This was the Grumman F5F redesigned as a fighter for the US Army Air Corps. The reason for the lengthened nose was that the Army version included a tricycle landing gear instead of a tail wheel. Presumably, the Army preferred the Lockheed P-38.
kirby kurkomelis, e-mail, 15.09.2021 03:37
How can I get in touch with Bobs son Eric??
kirby kurkomelis, e-mail, 07.09.2021 17:29
Looking for crash report on the Grumman XP-50 skyrocket plane. I am a underwater archeologist that when down in May 14 1940 or information??
kirby kurkomelis, e-mail, 07.09.2021 17:28
Looking for crash report on the Grumman XP-50 skyrocket plane. I am a underwater archeologist that when down in May 14 1940 or information??
Carl Felty, e-mail, 12.07.2011 02:57
The short nosed version of this airplane was the one flown by the Blackhawks in the comic book series. Later they started using jets and were flying, what appeared to be the F-90.
dafacai, 20.06.2011 07:16
toward the middle of Long Island Sound, and the Coast Guard plucked him from the water minutes later, avoiding certain death by hypothermia.
Ted Jones, e-mail, 20.04.2011 16:58
In the late 1970s I visited with Bob Hall, retired Grumman aircraft engineer and test pilot. I noticed a photograph Bob had of a twin engined plane with pre-WWII Army Air Corps markings, and asked Bob what it was.
He told me about the XP-50 which he flew on the first and only flight. This was Grumman's first tricicle gear A/C and when Bob cycled the gear, the nose wheel failed to drop. Subsequently, according to Bob, the main gear failed to retract. He spent several hours in the air trying everything he or the ground could think of, but the nose gear remained retracted and the main gear remained down. Bob said he bailed out and put the A/C into Long Island Sound.
Subsequently, I have read a draft of a biograpphy of Bob started, but not yet published, by his son Eric which goes into greater detail, including the decision for Bob to bail our over Long Island Sound's frigid April waters. The bail out was coordiated with the U.S. Coast Guard station at Eatons Neck. Bob jumped close over Eaton's Neck, after heading the A/C toward the middle of Long Island Sound, and the Coast Guard plucked him from the water minutes later, avoiding certain death by hypothermia.
Bob's comment to me was: "It wasn't a good aircraft anyway." No more were ever built, he said.
IMHO Bob Hall was an aviation pioneer whose career with the Granville Brothers and Grumman has been almost totally ignored by aircraft historians. I hope Eric gets to finish his biography and that it gets published.
XWXwireXWX, e-mail, 17.04.2011 05:51
Anyone notice the incredible striking resemblance between this craft, the XF5F, and the F7F? This craft, which retains the short, twin-tailed fuselage of the XF5F, but uses the twin engine (Non-twin-boom, like the P-38, where the engines have their own fuselage{Sorta}) powerplant and moves the wings back into the position of many twin-engine fighters. The Armament is also the same as the Tigercat's.
TIM, e-mail, 18.03.2011 16:51
DOES ANYONE HAVE PLANS / INFORMATION TO BULID AN R/C MODEL OF THE XP-50 OR XF5F-1?? IF YES, WHAT IS THE COST FOR THE PLANS??
