The Swing Wing Jaguar Was A Better Fighter Than People Think

The Grumman Jaguar was an innovative swing wing fighter that sadly suffered from being designed around the disastrous Westinghouse J-40 engine. It's development initially seemed to put Grumman out of the carrier fighter game, but would ultimately see it have the last laugh when swing wings came back into vogue in the 1960s. This video goes investigates the Jaguar and makes the case for it being better regarded in the history books.
Sources:
There is only one substantive text on the Jaguar, "Grumman Swing Wing XF-10F-1 Jaguar" by Corky Meyer. Meyer was an exceptional test pilot and a good engineer, but he was not the best author and the book is therefore a little hard to digest. One for the purists.

[@thelandofnod123]

I once read a quote from someone or other that went along the lines of “The only thing colder than Westinghouse refrigerators are their jet engines”. The correct quote I was misremembering is listed below 👇

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

I think your confusing a different quote that was actually about a different aircraft; the Vought F7U Cutlass.

[@thelandofnod123]

@@themanformerlyknownascomme777 What was the actual quote?

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

@@thelandofnod123 "put out less heat than Westinghouse's toasters."

[@joshuabessire9169]

Westinghouse started making brakes for trains, they never understood why anyone would want to go.

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

@@joshuabessire9169 Westinghouse actually was a premire turbine manufacturer (and jets are turbines, gas turbines specifically).

[@rattington-smythe3688]

Great video. Early US jet fighter development can pretty much be summed up as "It was a promising design...and then Westinghouse happened."

[@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe]

Explain summing up nonsense please .

[@Sacto1654]

Essentially, Grumman's experience with the XF10F was the very reason why the F-111 actually had a _reliable_ wing sweeping mechanism (despite all the other problems the early F-111's had). And that F-111 experience was how Grumman got back into the Navy fighter business with the now-legendary F-14 _Tomcat_ .

[@christophergreen3809]

One designer's failure is another's success.

[@SportyMabamba]

We haven’t failed, we have discovered 100 potential solutions which don’t work 💪

[@Sacto1654]

@@christophergreen3809 I think the problem was that the XF10F, like the Bell X-5 before it, relied on a single pivot for the swinging of _both_ wings, which caused center-of-gravity stability issues. That's why on the F-111, Grumman designed each wing to have its own separate wing pivot mechanism, which means the center of gravity did not change regardless of wing position.

[@RedXlV]

And then in the 1990s, Grumman as a company was murdered by Dick Cheney, who for some reason had a pathological hatred of them.

[@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe]

General Dynamics, no?

[@manuwilson4695]

Terribly steep learning curve. Hats off to the test pilots of the time!

[@cliffalcorn2423]

Yay, Grumman.. I was a Grumman sailor, I only worked on the F-14 Tomcat and A-6 I Intruder while in the U.S. Navy for 23 years.

[@Chilly_Billy]

I loved CVW-2, the "Grumman Air Wing" aboard Ranger during the late 80's and early 90's.

[@thelandofnod123]

“Only” he says casually. I would have loved to have been on a carrier in the 80’s and 90’s. I had to be satisfied with the F-111 and Classic Hornet.

[@ArizonaAstraLLC]

​@@thelandofnod123 🇦🇺?

[@thelandofnod123]

@@ArizonaAstraLLC Indeed Sir.

[@daniellarge9784]

Never heard of this aircraft. What a great YT channel.

[@TheOfficial007]

Yeah, the most I have heard of it usually came from documentaries for both the F-111 and F-14 talking about it being a forerunner to swinging concepts. Doesn't get too much time in the sun, but I'm glad it does here.

[@goddepersonno3782]

definitely stick around Not a Pound is obsessed with those early cold war jets and he's introduced me to a ton of weird and unique concepts

[@HiImSeanIPlayBass]

The 1947 mockup is an A4 with a high tail. Amazing that they didn’t capitalize on that.

