by the engineers which is why he deviated from the specified protocol as detailed in the vid. The engineers were none to happy with him. The full story I found in a GA magazine from the late 70s early 80s.
21:50 My sainted father served on board the Valley Forge, CV-45 as an Aviation Electronics Technician (AT) during the Korea War. The Valley Forge was in port in Japan when North Korea invaded South Korea which explains how they were able to start sending in strikes so soon after the start of the invasion. One year for Christmas (I think I was 5 years old), Santa Claus brought me a G.I. Joe and a jet airplane which was a scaled down version of the F9F Panther (it sort of resembled the Panther. Sort of). Since this was back when G.I. Joe was about the same size as a Barbie doll, the airplane was really big, or so my 5-year old mind thought. At least it was bigger than Barbie's cheesy pink car.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Watch the Bridges of Toko-Ri , you get a nice look of the auxiliary intake doors on the top of the rear fuselage, before Lt. Brubaker lauches off the flight deck, pretty cool !
Really appreciate this video and can't say enough good things about the presentation. Very well done and thorough. Especially enjoy the fact that you back up the drier facts with other commentary that gives a personal aspect to the video, as well. Beautiful balance. This level of work will certainly pay off. It would be a travesty if you didn't make 100K subscribers in the next year.
Another wonderful video, thank you for slaking the thirst of all of us aircraft nerds! I'm sure I don't have to tell you which video comes next.....the Cougar, of course!
Always liked the Panther, it's got a chunky, yet sleek form. Thanks for a very informative video. Packed in a lot of material touching on many aspects of carrier ops. Great documentary!
"North American Aviation got an order for their Fury, which would turn out to be largely useless, and Vaught for the Pirate, which was worse." LOL, nice!
Right! that was great movie.Was a kid in UK and any picture in this vane was much in demand(in colour,jets, helicopters, aircraft carriers it was great stuff!
I have a real soft spot for The Panther as it was one of my first 1/48 scale models jet fighter models. I had a very dated kit and bought a Mig-15 from the same type of kit almost a few days later. Not sure who produced the kit but it was well detailed yet very sparse with few parts. I just liked these kits because they were easy to paint and I was just a little kid at the time. Dark Blue with some yellow for the F-9F and all Silver for the Mig-15. I upgraded considerably when I bought the F-86 kit as it came from the reputable Monogram company. I just recall this being a real golden era for me and Korean Air jets.
I found this video very interesting and informative. I was a kid when the Korean War started, and always liked the design of the Panther. All of Grumman's cats, actually.
Another solid video -- thanks! This is a great example of the Grumman Iron Works, doing what they do best. It's also interesting to me that neither the Panther nor the Banshee saw much in the way of export sales. I'm guessing the performance compromises to operate from carriers made them hard to compete with land-based early jet fighters like the F-86.
Will you please do a series of the forward observation aircraft like the OV-10 Bronco and AO-37 Dragonfly (sometimes known as bait)? Not very sexy but, still key part of the missions during their utilization.
When Grumman test piolit, Corwin, "Corkey " Meyers was doing runway tests here in Bethpage, the Panther unbeknownst to him., got airborne. Grumman had to buy land in Peconic, near Calverton, to fly fighters as the people living in Bethpage and Levittown complained about the noise.
Ted Willams? A name I have not thought about in oh 50 years at least. As a child I had a glove that had Ted Williams signature embossed on it. I wasn't a ball player, and the glove wasn't special, but I can still see the endorsement signature in my memory.
That ability to take damage and keep flying is one of the reasons why Grumman earned the moniker of 'The Iron Works '. Long may they deserve that nickname.
That picture during the phase out narrative was the training command in Pensacola. Both the Panther and the Cougar served their last days as advanced trainers or drones.
One of my faves thanks to The Bridges At Toko-Ri, and I'm pretty sure the only model jet I have built in all three scales (72, 48, and the fantastic Fischer 32nd). My first boss in my engineering career had been a plane handler on the Kearsage during the Korean war...he once described to me that exact scene @10:00.
This plane is one of the first Revell plastic model I built in the mid fiftes, together with other second and third generstion jet fighters. I still have a soft spot for these machines.
