While never built in great numbers,
the Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk holds a place in aviation history as the famous U.S. airship-based fighter.
Built in even fewer numbers and utterly forgotten today is an aircraft it inspired, the YF9C-2XL Super Sparrowhawk.
Envisaged as a more streamlined, modern follow-on to the F9C, the YF9C-2XL Super Sparrowhawk was the first U.S. Navy aircraft to feature a fully retractable sky hook and tail wheel.
Flight testing proceeded apace and the Sparrowhawk prototype successfully hooked on to the Navy airship
U.S.S. Bacon and was again launched from it a moment later.
The
U.S.S. Bacon and its YF9C-2XL were slated to take part in Fleet Problem LXXVIII in the Bering Sea in the spring of 1935. Accordingly, the Super Sparrowhawk was given temporary war games camouflage.
The YF9C-2XL was launched for a scounting mission and later spotted the "enemy" fleet but was forced to return to the
U.S.S. Bacon to make a report in person due to radio problems.
Unfortunately, while hook-on tests had been flawless off the coast of sunny San Diego, no one had reckoned on the effects of a colder climate on the aircraft's complex systems.
The Super Sparrowhawk's skyhook failed to deploy due to ice in the hydraulic actuator and the YF9C-2XL was forced to make an emergency landing on the "enemy" carrier
U.S.S. Saratoga. This was the first documented incident of a U.S. Navy scout reporting enemy movements directly to the enemy and it was considered quite an intelligence breakthrough at the time.
Since the new fighter was proposed as a modified F9C-2 but had less than 6% parts commonality with the original Sparrowhawk, Congress refused to fund production and the prototype was the only one ever built. The lone Super Sparrowhawk was soon scrapped after being tested to destruction as an uninstructional airframe.
Despite its brief historic role, a lack of documentary evidence prevents the so-called "experts" from being hooked by the Curtiss YF9C-2XL Super Sparrowhawk but some of us know better.
Brian da Basher