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This page is about the American jet fighter F-89D. For other version, see F-89B.

F-89D
F-89B

USA V Rank

Battle rating: Class:

PREMIUM Fighter
AB RB SB
Jet fighter
Description 7.3 7.7 7.3

The F-89D is a premium rank V American Purchase:

jet fighter with a battle rating of 7.3
(AB/SB) and 7.7 (RB). It was introduced
3 770
in Update 1.91 "Night Vision".
Show in game
The F-89D Scorpion was designed and
built to be an all-weather interceptor
intended to neutralize any potential invading Soviet
bomber force. The USAAF was intent of replacing the P-
61 Black Widow with another night fighter, one
specifically which would fly faster (minimum 530
Contents
mph/850 kph) almost assuredly requiring the usage of jets,
six sixty-calibre machine guns or 20 mm autocannons and 1 Description
armed with internally stored aerial rockets. To round out 2 General info
the aircraft for ground attack if needed, it would also need 2.1 Flight performance
to accommodate 1,000 lb bombs and eight larger rocket 2.1.1 Details
types externally. Initial wind tunnel testing of the fighter 2.1.2 Engine performance
determined that the proposed swept-wings were 2.2 Survivability and armour
insufficient at slow speeds and were changed out with 2.3 Modifications and economy
straight wings. Though causing a loss of high-end 3 Armaments
performance, increased stability at low speeds was 3.1 Suspended armament
necessary. 4 Usage in battles
4.1 Ground attacker
Other changes to the horizontal stabilizer also increased the 4.2 Fighter
effectiveness of the elevators and rudder. Concerns about
4.3 SB EC
the fuel tanks situated right over the engines were nullified
4.4 Radars
when it was determined that efforts made by Northrop to
4.5 Pros and cons
protect them were considered sufficient, anything else
would have required a complete redesign of the aircraft. 5 History
6 Media
Other key features of the Scorpion was the usage of 7 See also
decelerons or clamshell-style split ailerons which work as a 8 External links
standard aileron, however, can open up as a dive brake or
be utilized as a takeoff/landing flap. Last-minute changes
by the Air Force required upgrading the engines and outfitting an afterburner, adding a radar system, fire
control system, permanent wingtip fuel tanks, reconfigured nose guns and easy access to lower the entire
engine to make for easier maintenance.

Having determined that the six autocannons originally specced with the F-89A and B models would be less
effective against bomber formations as it requires relative precision to damage or destroy the enemy
bombers. On the other hand, a new requirement for the F-89 to house 104 Folding-Fin Mighty Mouse Aerial
Rockets and underwing HVAR rockets would allow the F-89 (now designated as the F-89D) the ability to
launch salvos of rockets and quickly targeting another bomber to launch more and allow for the potential of
one or more rockets in the salvo to accomplish the required amount of damage necessary to destroy them or
cause them to turn around and retreat. Though unguided and not terribly accurate, a salvo of rockets
typically allowed for one or two rockets to explode near enough to be a successful hit.

To aid in the aerodynamics of the rocket launchers, they were outfitted around the wing-tip fuel tanks.
Engineered so that the launching rockets would not damage the fuel tanks, the underwing still allowed for
the mounting of the larger HVAR rockets to be used against bombers, but also along with the FFAR rockets
be used against ground targets. The F-89D though best used with higher speeds, can be used as a dive-
bomber of sorts, when going against ground targets, the fighter should throttle back, extend dive brakes, line
up the shot and fire the rockets. Immediately when finished firing, retract the brakes and full-throttle the
engines to gain speed and distance from any enemy fighters which may have targeted you.

General info
Flight performance

Air brakes
Allows you to dramatically reduce the
flight speed by releasing special flaps

Max speed
at 3 200 m 1 022 km/h

Turn time 33 s

Max altitude 14 996 m

Engine 2 х Allison J35-A-35

Type
Cooling system Air

Take-off weight 20 t
The F-89D just like its previous variant has an amazing performance. Its level speed is outstanding but
depends a lot on the altitude: near the ground it is being limited by the plane's structural limit which is 920
km/h IAS (a warning shows up at 870 km/h IAS) and it is very easy to get to that speed. The plane will keep
accelerating even after exceeding it because of its powerful afterburner and that can end up in breaking
wings if the player is not careful. Maximum level speed can be achieved at around 3000 m altitude where it
reaches 1022 km/h and that makes it one of the fastest planes at its Battle Rating.