A fellow in these comments talked about the 1954 movie The Bridges at Toko Ri. William Holden, Grace Kelly, and the always funny Micky Rooney. The movie featured The Panther. The truth is however that the Panther flew air cover in the real Toko Ri mission, while the Chance Vought F4U Corsair dropped the bombs.
The F9F looks like the stereotypical imagining of what a jet fighter would look like even today, all the moreso in the 1950s and 60s, for people who don't really know or care much about airplanes. It just looks standard (this is a cool thing). It's like the generic jet from a cartoon artist.
I don't think so. That tail and the intakes are very distinctive. The only part of it that looks "typical" is the straight wing and tip tanks. And I don't think there are many people who still visualize a straight wing jet as a typical fighter. The F-80 is a lot more generic looking.
At the very beginning, you mentioned, Grumman built the hellcat and the avenger, and you mentioned them as fighters to the best of my knowledge the avenger was a torpedo bomber
Not to mention they were also building the Wildcat until early 43 before handing it off to GM, Production of the Avenger was handed over to GM in 43 as well.
Great video but a minor point; I believe the first jet-power only landing on a US carrier was by the mixed-power Ryan Fireball in 1945 when one of the early machines suffered a failure of the front-mounted piston engine and, as a result, the pilot landed on jet power only.
The Panther is my favorite naval jet fighter, they just look so good and were a work horse in their own right, sadly I have only been able to see a Cougar so far
Icons from astronauts "John Glenn and Neil Armstrong to MLB-Great "Splendid-Spitter Ted Williams" the introduction of the jet era. Should animate-simulate their combat-missions during the Korean War.
Whoa... 19:16 is a **moment** i ACTUALLY recognize from MIDWAY and HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER!!! I thought it was based on the crash that killed Lt Hultgreen 25 Oct, 1994... now I know.
The Hunt for Red October came out in 1990, a few years before Hultgreen’s fatal accident in 1994. Meanwhile, the old(er) Midway movie came out in 1976, which was before the Tomcat even first flew (in 1979).
For those seeking a good telling of US Navy air ops during Korea, I highly recommend "Holding The Line" by Tom Cleaver. Actually, I recommend any of Tom's books covering air combat since WW2.
As a companion book for "Holding The Line" by Tom Cleaver I also highly recommend "Such Men as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies over Korea" by David Sears.
17 years between Neil Armstrong flying combat missions in Korea and becoming the first human to step on another celestial body. 17 years between the first episode of _Mad Men_ and today 😮 That's just bonkers.
Thanks for the detailed history and perspective, great stuff! William Holden got shot down in it and Mickey Rooney and Earl Holliman were sent in a helo to save him in Korea. BTW, @27:20, that's the first ever jet kill for America and it was from the US Navy, lol.
That footage of the flagger (when did they start using the bats?) reminded me of the reddit post i read the other day with multiple people talking about "waiving off a landing". Apparently none of them know how carrier landings used to work. Or have even seen a guy run out onto a field and wave a pilot away to warn him it's not safe to land. Which is fine but most of them seemed to think they were experts or even ex aviation crew.
I was definitely expecting to see a mention of John Glenn's nickname after showing him next to his battle damaged aircraft. From the wiki page: "He flew 63 combat missions in Korea with VMF-311[42] and was nicknamed "Magnet Ass" because of the number of flak hits he took on low-level close air support missions". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn
9:15 is the engine really that far back it is that just diagramatical? And i thought the USN used regular aviation fuel in their jets in Korea, because it was too difficult to carry both jet and aviation fuel. You got less range but it was worth it. A jet of course will run on any flammable liquid.
Always loved the Panther! I believe it could've lasted longer in service if the company would've gone ahead with sweeping back the wings and improving the engine as it aged.
Wrong. When you DOWNshift, you Down select. When you UPshift, you Up select. "Select" would tell you nothing specific, at a time when a bad choice could mean the difference between jumping over the canyon or INTO it.
in the mid 80's I was assigned to vma 311 we had a panther and corsair in the hanger they were buffing them up I belive to go to the usmc museum I think in New Orleans or Quantico not sure which one or where to be honest
That is indeed kind of sad that none survived to current flying status. Unlike say F-86s and T-33s. Maybe due to numbers built and that they lived fairly tough lives?
