1950s fighter jet bomber wingtip coupling experiments - photo and video

[Jon]

1950s fighter jet bomber wingtip coupling experiments.



12:04 video:

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FICON_project

Previously:

Convair B-36 bomber tracked landing gear - photo and video
Fire bomber plane puts out truck fire - GIF, photos, and video
C-130 Hercules fire bomber loses its wings and crashes - video
Parallel parking a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier - GIF

[Frank S]

A really complex system and one that adds a tremendous amount of loading in the wings of all 3 aircraft.
Might have been simpler cheaper and safer to have created a tow system such as a glider tow or an under belly coupling like those for auxiliary fuel pods of belly bombs.
This system looks like it would be disastrous in turbulence

[Toolmaker51]

Maybe impractical on a tactical basis, a creative strategic idea. Complicated, yes. But what impressed me is the engineering, retrofitting and successful flight tests just to gather data.

[ranald]

Totally in awe. 1950. Some brainstorming for that tech that probably led to further developments elsewhere & the general public knew nothing.
Thanks for posting.

[Inner]

Nice engineering but Air Force hookups are weird. (!) Real pilots use tail hooks:

[Frank S]

Completely CG