[@ReviveHF]

The Sepecat Jaguar : Very well known trainer/attacker The Grumman Jaguar : Underrated yet revolutionary for it's time.

[@womble321]

The jaguar had the same bomb load capacity as a Lancaster with a span smaller than a spitfire. Makes you think.

[@mikepette4422]

SEPECAT is just one of those singular French military companies that build a single thing like in this case the Jaguar its kinda odd but I love saying SEPECAT and Love the Jaguar as a plane so they get a pass LOL

[@RedXlV]

@@mikepette4422 That's because SEPECAT was a joint venture of BAC and Breguet for the sole purpose of making the Jaguar. Which worked out well until Dassault bought out Breguet. Dassault as a company has always despised any designs that they didn't develop themselves, even if they own those designs.

[@petesheppard1709]

Slick main gear design, though. For me, the best Jaguar story was when Corkey Meyer lost the canopy, made an emergency landing, then climbed out of the cockpit (while the plane was rolling at about 100mph) and rode the plane to a stop, because of damage to the ejection seat.

[@richardvernon317]

Swing Wing Jaguar was one of the early nicknames for the Panavia Tornado.

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

problem aircraft being cancelled just as they are about to (POTENTIALLY) be fixed is a very common story in aircraft

[@enzogamer0843]

99% of the egineers stop working on their aircrafts right before it starts working properly

[@arcanondrum6543]

I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Test beds are lethal to test pilots and fixing bad design equals cost overruns. I'm struck by the MiG 15 debut beating so many American designs from the same time. Apparently "design it well from the start" is a thing when Taxpayers aren't padding your Quarterly earnings. Who knew?

[@AT-ni4sf]

Thx for doing videos about planes I have never heard of. Great video. Again👏👏

[@higgs923]

My first squadron was an Advanced Jet Training outfit. At the time we were flying Grumman Cougars, both the single seat F9F-8 and the twin seat TAF-9J. Those were some extraordinarily tough aircraft.

[@Leadblast]

It's kind of hard to believe that infernal contraption was in some way the predecessor to the glorious F-14 Tomcat. Failure is a better teacher than success, I guess...

[@RedTail1-1]

Swing-wing doesn't automatically mean precursor to the Tomcat. That's the only thing similar between them.

[@stickiedmin6508]

​@@RedTail1-1 . . . there's also the fact that both aircraft were designed and built by the same company.

[@benfennell6842]

​@@RedTail1-1pretty safe to assume at least some lessons or experience from this found their way Into the tomcat

[@justforever96]

​@@RedTail1-1I mean that and both being Grumman fighters designed by the same company, probably the same exact designers, for the same reason and to fill the same role, yes, clearly no relationship between one and the other, at all. Did you even think about that for a moment before you posted it? That's how aircraft design works. The F-18 exists because of the studies that created the F-5 and T-38. You can follow the exact evolution through various iterations on paper and models from one to the other. At the very least they used the data they gained studying the swing wing for this when they designed the next attempt. You don't really think they just burned all their data and started over from scratch, do you? And just happened to eventually adopt the same solution of roll control via spoilers by coincidence, only they got it right this time by amazing coincidence?

[@RB-bd5tz]

@@RedTail1-1 At 1:32 when he said "four-hour patrols 450 miles out from the carrier", I immediately thought of the F-14.

[@TheJuggtron]

Damn I want some of these early 50's planes in DCS

[@flyingsword135]

A detour on the highway to the danger zone

[@stickiedmin6508]

The detour to The Danger Zone? The lay-by to The Danger Zone? . . . rest stop to The Danger Zone? . . . roadworks and contraflow to The Danger Zone?

[@joshuabessire9169]

Out on the edges that is where I yearn to be... But these Westinghouse engines thrust just a little stronger than my pee...

[@thelandofnod123]

Perhaps an unfinished overpass, which one has neglected to notice and drove off the end, that crosses over the highway to the danger zone.

[@mark_wotney9972]

Read “The Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division 1950-1960: A Case Study in the Role of Failure in Technology and Business” for why Westinghouse jet engines wentvto hell.

