{"id":11032481,"date":"2026-08-10T13:52:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T11:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=11032481"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:57:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:57:22","slug":"lockheed-xfv-1-salmon-tailsitter-vtol-fighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/lockheed-xfv-1-salmon-tailsitter-vtol-fighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Le chasseur de la Marine qui n&#039;a jamais d\u00e9coll\u00e9 \u00e0 la verticale"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style><p>In the early 1950s, the U.S. Navy asked American industry a genuinely strange question: could a fighter take off straight up, standing on its tail, from a platform on the back of a warship? Lockheed&rsquo;s answer was a stubby little aircraft that pointed its nose at the sky and sat on four small wheels stuck to the tips of its tail.<\/p><p>It was called the XFV-1, and it earned the nickname &ldquo;Salmon.&rdquo; It is remembered for a peculiar distinction: a vertical-takeoff fighter that never once took off vertically.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;border-radius:8px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:18px\">Informations cl\u00e9s<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px;line-height:1.8\"><li><strong>A\u00e9ronef:<\/strong> Lockheed XFV-1, an experimental U.S. Navy tail-sitting VTOL fighter<\/li><li><strong>Surnom:<\/strong> &ldquo;Salmon,&rdquo; after chief test pilot Herman &ldquo;Fish&rdquo; Salmon<\/li><li><strong>Moteur:<\/strong> Allison YT40 turboprop, contra-rotating propellers<\/li><li><strong>First official flight:<\/strong> 16 June 1954, on temporary conventional landing gear<\/li><li><strong>Enregistrer:<\/strong> 32 flights, 23 hours - and not one vertical takeoff<\/li><li><strong>Annul\u00e9:<\/strong> June 1955<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A fighter that stood on its tail<\/h2><p>The idea was born from Cold War fear. Airfields were vulnerable to attack, and the Navy wanted fighters that could launch from small platforms aboard ships to defend convoys. In 1951 the Navy handed Lockheed a contract for one answer and rival Convair a contract for another &mdash; the XFY-1 Pogo. Both used the same Allison turboprop spinning contra-rotating propellers.<\/p><p>Lockheed&rsquo;s design, led by engineer Art Flock, had short, highly loaded straight wings much like the company&rsquo;s later F-104 Starfighter, and a four-fin cruciform tail with tiny caster wheels at each tip. The pilot&rsquo;s seat stayed level while the whole aircraft pointed skyward. On paper, it was elegant. In practice, it was terrifying.<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1632335280  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/lockheed-xfv-1-salmon-ground.jpg\" alt=\"The surviving Lockheed XFV-1 in a museum\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The sole completed XFV-1 (BuNo 138657) survives in a museum. Note the cruciform tail with caster wheels at the tips. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yH1eS9qwsno\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The nickname and the fear<\/h2><p>The XFV-1 became the &ldquo;Salmon&rdquo; after Lockheed&rsquo;s chief test pilot, Herman &ldquo;Fish&rdquo; Salmon &mdash; a happy coincidence of name and behaviour, since the aircraft was meant to leap upward like a fish. Salmon was the only person who ever flew it.<\/p><p>To fly at all, engineers bolted on a temporary, non-retractable undercarriage of long braced legs so it could take off and land like a normal aircraft while they worked out the hard parts. And the hard parts were very hard: how would a pilot judge his height above a pitching deck while descending backwards, tail-first, unable to see straight down? What was the right landing speed? Would an ejection seat even work pointing at the sky?<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;No takeoffs were made in the vertical mode, although on several occasions the aircraft transitioned to vertical flight and back to the horizontal, and it did hover briefly at altitude, hanging by its props.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Norman Polmar<\/strong> &mdash; Naval aviation historian, Naval History magazine<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Thirty-two flights, zero vertical takeoffs<\/h2><p>Between June 1954 and June 1955, Salmon flew the XFV-1 on 32 test flights totalling 23 hours. He coaxed it into transitioning from level flight to a vertical, hanging attitude and back again at altitude, and it hovered briefly on its propellers &mdash; but it never once made a true vertical takeoff or landing. The temporary landing gear that made testing possible also added drag, and even without it the projected performance would have trailed conventional fighters.<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=2143519165  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/lockheed-xfv-1-vertical.jpg\" alt=\"The Lockheed XFV-1 Salmon\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Lockheed XFV-1 &ldquo;Salmon&rdquo; - graceful in the air, but the tail-sitting landing was a problem no one could solve. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z0JO1Nw_m8Y\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The end of the tail-sitters<\/h2><p>By mid-1955 the Navy had seen enough. The performance was mediocre, the landing problem unsolved, and only specially trained pilots could ever hope to fly it. The XFV-1 was cancelled &mdash; as, eventually, was Convair&rsquo;s Pogo, which at least managed real vertical flights. The tail-sitter dream was dead.<\/p><p>Its DNA lived on, though. The program&rsquo;s engines went to Hiller&rsquo;s experimental X-18, and Ryan borrowed ideas from both tail-sitters to build the jet-powered X-13 Vertijet. None worked as a practical warplane. Vertical flight would have to wait for a completely different idea.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;Not until the British-designed Kestrel and Harrier took to the skies was an effective V\/STOL aircraft available.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Norman Polmar<\/strong> &mdash; Naval aviation historian<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>The one completed XFV-1 survives in a museum today, nose forever pointed at a sky it never quite conquered the way its designers dreamed.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M4zRk-CDswM\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#777;font-style:italic\">Sources: Norman Polmar, &ldquo;The Tail-sitters, Part 1 - Lockheed,&rdquo; Naval History magazine (U.S. Naval Institute); Vintage Aviation News; Wikipedia (Lockheed XFV).<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Articles similaires<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/le-chasseur-a-decollage-et-atterrissage-vertical-rockwell-xfv-12-incapable-de-faire-du-surplace\/\">The VTOL Fighter That Couldn&rsquo;t Lift Itself<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/snecma-coleoptere-aile-annulaire-vtol\/\">France&rsquo;s Flying Barrel That Actually Took Off<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lockheed XFV-1 &#8220;Salmon&#8221; was a tail-sitting VTOL fighter meant to launch straight up from a ship &#8211; but in 32 flights it never once took off vertically.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":11032235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11032481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - 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