The Climb rate of the Scorpion depends a lot on its loadout: it is very mediocre when the plane is fully
loaded with fuel and rockets, but gets way better when it is flying with 30 minutes of fuel or less. The main
armament (rockets) and its high count (104) affects the performance too. Once you have only a few rockets
left and the fuel amount is below 10 minutes the plane can even dogfight planes like the MiG-9. The other
aspect of this plane affected by its overall weight is acceleration and just like with the climb rate, the less of
them you have, the faster it will accelerate. While at high speed its acceleration is very good, once the speed
gets lower than 500 km/h it becomes mediocre at best. Sometimes it is a viable tactic to launch half the
amount of your rockets to get away from other planes and when the maximum level speed is reached then
start climbing to 3000 m where its performance is the best.

The F-89D's manoeuvrability varies a lot with its weight: when it is heavy its roll rate and turn rate very
poor, almost every jet fight at a similar BR should be able to win any fight where sustained turning
performance is needed, but once the plane gets lighter it can turn with some of worse turning jets like the
MiG-9 although it still loses to the MiG-15 or any similar plane. At low speed its energy retention is quite
poor, especially when the player will start performing tight turns and at high speed the player should be wary
of the high G turns as the Scorpion's G overload limit is only +8.5 G and -3.5 G when fully loaded. Overall
the performance is very good when the player is managing its loadout and speed properly and make the F-
89D excellent at causing a lot of damage to the enemy team together with the armament of 104 proximity
fuse rockets.

Max Speed
Max Turn time Rate of climb Take-
(km/h at
Characteristics altitude (seconds) (metres/second) off run
3,200 m)
(metres) (metres)
AB RB AB RB AB RB

Stock 1,009 1,002 33.3 34.8 31.1 26.7

14996 1,036
Upgraded 1,034 1,022 32.7 33.0 47.5 38.9

Details

Features

Take-
Combat Landing Air Arrestor Drogue
off
flaps flaps brakes gear chute
flaps

✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ X X
 Limits

Max
Flaps (km/h) Static
Wings Gear G
(km/h) (km/h)
Take-
Combat Landing + -
off

920 379 554 448 379 ~8 ~3

Optimal velocities (km/h)

Ailerons Rudder Elevators Radiator

< 760 < 800 < 700 N/A

Engine performance

Engine Aircraft mass

Engine name Number Empty mass Wing loading (full fuel)

Allison J35-A-35 2 12,509 kg 318 kg/m2

Engine characteristics Mass with fuel (no weapons load) Max

Weight Takeoff
Type 21m fuel 30m fuel 45m fuel 60m fuel 70m fuel Weight
(each)

Afterburning axial-flow 14,158 14,850 16,002 17,162 17,923

1,300 kg 20,301 kg
turbojet kg kg kg kg kg

Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB / SB) Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (WEP)

Condition 100% WEP 21m fuel 30m fuel 45m fuel 60m fuel 70m fuel MTOW

Stationary 2,303 kgf 3,051 kgf 0.43 0.41 0.38 0.36 0.34 0.30

2,350 kgf 3,237 kgf

Optimal 0.46 0.44 0.40 0.38 0.36 0.32
(100 km/h) (800 km/h)

Survivability and armour

Crew 2 people

Speed of destruction
Structural 920 km/h
Gear 379 km/h

The F-89D is quite a sturdy machine and won't crash from regular hits, both of the pilots in the cockpit have
control over the plane, so if one is knocked out, you can still fly him safe home. Not only are there two pilots
in this machine, but also two engines, which if one of them is shot out, the other can still thrust you back to
safety for repairs.
Losing a wing tip isn't a problem as you can still fly with it, with minor compensation for aerodynamics. The
thing that will mostly bring you down if you get caught in a firefight will be loss of control surfaces. So as
long as you still are able to control your plane, you're good to go.

Modifications and economy

Repair cost
AB 3 480
RB 7 700
SB 8 920

Crew training 10 000

Experts 590 000
Aces 1 800
Research Aces 1 550 000

Reward for battle AB / RB / SB

2 × 90 / 250 / 270 %
2 × 202 / 202 / 202 %

Modifications

Armaments
Suspended armament

List of setups (3)

The F-89D can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

104 x FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets

104 x FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets + 16 x HVAR rockets
104 x FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets M439