[@wbertie2604]

Nonsense. They didn't have the thrust to make it to hell.

[@thelandofnod123]

At least if they went to hell they’d finally have some warmth to them.

[@burtbacarach5034]

Another great vid from one of my favorite channels!Love these early jet stories!

[@Crunchin_time]

This video's ending was great, the leadup, the sad jag let down but it came around for grumman's future success

[@alan-sk7ky]

4:58 '1947' is a ringer for the A4...

[@marcbrasse747]

I was thinking exactly the same thing when I saw that top view.

[@Favk21]

16:07 What a great picture!

[@rollerizer2558]

I very much appreciate your videos. The subjects are well chosen and always interesting; I have learned about aircraft here that I did not know existed. Your videos are *very* well researched, are especially detail rich, are well written, and are very well narrated. I especially appreciate your measured and careful analysis and assessments of the reviewed aircraft. This is the first channel I visit for this type of content. Please keep it coming!!

[@chuckcawthon3370]

Great video presentation. It closely parallels the book I own authored by Corky Meyers.

[@billdewahl7007]

Are you planning on doing a video on the -111b? I sure do love that thing and think it gets a bad wrap.

[@lancerevell5979]

My first introduction to the "Jagyer" was in an issue of the magazine Air International back in 1976. Read it on my flight from home in Florida to Lackland AFB, Tx. on my way to USAF bootcamp.

[@briancavanagh7048]

Air Enthusiast Air Enthusiast International Air International Great Magazine! Had a subscription and all the back issues. Should have kept them.

[@zachgarcia1482]

Never caught one this fresh!

[@sergioleone3583]

Another entertainingly informative video on an obscure aircraft. It is certainly one of the more ungainly birds I've ever seen!

[@marcbrasse747]

Great subject. Great assessment. Great video. The navy wanted all the fashionable stuff quickly but without asking how practical that was on a carrier. However: When STOVL offered itself they where suddenly afraid to loose their big carriers. Even then they came up with the Rockwell XVF12. Which begs for a comparable video. Please keep them coming!

[@RedXlV]

The XFV-12 was another case of the Navy opting for exotic technology that turned out to not work. If it had instead been the Convair Model 200 that was funded for a prototype to be built, well there would've still been issues (auxiliary lift jets are inherently inefficient since they're dead weight during horizontal flight), at least the Convair 200 would've been *able* to take off since it relied on conventional, already-proven VTOL principles. And who knows, maybe they would've been able to develop it into a system like the F-35B uses now, where the lift fan is part of the main engine rather than being separate auxiliary jets. P&W started work on that system in 1986, which would've been just a few years after the Convair 200 would've entered service had it been chosen instead of the Rockwell design.

[@marcbrasse747]

@@RedXlV A navalised Bell 188 maybe? 😁

[@jonathanhudak2059]

Wow this was great! Never knew much about the jaguar until now. What an interesting pioneering design with the swing wings this early on! Thank you for the lovely weekly content! 🙂

[@levischittlord6558]

They got it right with the F-14 tomcat, unbeatable range plus the range of that missle system kept the fleet well protected.

[@RedXlV]

The F-14 *should* have still been going strong just like the F-15 is. But Dick Cheney had a bizarre pathological hatred of Grumman and cancelled the "Super Tomcat" program (what would've been the F-14E).

[@majorbloodnok6659]

A thoughtful appreciation, thank you.

[@frankwittner1979]

Love the early jet episodes might you be interested in looking at the FJ Fury series of jets, by far in my opinion the ultimate development of the basic f-86 design and based on all of your videos thus far you would give it a thorough investigation. Thanks for the fantastic videos and look forward to whatever you have planned

[@Arp1757]

Love the cliffhanger.

[@yes_head]

Nice one. The Jaguar was just ahead of its time. In some ways I see it as a test bed for design ideas that ended up in the A-6 Intruder, a definite Grumman success story.

