The retiring F-14 Tomcat wasn’t the only swinging cat to emerge from the vaunted Grumman Ironworks. In May 1952, nearly two decades before the Tomcat’s first flight, famed test pilot Corwin H. "Corky" Meyer put the XF10F-1 Jaguar through its paces—sort of—in a test program that lasted only 32 flights. Despite the Jaguar’s many problems, tests of the its movable, swing wing proved that a speed-of-sound-capable aircraft could also fly slow enough to land on an aircraft carrier. His Jaguar experience led Meyer to recall a British test pilot’s report on another aircraft: "The entrance to the cockpit of this airplane is most difficult. It should have been made impossible!"
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