Military
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The Grumman F-9J Cougar came from the Navy’s highly successful early jet family, which evolved from the subsonic, straight-winged Panther of the Korean War into swept-wing Cougar variants including the F9F-6 and F9F-8. F9F-8Bs, redesignated F-9Js in 1962, were the first swept-wing Navy fighters equipped to deliver nuclear weapons. Flight testing of the new Cougar began at NAS Patuxent River’s Naval Air Test Center in 1952. Although it narrowly missed the Korean War, the Cougar served early in the Vietnam War as a Marine Corps Forward Air Control aircraft. The versatile series also included about 170 reconnaissance versions and a two-seat TF-9J trainer, with the last of 399 trainers serving the Navy until 1974. The Cougar flew with the Navy’s Blue Angels from 1955 into 1957. Bureau Number 144275 was delivered as an F9F-8, converted into an F9F-8B, later converted into a QF-9J target drone for the Pacific Missile Test Center at NAS Point Mugu, California, and after retirement in September 1966 was displayed in Richmond, Virginia, before transfer to PRNAM.
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