On display at Florida Air Museum. This experimental VTOL aircraft was one of two prototypes built to a USN proposal to launch fighters from the afterdeck of ships. The XFV-1 was powered by a 5,850 hp Allison YT40-A-6 turboprop driving a pair of 16 ft. contra-rotating propellers. The design featured a cruciform tail with wheels mounted on struts. Called the Salmon after chief engineering test pilot Herman "Fish" Salmon, single flying prototype BuNo 138657 never achieved VTOL due to insufficient power. Fitted with a spindly fixed undercarriage, the XFV-1 was flown horizontally and held in hover.

The XFV-1 was in competition with the equally precarious Convair XFY-1 Pogo (my photo #21684) in 1954 for a high performance fighter that could be vertically launched from small platforms on ships. The sheer difficulty in flying these bizarre designs together with the rapid advance of conventional jets led to these projects being quickly abandoned. This was the second of two XFV-1s built and was not completed. Some sources say this survivor is actually the first (BuNo 138657), others that it was completed for display using parts from the first.

Del 16 Jun 1954 Preserved at Florida Air Museum, Lakeland Municipal Airport, Lakeland, Florida

Experimental VTOL naval interceptor fighter. Two procured. One flew. Project cancelled.

Experimental VTOL naval fighter of the mid 1950's powered by an Allison YT-40 turbine engine driving two-sections of contraprops. Tested at Edwards, it never flew fully VTOL.

Lockheed's experimental VTOL project. Two were built, but the design never managed vertical take-off. The project was cancelled in 1955, leaving the second aircraft (138658) incomplete without an engine. The flying prototype 138657 was donated to Hiller Aircraft for further VTOL testing, but its fate is unclear. Reliable sources say that only parts (engine and props) of this aircraft survived these tests, others say it is the aircraft that went on display in Florida in the mid 1990s, and that for reasons unknown it was painted as 138658...
Note: this design is often quoted as "XFV-1 Salmon", but it was in fact unnamed. Salmon was the name of Lockheed's test pilot for the project. Photo from: Library of Congress

An experimental VTOL aircraft, intended to take off and land as seen here. The identity of this aircraft is uncertain. Most say that it is the first prototype 138657, mysteriously painted as 138658. But reliable sources state that only parts (engine and props) of 138657 survived testing by Hiller Aircraft in the late 1950s. The second prototype 138658, left incomplete and without an engine when the design project was cancelled, went on display at NAS Los Alamitos and later at NOLF Imperial Beach until it disappeared in the early 1990s. Then in the mid 1990s the aircraft in this photo suddenly popped up in Florida. It seems likely then that this is in fact the real 138658 (with the props from 138657) and that it was painted correctly.