The Tiger
The F11F Tiger, designed to be a lightweight fighter, was an aircraft with exceptional performance that could reach Mach 1.1.
The origins of the F11F Tiger (redesignated F-11 in 1962) can be traced to a 1952 Grumman effort to modernize the company’s F9F-6/7 Cougar. However, in its final form, the aircraft diverged significantly from its predecessor. The development model of the F11F, which made its first flight in July 1954, was designed as a lightweight fighter. It had thin swept wings with spoilers instead of ailerons and an area-rule (coke-bottle-shaped) fuselage that allowed it to exceed Mach 1.
An F11F-1 Tiger landed aboard and took off from USS Forrestal on April 4, 1956, marking the beginning of carrier trials.
The Navy received the first F11Fs in production in March 1957. The Tiger’s appearance coincided with that of two of the most capable fighters ever made, the F8U Crusader and the F4H Phantom II, yet despite its design performance profile, it saw little service. Its capabilities were so great that the F11F-1F Super Tiger, which had a more powerful engine that allowed it to achieve a world record altitude of 76,828 feet and a speed of 1,386.47 mph in level flight, was never put into production.
Quickly retired from fleet service
According to Robert James, a former F11F Tiger and F-14 Tomcat pilot, on Quora, Tigers completed their service in the Naval Air Training Command and as demonstration aircraft with the Blue Angels, who flew the F11F from 1957 to 1969.
‘Yeah, the Grumman F-11 Tiger.
‘It was introduced in 1956 and retired in 1961. The Tiger was the first supersonic aircraft built by Grumman. It was small and light with an afterburner, something pretty new in the world of aviation at that time. It didn’t have much in the way of weapons capability. Dogfighting at higher speeds was quickly making guns less useful, but early infra-red missiles were not yet very good.
‘The F-11 was kind of caught in the middle between sub sonic Korean war aircraft and the much more capable F-8 and F-4 which would be introduced just a few years later. Plus, the Tiger didn’t carry much fuel and it was a little tricky to land on a carrier.
The F11F with the Blue Angels and as an advanced trainer
‘All those things added up to force the F-11 out of the fleet quickly. However, it was actually a great airplane as long as you ignored the limited combat capability. The F-11 lasted for many more years in the training command as an advanced trainer. I had the pleasure to fly it as an advanced trainer right at the end of its lifespan. It was wonderful with the best flight control system of any aircraft before or since. That’s one reason it lasted even longer with the Blue Angels as a flight demonstration aircraft.’
James concludes;
‘It looked great; sort of like a kid’s drawing of what a real jet fighter should like. It had a loud afterburner. And if flew tight formation better than any other aircraft.’
Photo by U.S. Navy and U.S. Navy via Aerobaticteams.net
