Lonnie Ortega Aviation Art

Print Size 8½" x 11" ----- Unlimited print edition 

 The F-89 "Scorpion" was a twin-engine, all-weather fighter-interceptor designed to locate, intercept and destroy enemy aircraft by day or night under all types of weather conditions. It carried a pilot in the forward cockpit and a radar operator in the rear who guided the pilot into the proper attack position. The first F-89 made its initial flight in August 1948 and deliveries to the Air Force began in July 1950. Northrop produced 1,050 F-89s. On July 19, 1957, a Genie test rocket was fired from an F-89J, the first time in history that an air-to-air rocket with a nuclear warhead was launched and detonated. Three hundred fifty F-89Ds were converted to J models, which became the Air Defense Command's first fighter-interceptor to carry nuclear armament. The National Museum of the United States Air Force has an F-89J on display.