[@muzmason3064]

If you look at the size of the bullet on the tail, they had major issues with aero and deep T tail stall. Sending them to the ranges probably saved many lives 🤔

[@logansgun]

"The tail looked like the future and it performed like a bag full of disasters" is a fantastic line and earned Not a Pound a subscription!

[@christopherneufelt8971]

Until now at 12:18, I have the impression that this aircraft was the unholy child of Shuhmacher and Monty Pythons. By the way, very detailful presentation. Bravo!

[@kidmohair8151]

03:16 I swear the guy on the left was roller skating…

[@timothylowe8327]

Hiya, really enjoy your research based yet entertaining videos. Please do continue. On that note, would you consider doing a video on the F-91 Fiat and its resemblance to the dog sabre? Cheers!

[@sabercruiser.7053]

You're documentary are drugs to me u have beautiful voice brother 🙏🤲 keep up the great work 👍👍

[@firey9309]

First, I love Not A Pound For Air To Ground!

[@RCAvhstape]

Wow, a Grumman Cat I haven't heard of! I like the hint at the end, even if it is a General Dynamics competitor, and not a much more famous member of the Cat family.

[@stevetournay6103]

Grumman were heavily involved with the stillborn Navy F-111B. Their work on that project led directly to the iconic F-14.

[@tomg6284]

Should have put a maytag engine instead.

[@BlackMasterRoshi]

so the only control mechanisms without unsatisfactory delay are the landing gear and brakes?

[@Chilly_Billy]

16:06 Crossing fingers you will do a video on the Demon.

[@JGCR59]

That plane had innovative features which were totally uncontrollable in pre fly by wire days. Lots of that stuff would have worked perfectly fine 20 years later

[@thomas316]

I actually thought we'd be talking about the better known Jaguar.

[@richardvernon317]

That was a shit naval aircraft as well. Jaguar M failed its carrier acceptance trials massive!!

[@wbertie2604]

​@@richardvernon317it was originally intended to be a trainer, though.

[@richardvernon317]

@@wbertie2604 Yes it was.

[@Chilly_Billy]

10° roll rate!? How did they ever think this dog could be a fighter?

[@RedXlV]

They didn't have computer simulations back then. They expected the control surfaces to actually work. I'd like to know what the roll rate was after they stuck a Cougar tail on it.

[@REPOMAN24722]

I love it, looks cool

[@chris_hisss]

This isn't the swing wing Jaguar i thought it would be when I clicked on this video. lol Wait that is the tornado I was thinking of. You think this thing looked like a mig clone and why they never got it to work is beyond me really. Nice review, I hadn't heard much about this. Thanks.

[@adandap]

I hope a 1/72 kit manufacturer is watching this.

[@parrotraiser6541]

Trying a carrier approach with a 2 second delay in control response? Shudder!

[@danielheald411]

The Jaguar stumbled so that the Tomcat could fly.

[@DaveSCameron]

Yeah it looks boss and I think I remember this one from my Model Aeroplane ✈️ gluey days and it looks as good as many current fighters.👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽️

[@Archie2c]

There was a Paper exercise called th F12 not to be confused with the Blackbird fighter very blocky never made it past the drafting table i saw it in a book called the history of the American Fighter thick book got every pic or notation of fighter concepts developed at any stage

[@thelandofnod123]

F-19 too?

[@ssyn6626]

I am actually kinda impressed by this thing, but since nobody asked for it had no chance. Also odd until I started watching this channel I actually knew Westinghouse from (guess what) NUCLEAR REACTORS yep they have made most of those for all nuclear powered US navy ships and actually have decent records can't recall a single time the navy had a problem with them.

[@thelandofnod123]

Meanwhile here in the Antipodes it’s just washing machines and fridges.

[@MM22966]

A good lesson to keep in mind: Even the biggest failures offer stepping stones of R&D to better things.

[@dunkinheinzgruber757]

That front shot is very Intruderish.

