Thanks for the update 'Low Observable' and thanks for the earlier relevant input. If I take up any of your time I do not apologise however.
Thanks 'JSFfan' for your link to the story about. A sidebar pointed to this little snippet about hook issues (let us not wish any of these on the F-35C) and some great anecdotes about Neil Armstrong in F9F Panthers and other tidbits - only go there if interested and do not consider your time being wasted....
Panthers At Sea By David Noland | Air & Space magazine, June 2013
Panthers At Sea | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine
"U.S. Navy Panthers weren’t highly evolved, but they could shoot. And they were air conditioned....
...The Grumman F9F Panther was a conservative design; it had straight wings, a conventional tail, and the rugged structure for which Grumman had earned the nickname “Iron Works.”...
...When the Navy took over testing of the Panther, the jet suffered an embarrassing moment hardly in keeping with Grumman’s reputation. During its first arrested landing, on a runway at the Navy’s test center at Patuxent River, Maryland, the sudden jolt to the tailhook pulled off the entire tail section. The engine was still firmly attached to the forward fuselage and running normally. The pilot, believing he had simply missed the cable, applied full power for a go-around. Alerted by radio to his predicament, the pilot aborted the tailless takeoff. (Subsequently, Grumman strengthened the tail attach joint.)
The Panther entered the fleet in 1949, and landings continued to present problems. “I flew the Panther during my first cruise on the USS Boxer,” says Robert Morris, a former Navy pilot who lives in San Diego, California. “I would end up in the barricade a number of times because of a faulty tailhook. The Panther had a bad hook dashpot [a hydraulic cylinder that dampens movement]. The hook would bounce up and down across the deck.” The Boxer, like other carriers, had a barrier that would catch an airplane in case of just such a problem with the arresting gear. On one trap, Morris put his Panther down in perfect position, but “the hook was skipping right over all the wires. On one of my barrier encounters, the canopy came off its hinges and hit me on the shoulder.”..."
1st Photo Caption: "If its tailhook failed to catch an arresting wire, a landing aircraft would be halted by a barrier. (National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)) Photo from: "Panthers At Sea""
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2nd Photo Caption: "Four months into the war, accidents weren’t uncommon. The F9F in the foreground was hit by another Panther that could not catch an arresting wire."
http://media.airspacemag.com/images/...-War-715-5.jpg
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http://media.airspacemag.com/images/...08_Panther.jpg