"Alternate" - two thing switching turn and turn about (unless you're American) "Careening" - pulling a ship onto its side to clean or repair its hull (unless you're American)
My USN advanced jet training squadron was flying F9F-8 Cougars when I came aboard in early 1969. We flew both one and two-seat variants both still powered by centrifugal flow engines. They were built hell-for-stout which enabled them to keep flying despite the sometimes awful student landings. A couple of years later we transitioned to A-4s. I still have the Remove Before Flight pennant from the last Cougar we flew off. She wasn't coming back for it.
Built for hell? Thats Grumman iron works for you
I fell in love with the Panther after watching the 1954 movie "The Bridges at Toko-Ri"
Me too! What an amazing movie. STILL in my Top Ten Aviation movies list...
A terrific movie but from a flying standpoint, I think Men of the Fighting Lady was even better.
I still remember the line "where do we get such men" Now I ask where we can get such men for these times?
@@peterhessedal8539 Indeed and indeed Peter...
Yes, Sir! Me, as well!
Watching it on my mobile at Belgowan South Australia, after a 48 km hike from Moonta Bay. Your voice is making my hurting feet feel a lot better for some reason.
Now that sounds like the life right there
Western Australia with you Crowland.😁😁
Sunny Coast Qld
Working stiff In Adelaide’s QEH with you too 🇦🇺✌️
Sounds like a grand time
This channel continues to set the standard by which other YT mil aviation videos should be judged. It's a high bar.
Regarding end of service life: From Wikipedia:
"During 1956, the Panther was withdrawn from frontline combat service, having been displaced by new fighter aircraft, including its swept-wing Cougar derivative. However, the type remained active in secondary roles, such as for training and with U.S. Naval Air Reserve and U.S. Marine Air Reserve units, until 1958. .... Some Panthers continued to serve in small numbers into the 1960s."
I know, not the best source, but this one seems good researched and it´s just quick and easy.
Also, no criticism intended, just wanted to mention the year 1958 as the main date. Quite a few ended up as target drones and some went to Argentinia second hand, the only foreign user.
Love your channel, keep up the great work! Early Cold War is my main aviation interest beside WWII.
Please do F-101 (maybe one video about A and C and another one on the B interceptor) and Saab Draken (I find it really impressive that Sweden is the only country beside the four major WWII allied powers that has continuously produced state of the art jet fighters since the late 40´s).
I'll be honest, I never was an airplane or air forces person until your channel. You have made the topic interesting and exceptionally well presented.
Airplanes have kept my interest for 70 yrs. You are lucky to have such a wide array of info at your fingertips.
I remember posting a comment about a year or so ago on another aviation channel, to the effect that while I've long been pretty familiar with development of hot jets in the 70s and 80s (the ones that were still in service or about to retire as I was growing up) I've long had a blind spot in my knowledge of Gen 1 and Gen 2 fighters and attack aircraft, early naval jets in particular.
A couple of months later, up pops this great channel with a slew of excellent documentaries on that very subject!
They’re the most beautiful, with curved lines and elegant tails ends. The Hawker Hunter is gen.2 and shows this in wing and tail plan, with fillets to adjoining elements.
@@fredeagle3912 I've seen a Hunter in person at Fighter World, New South Wales, located just outside Newcastle airport/RAAF Willamtown airbase. It is indeed a very sleek and purposeful looking aircraft. I really like look of the triangular intakes in the wing roots, which I believe was first seen on the Vampire but persisted (in modified form) through several later Gen 2/Gen 3 aircraft like the Vulcan and the Thunderchief before the move to larger slab/ramp style intakes. The tail plans of these early jets, especially many of the carrier based fighter/interceptors, are some of the most elegant "looks good, is good" designs in aviation history, even though they were eventually replaced by more efficient configurations.
