This Day in McDonnell Voodoo History: June 16

In 1950, two weeks before its formal “fly-off” to decide the penetration fighter contract, the XF-88A suffered a hydraulic failure and was badly damaged in a belly landing at Edwards AFB.  While the aircraft was disassembled and trucked back to St. Louis, the first prototype, now retrofitted with the afterburning J34-WE-15 engines and redesignated as a second XF-88A, was quickly prepared to take part in the USAF evaluation.