As odd as the FXM-1 Airacuda was, the McDonnell XF-85 was far odder. Designed to serve as a defensive fighter for the B-36, it was small enough that it could fit within the parent aircrafts bomb bay. It is dubious whether it would have been able to stand up to conventional Soviet jet fighters, but in any event testing of the “trapeze” needed to deploy and recover the parasite fighter showed that recovery was virtually impossible under normal circumstances, much less combat.
A McDonnell propaganda film about the XF-85 from 1948 or so:
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And some silent footage of the XF-85, including a test “anomaly” where the tiny plane rammed the trapeze. The trapeze turned the aircraft into a convertible, sending the pilot on a mission to get to the desert below ASAP.
[youtube JIX9BsbtiTA]