[@uberduberdave]

Westinghouse jet engines were the cause of the demise or near cancelation of many early Navy aircraft designs. At a time when century series jets were breaking records, Westinghouse was keeping the Navy in the trans-sonic range and killing pilots.

[@henryefry]

I was looking at old videos on the Macey Dean channel and saw a comment suggesting you might be the same person who made those videos. Can you confirm or deny the validity of this statement?

[@robbudden]

Apart from the top of the tail, it is a pretty plane

[@sadwingsraging3044]

Instead of throwing the kitchen sink of technological advances at this aircraft they should have just tried to make the sink fly!😵‍💫

[@erickborling1302]

What was that; a 9,000' takeoff roll? I'd call that a failure before it even flew.

[@jimsvideos7201]

""...it should have been made impossible." 😂

[@UntakenNick]

Had one, ended up selling it for an F-14 and never looked back.

[@Archie2c]

The 50s repeated the 00s where everyone had a theory how their multi wing multi engine multi everything was a world beater "On Paper"

[@thepolishnz]

did a patridge, you started at the end and flashed back to the beginning

[@themichael3410]

So, when did McDonald's decide to give up on jet engines and go all in on serving hamburgers? I remember the day. They were testing an engine and one of the guys began cooking his burger patties and hot dogs using the heat from the exhaust. One of the other guys asked if only we could have fries with that. But the exhaust just kept burning up the shoestring potatoes.

[@mikepette4422]

yeah thats a weird looking tail control surface alright

[@lukaszwysocki714]

Macey Dean?

[@exidy-yt]

Grumman were masters of the swing-wing right from the get-go. A shame the Jag had such a slackdog of an engine and engine control system and the tail wasn't replaced sooner. It could have been an excellent carrier CAP fighter. Certainly better then the Cutlass.

[@patrickunderwood5662]

What’s the airplane at the very end??

[@dcerame]

F-111...

[@patrickunderwood5662]

@@dcerame Not the Mirage G?

[@dcerame]

@@patrickunderwood5662 Swing-wing...

[@oceanforth21]

@@dceramewhile it’s not the Mirage G, the Mirage G *is* a swing wing

[@dcerame]

@@oceanforth21 It also never entered production...

[@mustang5132]

The arch of the story feels like guy Ritchie made it

[@LoaderX73]

"Hey guys, let's do everything wrong in our design and see what happens. It'll be fun!"

[@johnnyliminal8032]

Tee Dub Zee, Bunker material.

[@HighSideHustler81]

So honoured to be the first view..

[@deltonlomatai2309]

She was a bit buff.

[@Archie2c]

For the Want of a Screw a plane was Almost Lost

[@syfieldsjr1576]

Westinghouse could barely build a decent refrigerator, let alone a fighter jet!

[@billballbuster7186]

Should have bought the Rolls Royce Avon or A.S. Sapphire

[@johnmoore8599]

I think all the experimental features of the Jaguar doomed it. It's too bad, because the Navy eventually went with a variable swept wing fighter 20 years later.

[@Sophocles13]

What a 🚉 wreck.

[@WarsaW-dz9vl]

I don’t know but it looks remarkably British

[@jimfarmer7811]

This is an example of engineers ignoring the K.I.S.S principle.

[@heyitsme1618]

Test pilot who actually flew the crap can: It was pure garbo. KZbinr: WELL AKSHUALLY...

[@johnburns4017]

It is the *US Navy,* not the navy.

[@cmdredstrakerofshado1159]

Also Jaguar came out before fly by wire computer control and it was dogged by garbage Westinghouse engines a good 1st start but a bit before its time

[@user-tl5fi9lz9z]

You keep mispronouncing the name of this aircraft. It’s pronounced Jag-Wire.

[@genreynolds6685]

Who says?

[@rudolphpyatt4833]

Another casualty of immature technology, including the infamous J-40, that doomed the Cutlass and Demon.

[@josecoronadonieto6911]

Obvious Sepecat L