The F-89D is unique in its weapons loadout and stands out in a class of its own with the F-86D Sabre Dog in
that the only weapons found on the fighter/interceptor are unguided aerial rockets (both FFAR and HVAR).
It is not the intention of this aircraft to dogfight other fighters, instead its purpose is to was to eliminate
Soviet bombers. The F-89D when given the clearance, would zoom-climb to bomber altitude with its
afterburners engaged and then would utilise its Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets (Mighty Mouse) by shooting
salvos (with 104 total rockets on board, a few could be fired off or a large amount) at inbound bomber
aircraft. The rockets would spread out similar to how a shotgun works and the result should be enough
rockets make contact or explode near the bombers to take them out. While these unguided rockets may not
be accurate, with the amount on-board, many can be fired to increase the interceptor's chances of hitting. The
HVAR rockets are larger and only a few are mounted under the wings. These rockets should be reserved for
the larger and slower bombers, notwithstanding there are less to work with which decreases the chances to
hit compared to the FFARs.

While the F-89D was built and configured for aerial interception and destruction of aircraft, the rockets, both
FFAR and HVAR can be utilised on ground targets too. The F-89D is outfitted with decelerons which double
as speed brakes which open up in a clam-shell style. The Scorpion can dive on ground targets, engage the
dive brakes, line up the target and then unleash either the FFAR or HVAR rockets depending on the target
types. With the 104 FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets, enemy vehicles which are clustered together are an
excellent target to unleash salvos of rockets at. Another opportunity is during domination maps, the rockets
come in very handy for taking out aircraft which are attempting to cap the airfield as the rocket spread does
not need to be super accurate to still achieve a critical hit or destruction of the aircraft capping the airfield.

Usage in battles
There are two ways to play the F-89D, either as a ground pounder or as fighter with irregular ammunition,
being proximity fuse FFARs.

Ground attacker

When taking the F-89D as a ground pounder, the preferable loadout would be taking all the rockets possible,
104 FFARs + 16 HVARs. Pay close attention as the HVARs fire first before making use of the HVAR's.
Exploit the fact that the F-89D is among the fastest accelerating for its battle rating and when arriving near
targets will be quite relaxing as your enemies will still be on their way towards you.

Be warned that the FFAR pods are quite far away from each other and targeting isn't as easy as using the
HVARs, firing in salvo is advised, and having 104 rockets will be plenty enough before you have to re-arm.
Hit as much as you can and run away as soon as enemies are coming for your cannonless machine.

Fighter

The best way to achieve kills in the F-89D is by taking the proximity-fuse FFARs and playing it by boom
and zooming, making great use of the high acceleration and fast climb rate. The rockets are quite inaccurate
because of the fact they're spread out so much, so shooting in salvo's is strongly advised. Although
extremely deadly in a head-on, rockets are however heavily to moderately affected by RNG, giving mixed
results: sometimes they can annihilate and other times you can get hit after hit.

SB EC

The F-89D is very effective when used as a fighter: thanks to its proximity fuse rockets and radar, it is able
to engage and destroy the enemy planes from between 1000 m and 2000 m away. The amount of proximity
fuse rockets allows it to score lots of kills in one sortie, especially when the player gets used to their
trajectory and will need only a few rockets to destroy a single plane. Its radar can help a lot with measuring
the range and getting a good lead, but everything still should be engaged only from two positions, from the
front or behind. Any high deflection shooting should be avoided, unless when the enemy plane notices you
and when that happens, it is recommended to get a radar lock and then use it to get a firing solution (radar
lock box is visible even through the instrument panel in the cockpit).

Any dogfighting should be avoided, it will only make the plane slower and vulnerable to faster enemies: the
plane is very easy to hit because of its size and it will not be possible to win that fight anyway because of
poor manoeuvrability. It is best to attack them from behind from ~1500 m away and when the attack failed
then fly away in a straight line or start climbing at high speed, the only exception from that is only when the
player has the low fuel amount and 10-20 rockets left, in that situation it can outturn the MiG-9 and anything
else with the similar turn rate. In case when you notice an enemy fighter getting close to you from the rear it
is the best to enter a very shallow dive, steep diving is not recommended because of low structural speed at
lower altitude and the fact that most of the enemy fighters that the player will meet in SB EC 5 have much
higher speed limit, for some of them it is even 1000 km/h IAS, while for the F-89D it is only 920 km/h.
After the reaching maximum level speed the player should start climbing, then when the distance between
two planes open up the best option is to start climbing vertically and then fell on the enemy plane.