Fighterworld's Hawker Hunter (F74S RSAF 546) is now on loan to the Hunter Fighter Collection Museum; "Hunter" refers to the Hunter Valley region of central NSW, not the airframe. They have a nice little collection up there, I'm planning to go for a visit with the camera soon. :)
@@fredeagle3912 I've actually seen a Hawker Hunter in the metal, an ex Royal Singaporean Air Force airframe that was purchased by an Australian businessman and was donated to Fighter World in New South Wales (located just outside Newcastle Airport which shares its main runway with RAAF Base Williamtown). It really is wonderfully sleek and elegant looking aeroplane. I particularly like the look of the triangular intakes in the wing roots. By pleasant coincidence, the aircraft is now on loan from Fighter World to the Hunter Fighter Collection Museum (referring to the Hunter Valley region of central NSW), so it's now living out its time as a Hunter in the Hunter. :)
I got buzzed by two Panther jets while walking on the path between the beach and the "Great Highway" in San Francisco in 1952 or '53. It was great! Pretty sure it was some fighter jocks flying their Panthers into Alameda NAS from a carrier returning from duty during the Korean War.
Aurora models box art. Love it. I'm 73 and grew up on Naval Air Stations before spending 20 years in myself, 1970-1990 , as an aircraft mechanic . I do remember the Panthers. We lived at at NAS Miramar, Ca., in the early 50s, where my Dad worked in the operations office. I remember sitting in one at an airshow. I was probably about 5 at the time. I did build the Aurora model that had the same box art.
Born in Coronado, and grew up in Clairemont, not far from where Albert Hickman crashed the Demon to avoid going into Hawthorne Elementary School.. You were there a bit before me, however I attended MANY of the NAS Miramar Air Shows during the 1970's, early 1980's. Like you, I love the old Aurora box art, and built several Aurora kits back in the day. They were very simple, but always finished up as a nice, scale model worthy of display. All the best to you my friend!
I spent my childhood poring over books and memorizing technical data about all sorts of military vehicles. I was told to put that away because it's nerdy and it will never amount to anything. No sympathy, I'm fine, but it makes me happy to know that generations of girls and boys who like weird esoteric shit never have to feel alone anymore. Someone is more nerdy about a subject than them and there's a community of like minds. For all it's fault, bless the internet and bless you, thanks for the content.
U should play war thunder
You were not alone!
My life long dream is to basically have detailed blueprints for every single aircraft that was ever made from 1930 to 1990.
Not only to model them in 3d and have them in my favorite flight sim, but also to preserve history so we know exactly what these aircrafts look like and how they were built.
Also, scale modeling and CFD analysis 🤤
Hear hear - its nice when t'interweb isnt total shit populated by dickheads. I love this stuff.
That’s me with space launch vehicles lol 😂
Another fine example of the "Grumman Iron Works" build philosophy, tough, reliable planes to bring their pilots home , even missing bits of wing, holes in the tail, even on fire !.
The spirit of WW2 Grumman Wildcat and Hellcats were strong here . !
"Grumman Ironworks". I like that, never heard it before. Noted for future use, cheers. :)
And the customer might be wrong but if he doesn’t like what you’re selling, you don’t make the sale.
Greatly influenced by Men of the Fighting Lady and Bridges of Toko-Ri, the Panther has always been one of my favorite aircraft. Thanks for featuring her on the channel.
Love the way you ended this video, with the silent flyby. Great work on this series. A lot of this footage and photography is new to me.
IIRC, Ted Williams was actually too big to safely eject from the Panther, but being a fighter he talked his way into the aircraft. He probably would not have survived ejecting, since his legs would have been mangled, if not amputated outright by the instrument panel.
Early ejection seats used a blank 37mm shell to blast the crew clear... the thing about that is...
It's just a tube of boom... unlike a solid rocket motor that can be packed to provide a (comparatively speaking) "measured" acceleration force over time...
When a shell fires you get ALL of the impulse RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.
Honestly, I'd ride a rocket seat for shits and giggles. Seriously. I'd ride that fucker for free right now, gimme a helmet, a well packed chute and saddle me up. Helluva carnival ride, right?
a seat using a blank cannon shell ? Yeah... fuck that. You'd have to pay me to voluntarily take that ride. Like high seven figures at least.
0 to HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK?! in .10 of a second.
@@stinkyfungus Yep. With those early boom buckets, back problems were to be expected--far worse than later seats.
