page_title: Lockheed XF-90
section_title: Testing and evaluation
hierarchical_section_title: Lockheed XF-90 / Testing and evaluation
caption_attribution_description: Lockheed XF-90 (46-688) in Yucca Flat. This XF-90, a Lockheed experimental aircraft, was exposed to the same nuclear tests as the Yucca Lady. The XF-90, of which only two were ever built, is the sole surviving example of Clarence (Kelly) Johnson's Lockheed Skunk Works second design. The first was the XP-80, which later went into production as the F-80 Shooting Star. The Skunk Works went on to design the U-2, SR-71 (Blackbird) and the F-117 Stealth fighter. Historically, the XF-90 boasts several significant features: it was one of the first to employ an ejection seat; it had a fully adjustable tail, and was the first to use fowler flaps to improve air flow over the ailerons. It was also the first to use wingtip drop tanks on sweptback wings, and the first to employ an afterburner. Today the broken aircraft rests in two parts in Plutonium Valley; its counterpart was destroyed during structural testing in Ohio. Plans call for the aircraft to be dismantled, decontaminated, and to be placed on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
context_page_description: The Lockheed XF-90 was built in response to a United States Air Force requirement for a long-range penetration fighter and bomber escort. The same requirement produced the McDonnell XF-88 Voodoo. Lockheed received a contract for two prototype XP-90s. The design was developed by Willis Hawkins and the Skunk Works team under Kelly Johnson. Two prototypes were built. Developmental and political difficulties delayed the first flight until 3 June 1949, with Chief Test Pilot Tony LeVier at the controls. Performance of the design was considered inadequate due to being underpowered, and the XF-90 never entered production.
context_section_description: The XF-90 was the first USAF jet with an afterburner and the first Lockheed jet to fly supersonic, albeit in a dive. It also incorporated an unusual vertical stabilizer that could be moved fore and aft for horizontal stabilizer adjustment. Partly because Lockheed's design proved underpowered, it placed second to McDonnell's XF-88 Voodoo which won the production contract in September 1950, before the penetration fighter project was abandoned altogether.
  Upon Lockheed losing the production contract, the two prototypes were retired to other testing roles. The first aircraft (46-687) was shipped to the NACA Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio in 1953 for structural tests. It was no longer flyable, and its extremely strong airframe was tested to destruction. The other (46-688) survived three atomic blasts at Frenchman Flat within the Nevada Test Site in 1952.
caption: Remains of the second XF-90 prototype.
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