The most dangerous enemies in SB EC 5 are the Meteor F.4, Yak-23, MiG-9/L, Ho 229 and all Japanese jet
fighters (mainly the R2Y2). The Meteor outperforms in it all aspects except for the level speed above 3000m
alt, the MiG-9 is superior only in the sustained turn rate when the F-89D is fully loaded. The Ho 229 can be
easily outclimbed, but the player should keep in mind that it has very good energy retention and
underestimating it is a bad idea and both Japanese jet types are just very good planes.

When using it against bombers the player should be very cautious of the enemy gunners, in SB EC 5 some
planes can take out attacking planes from even 2000 m away, so it is the best to launch a few rockets at them
as soon as you get a radar lock and getting closer than 1000 m should be avoided. Since most of them are
going to always fly in a straight line it is recommended to take a proper position before attacking them and
do not go for a high deflection attack where you can miss and waste a lot of rockets, the most effective tactic
is to stay out of their gunners range and fly 3000 - 4000 m behind them, turn around, then start launching
missiles at them from the same altitude, it will make the aiming easier and they will not be able to damage
your plane from that distance. It is possible to take out the entire formation of AI bombers in only one attack
from behind in less than 30 seconds.

Generally the best tactics in EC is to fly at 1000 - 3000 m altitude while maintaing a speed of at least 750
km/h, the afterburner shouldn't be used all the time because of fuel consumption and loading more fuel
before the takeoff (45 minutes and more) decreases its climb rate and acceleration by a lot.

Radars

The F-89D is equipped with an AN/APG-33 tracking radar, located in the nose of the aircraft.

AN/APG-33 - Target tracking radar

Maximum Minimum
Azimuth Tracking Elevation Tracking
Tracking Tracking
Angle Angle
Range Range

2,000 m 150 m ±5° ±5°

Pros and cons

Pros:
 Fearsome rocket armament, both Mighty Mouse and HVARs
Decent high-speed manoeuvrability
Dual-engine, can fly with one (though, head back to base!)
Targeting radar equipped
Bomber interceptor or ground attacker role capable
Armament will be able to easily destroy enemy planes in a head-on
Use of decelerons as ailerons, dive brakes (clamshell-type) or flaps

Cons:

No autocannon armament
Rockets are inaccurate, odds increased when launched in salvos
Not very manoeuvrable at low speeds
Large target wing-surface
Heavy wing-tips, losing one throws the aircraft off balance
Not as nimble as single-engine MiGs

History
Almost immediately after WWII,
the Nothrop Corporation began
developing an experimental jet
fighter-interceptor to meet the
new requirements for that class
of aircraft. The American
interceptor's primary targets were
supposed to be Soviet bombers,
so the projected model's flight
characteristics and armament had
to meet this objective. At first
the two-seater twin-engine jet
was developed to have a rather
interesting four gun turret. This
turret was to be mounted on the F-89D at cruising altitude.
aircraft's nose and could fire on
targets either automatically or
manually along a vertical plane either forward, up, down or, in some cases, backward. However, when the
experimental model of the aircraft was ready, the turret still hadn't undergone testing yet, so the military
decided to install traditional static frontal guns on it, as well as HVARs on the wing pylons. It was with this
loadout that the Scorpion F-89A and F-89B went into service. The armament was switched exclusively to
rockets somewhat later. To make the change to rockets, the designers implemented an interesting solution:
Mighty Mouse unguided rockets were installed on the front of the wing-mounted fuel tanks in such a way
that the rocket and fuel sections of this part of the design were separated by a fireproof barrier. This also
made it possible to install heavier, more destructive HVARs under the wing. The F-89D or "rocket" version
of the Scorpion went on to become the most widespread version of the aircraft in the US air force – 682 of
them were manufactured.

- From Devblog
Media
Skins

Skins and camouflages for the F-89D from live.warthunder.com. (https://live.warthunder.com/fe

ed/camouflages/?vehicleCountry=usa&vehicleType=aircraft&vehicleClass=fighter&vehicle=f-8
9d)

Images
Videos

PROXIMITY ANTI-AIR ROCKE…

Proximity anti-air rockets - R.I.P. everything -

PhlyDaily

See also
F-89B - Cannon-armed variant of the jet.

External links
[Development] F-89B and F-89D Scorpion: Jet Bros
Official data sheet - more details about the performance (https://forum.warthunder.com/index.ph
p?/topic/463055-f-89d-scorpion/)

Northrop Corporation [Expand]

USA jet aircraft [Expand]

USA premium aircraft [Expand]

Retrieved from "https://wiki.warthunder.com/index.php?title=F-89D&oldid=108076"

This page was last edited on 31 July 2021, at 07:20.

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