Skyraiders used a rocket system. I believe unique to that airplane. Apparently much smoother. And fewer injuries.@@stinkyfungus
@paulmanson253 IRRC, skyraiders used what they called a "traction rocket" ejection seat, it was a rocket motor that fired separate from the seat, which pulled the seat up a track and out on some sort of teather
So the rocket motor would have a softer start, and the teather that attached it to the seat probably had some sort of dynamic stretch built into it so it would take some of the initial shock as it came taught.
@@stinkyfungus Yes, the 'extraction seat'; much lighter and easier install in an aircraft not designed for the heavy, bulky ejection models.
Thank-you for this excellent video. My father flew F9f-5s off of the Tarawa on a round the world cruise in 1954. I remember him leaving from Jax NAS to join the carrier, only to have to return because he took the car keys. Oh well, a bit more flight time, he always liked that. I have some of his log books and instruction manuals.
Wonderful video! This arrived much sooner than I expected, and it's a very well done look at one of my favorite jets. Looking forward to further videos that may go further into the respective McDonnell and Grumman lineages going up through the Cold War.
My dad serviced Panthers on the Princeton during the Korean war. They've always held a place in my heart. Neat plane. I later became and A&P, though never worked on military aircraft, but I've come to appreciate the technology and resourcefulness of folks from that era. I've watched more than a dozen documentaries on the Panthers/Cougars, and I'm pretty sure in several it's said that Grumman proposed the swept wing but it was the military that rejected the idea (as opposed to what you reported here). Are you sure about that? That detail caught me off guard. Regardless, excellent documentary. Thanks so much.
Wow! I immediately recognized your thumbnail photo as being the box art from the old Aurora Model Co., Grumman F9F Panther, 1/48 scale, plastic model kit. It was one of Aurora's first plastic models along with their Lockheed XF-90 kit from the mid 1950s (allegedly, both were copied from the Hawk Model Co. kits of the same aircraft leading to some legal action on the part of Hawk against Aurora). Interesting, detailed story on the iconic, U.S. Navy Panther and thanks for sharing!
You are correct! I like he uses boxart for thumbnails….hes a builder and vintage kit collector like myself, I presume
At 67 now, I have been building models since I was about 10. I've built many a Panther kit. I remember the old Aurora kits, but today's kits are so much better detailed, but some older kits are still available. The old 1/48 Academy kit of the Panther is still found today.
The XF-90 was a stunner of an aircraft, absolutely beautiful. Too bad it was underpowered and there aren't any intact examples left today. Just part of one that got wrecked in a nuke test.
The full saying is: The customer is always right in matters of taste.
And history shows that Grumman is always right when you want a naval fighter.
My favorite Grumman plane is the Cougar, the swept wing version of the F9F Panther. I saw both of them fly at an air show at Grummans Calverton plant in 1967. My dad and brother worked at Grumman, and took me for my birthday. The Blue Angels were flying the F11 Tiger. Also made by Grumman.
I love the idea of the test pilot coming up with the solution to dropping the landing speed. I cannot imagine the same happening today.
Then you have no imagination. A good test pilot is USUALLY extremely knowlegeable about aerodynamic...otherwise they'd be to uncertain to perform effectively.
It's not G.I. Joe cartoon/comic book shit. It's a serious business and despite what some would have you believe, they don't choose expendable idiots for test pilots.
@@craigwall9536 So instead of just trying to enlighten me you decided to be abusive. I suppose you think that makes a big man by doing that but truth is is just make you small and petty
@@bigblue6917 Not a pilot, right?
Iconic. It will always be the film star of the bridges at toko ri for me.
I love that you used the old Aurora Panther box art for your thumbnail.
In its Dash 2 iteration, the Panther is simply the most beautiful jet aircraft ever built IMHO. Even the Dash 5 scrubs up nicely. Thank you for another excellent presentation.
I love the early jets, and this channel is by far the best I have found.
The F9F/F9 swept wing varient is one of the best looking fighter plane ever built!
Call me a nut but I prefer the lines of the straight wing variant.
Especially after seeing Bridges of Toko-Ri
@shawnmiller4781
I had, in the 1960s as a child a little red plastic toy plane that was the F9 swept wing! Loved that little plastic toy!
