Parasite fighter
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A parasite fighter is a parasite fighter aircraft intended to be carried into a combat zone by a larger aircraft, such as a bomber. If the bomber were threatened, it would be able to release the parasite to defend itself. Parasite fighters have never been highly successful and have seldom been used in actual combat. Projects for this type were designed to overcome the massive disparity in range between bombers and their escort fighters. Apart from the fact that none of these schemes worked particularly well, aerial refuelling has done away with the need for such schemes.
The first parasite fighters were carried aboard military airships. As early as 1918, the Royal Air Force launched Sopwith Camel fighters from HMA 23, and tried again with Gloster Grebes on the R.33 in 1925. In the following decade, two U.S. Navy airships, the USS Akron and USS Macon were built with parasite fighter carrying capabilities designed into them from the start. Although operations with F9C Sparrowhawks were quite successful, the loss of both airships in crashes put an end to this programme.
The first bombers to carry parasite fighters did so as part of experiments carried out in the Soviet Union by Vladimir Vakhmistrov from 1931 onwards. Up to five fighters of various types were carried by Tupolev TB-2 and TB-3 bombers. One of these combinations would fly the only combat mission ever undertaken by parasite fighters when a TB-2 carrying Polikarpov SPB dive bombers attacked the Negra Voda bridge in Romania in 1941.
Later in World War II, the Luftwaffe experimented with the Messerschmitt Me 328 as a parasite fighter, but problems with its pulsejet engines could not be overcome. Other late-war rocket-powered projects such as the Arado E.381 and Sombold So 344 never left the drawing board.
During the early years of the Cold War, the United States Air Force experimented with a variety of parasite fighters to protect its Convair B-36 bombers, including the dedicated XF-85 Goblin, and methods of either carrying a F-84 Thunderjet in the bomber's bomb bay (the "FICON project"), or attached to the bomber's wingtips ("Project Tom Tom"). These projects were all abandoned before long.
See also: Parasite aircraft