Manufacturer: Douglas

Model: unknown

Name: Skydarter

Type: Jet fighter

Date: 1961

Status: Experimental

Country: United States of America

Service: U.S. Air Force (evaluation only)

Designation: YF-114

Not to be mistaken for the earlier Navy fighter called the Sky Dart, which resulted from a Navy-Convair-Douglas collaboration, the Skydarter was a unique design. Vaguely reminiscent of the Navy's Skylancer, it had a single nose intake reminiscent of North American's Sabre family, while the tail featured a V-shaped twin fin.

Three examples were built and evaluated by the U.S. Air Force as the YF-114A but the configuration didn't present enough advantages over other fighters then in service, so the Air Force lost interest.

The original photo was of a Douglas F5D Skylancer on a tarmac (see below right). The fuselage was shortened, the tail fin removed and reworked as two separate fins. The nose was cut. I reshaped other existing details and recreated others "from scratch".

I haven't seen any similarly configured aircraft so I really couldn't say whether the Skydarter would have flown well at all!

• A twin-fin fighter of the 1960s? Surprising (I mean: pleasantly surprising!) (Tophe)
• Love that Skydarter! (Robert)
• Looks cool! (theF-man)
• That piccie looks so REAL! Obviously taken on the South Ramp at Edwards AFB, and I've been there to recognise it. Makes me wonder what the F-112 and F-113 were.......? (PR19_Kit)

Thanks! The Boeing YF-112C Songbird and the Grumman YF-113 Cheetah can be found elsewhere in my gallery... But as you well know, the F-110 designation and those that followed were used for several projects, so there's still room for more to come!