To me, that is the quintessential fighter plane!
So it takes the top spot in my heart!
Another week, another great video, and about my favorite 1st gen jet, too! Thanks for your hard work!
Corky Meyer’s gun gas flight was much more dramatic than it is made to sound here. The entire nose cone left the plane and the resulting drag almost caused the plane to decelerate below stall speed even at WOT. Only be entering a slight dive was he able to maintain flight. The question was whether he would make landfall before running out of fuel.
He did make landfall but for safety he landed at Republic’s airfield.
Also, the only reason he made this flight was that he had never fired a Panther’s guns so the operations honcho scheduled one more flight with Meyer as the lead pilot. He hadn’t been briefed by the engineers which is why he deviated from the specified protocol as detailed in the vid. The engineers were none to happy with him.
The full story I found in a GA magazine from the late 70s early 80s.
My favorite channel. Well done.
21:50 My sainted father served on board the Valley Forge, CV-45 as an Aviation Electronics Technician (AT) during the Korea War. The Valley Forge was in port in Japan when North Korea invaded South Korea which explains how they were able to start sending in strikes so soon after the start of the invasion.
One year for Christmas (I think I was 5 years old), Santa Claus brought me a G.I. Joe and a jet airplane which was a scaled down version of the F9F Panther (it sort of resembled the Panther. Sort of). Since this was back when G.I. Joe was about the same size as a Barbie doll, the airplane was really big, or so my 5-year old mind thought. At least it was bigger than Barbie's cheesy pink car.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Watch the Bridges of Toko-Ri , you get a nice look of the auxiliary intake doors on the top of the rear fuselage, before Lt. Brubaker lauches off the flight deck, pretty cool !
Micky Rooney was a hoot.
Holden and Grace Kelly were great also.
Truth is the Panther flew air cover in the actual Toko Ri mission. The F4U Corsair dropped th bombs.
Really appreciate this video and can't say enough good things about the presentation. Very well done and thorough. Especially enjoy the fact that you back up the drier facts with other commentary that gives a personal aspect to the video, as well. Beautiful balance. This level of work will certainly pay off. It would be a travesty if you didn't make 100K subscribers in the next year.
Please make a video about the cougar as well, you cant really find a high quality one on youtube
Bingo, Bango, Bongo
Another wonderful video, thank you for slaking the thirst of all of us aircraft nerds! I'm sure I don't have to tell you which video comes next.....the Cougar, of course!
Another great video! This series of videos is incredibly valuable for aviation history lovers.
Always liked the Panther, it's got a chunky, yet sleek form.
Thanks for a very informative video. Packed in a lot of material touching on many aspects of carrier ops.
Great documentary!
My father was a radar technician on the USS Boxer CV-21 shown at 23:36 from '47-'49. The Boxer was the first carrier to have a jet take off and land.
One of my favorite channels...
I think this was the plane Al Claviizi in Quantum Leap used to fly when he started his career (see the episode when Sam leaps into a young Al).
Really enjoy this channels specific aircraft detailed aircraft analysis….
I would love to see a video on the Douglas Skyknight!
Your wish is his command.
15:50 IT SNEEZED.
"North American Aviation got an order for their Fury, which would turn out to be largely useless, and Vaught for the Pirate, which was worse." LOL, nice!
Right! that was great movie.Was a kid in UK and any picture in this vane was much in demand(in colour,jets, helicopters, aircraft carriers it was great stuff!
Thanks for this 👍✈️
I have a real soft spot for The Panther as it was one of my first 1/48 scale models jet fighter models. I had a very dated kit and bought a Mig-15 from the same type of kit almost a few days later. Not sure who produced the kit but it was well detailed yet very sparse with few parts. I just liked these kits because they were easy to paint and I was just a little kid at the time. Dark Blue with some yellow for the F-9F and all Silver for the Mig-15. I upgraded considerably when I bought the F-86 kit as it came from the reputable Monogram company. I just recall this being a real golden era for me and Korean Air jets.
Great video. Beautiful plane, especially in Navy blue.
She's pretty, isnt she?
I found this video very interesting and informative. I was a kid when the Korean War started, and always liked the design of the Panther. All of Grumman's cats, actually.
Amazing channel - keep it up.
Great video as always, but is it possible you could also give stats in metric too? Thanks
Another solid video -- thanks! This is a great example of the Grumman Iron Works, doing what they do best. It's also interesting to me that neither the Panther nor the Banshee saw much in the way of export sales. I'm guessing the performance compromises to operate from carriers made them hard to compete with land-based early jet fighters like the F-86.
Banshees went to Canada. Panthers went to Argentina.
i think the panther is quite glamorous. it’s sleek and the tip tanks look graceful.
Grumman's F9F my favorite and the best looking early straight wing fighter jet.
Very well presented; thank you.
Exceptional, thank you
An excellent video ty!
Will you please do a series of the forward observation aircraft like the OV-10 Bronco and AO-37 Dragonfly (sometimes known as bait)? Not very sexy but, still key part of the missions during their utilization.
When Grumman test piolit, Corwin, "Corkey " Meyers was doing runway tests here in Bethpage, the Panther unbeknownst to him., got airborne. Grumman had to buy land in Peconic, near Calverton, to fly fighters as the people living in Bethpage and Levittown complained about the noise.
🇦🇺 Great informative video - love the Panther!
Good video, enjoyed it.
Ted Willams? A name I have not thought about in oh 50 years at least. As a child I had a glove that had Ted Williams signature embossed on it. I wasn't a ball player, and the glove wasn't special, but I can still see the endorsement signature in my memory.
That ability to take damage and keep flying is one of the reasons why Grumman earned the moniker of 'The Iron Works '. Long may they deserve that nickname.
That picture during the phase out narrative was the training command in Pensacola. Both the Panther and the Cougar served their last days as advanced trainers or drones.
One of my faves thanks to The Bridges At Toko-Ri, and I'm pretty sure the only model jet I have built in all three scales (72, 48, and the fantastic Fischer 32nd). My first boss in my engineering career had been a plane handler on the Kearsage during the Korean war...he once described to me that exact scene @10:00.
This plane is one of the first Revell plastic model I built in the mid fiftes, together with other second and third generstion jet fighters. I still have a soft spot for these machines.
Another great video! No mention of A-26/B-26 Invader :)
Why would we? There is a entire separate video on that topic.
A fellow in these comments talked about the 1954 movie The Bridges at Toko Ri. William Holden, Grace Kelly, and the always funny Micky Rooney. The movie featured The Panther. The truth is however that the Panther flew air cover in the real Toko Ri mission, while the Chance Vought F4U Corsair dropped the bombs.
The F9F looks like the stereotypical imagining of what a jet fighter would look like even today, all the moreso in the 1950s and 60s, for people who don't really know or care much about airplanes. It just looks standard (this is a cool thing). It's like the generic jet from a cartoon artist.
Thats so true
I don't think so. That tail and the intakes are very distinctive. The only part of it that looks "typical" is the straight wing and tip tanks. And I don't think there are many people who still visualize a straight wing jet as a typical fighter. The F-80 is a lot more generic looking.
TY for the Ted William's story. LOL
At the very beginning, you mentioned, Grumman built the hellcat and the avenger, and you mentioned them as fighters to the best of my knowledge the avenger was a torpedo bomber
My thought as well.
Not to mention they were also building the Wildcat until early 43 before handing it off to GM, Production of the Avenger was handed over to GM in 43 as well.
Nice channel!
My dad was a F9F pilot with VF 52
My dad was a crew chief with VF52 on the Boxer!
His plane number was 202
Great video but a minor point; I believe the first jet-power only landing on a US carrier was by the mixed-power Ryan Fireball in 1945 when one of the early machines suffered a failure of the front-mounted piston engine and, as a result, the pilot landed on jet power only.
The Panther is my favorite naval jet fighter, they just look so good and were a work horse in their own right, sadly I have only been able to see a Cougar so far
Icons from astronauts "John Glenn and Neil Armstrong to MLB-Great "Splendid-Spitter Ted Williams" the introduction of the jet era. Should animate-simulate their combat-missions during the Korean War.
Whoa... 19:16 is a **moment** i ACTUALLY recognize from MIDWAY and HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER!!! I thought it was based on the crash that killed Lt Hultgreen 25 Oct, 1994... now I know.
The Hunt for Red October came out in 1990, a few years before Hultgreen’s fatal accident in 1994.
Meanwhile, the old(er) Midway movie came out in 1976, which was before the Tomcat even first flew (in 1979).
Grumman aircraft finally! Let's Effin Go!
For those seeking a good telling of US Navy air ops during Korea, I highly recommend "Holding The Line" by Tom Cleaver. Actually, I recommend any of Tom's books covering air combat since WW2.
As a companion book for "Holding The Line" by Tom Cleaver I also highly recommend "Such Men as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies over Korea" by David Sears.
@@lizardb8694 Locked on and downloaded Lizard! Thanks!
17 years between Neil Armstrong flying combat missions in Korea and becoming the first human to step on another celestial body.
17 years between the first episode of _Mad Men_ and today 😮
That's just bonkers.
Thanks for the detailed history and perspective, great stuff! William Holden got shot down in it and Mickey Rooney and Earl Holliman were sent in a helo to save him in Korea. BTW, @27:20, that's the first ever jet kill for America and it was from the US Navy, lol.
That panther logo goes hard
YESSS!
FWIW: Last night I watched a couple of movie clips from *THE BRIDGES OF TOKO-RI* here on YT.
I just saw this video and had to watch it...👍
25:54 seems like the table you were referencing was omitted in the final edit.
That footage of the flagger (when did they start using the bats?) reminded me of the reddit post i read the other day with multiple people talking about "waiving off a landing". Apparently none of them know how carrier landings used to work. Or have even seen a guy run out onto a field and wave a pilot away to warn him it's not safe to land.
Which is fine but most of them seemed to think they were experts or even ex aviation crew.
Ted was a gamer brave to a fault, I will miss him
I was definitely expecting to see a mention of John Glenn's nickname after showing him next to his battle damaged aircraft. From the wiki page: "He flew 63 combat missions in Korea with VMF-311[42] and was nicknamed "Magnet Ass" because of the number of flak hits he took on low-level close air support missions". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn
That tail looks rather Gannetish .
Ahh , the Fairey Gannet.
Queen of the Skies!
9:15 is the engine really that far back it is that just diagramatical?
And i thought the USN used regular aviation fuel in their jets in Korea, because it was too difficult to carry both jet and aviation fuel. You got less range but it was worth it. A jet of course will run on any flammable liquid.
Always loved the Panther! I believe it could've lasted longer in service if the company would've gone ahead with sweeping back the wings and improving the engine as it aged.
They did. It's known as the f9f cougar.
Did somebody REALLY need to invent the word 'downselect?' Select is perfectly adequate!
Wrong. When you DOWNshift, you Down select. When you UPshift, you Up select. "Select" would tell you nothing specific, at a time when a bad choice could mean the difference between jumping over the canyon or INTO it.
@craigwall9536 well, we get by without that word in Britain
@@oxcart4172 Are you kidding??? It was British to begin with!!!
@@craigwall9536 fair enough. Its not the first time I've been wrong, and I doubt it'll be the last!
@@oxcart4172 Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. It happens to us all!
in the mid 80's I was assigned to vma 311 we had a panther and corsair in the hanger they were buffing them up I belive to go to the usmc museum I think in New Orleans or Quantico not sure which one or where to be honest
A very pretty gem of an aircraft which achieved. For so fundamentally simple an aircraft why aren’t any still flying?
That is indeed kind of sad that none survived to current flying status. Unlike say F-86s and T-33s. Maybe due to numbers built and that they lived fairly tough lives?
Most got scrapped or used as targets.
Single-pount fueling, more of a luxury than I realized.
How about you look at the heavy press program and it's impact on aircraft structures?
"Alternate" - two thing switching turn and turn about (unless you're American)
"Careening" - pulling a ship onto its side to clean or repair its hull (unless you're American)
My dad flew F-9s in flight school, F-11s for gunnery.
Grumman stands for 'endurance first and evolution happens along the way'.... Oldschool engineering folks...
Please do a video on the F-8 Crusader !
A true Vietnam war mig master
In my opinion, the Panther was the best looking straight wing fighter of the first generation jets.