during the early years of the cold war, the united states air force experimented with a variety of parasite fighters to protect its convair b-36 bombers, including the dedicated xf-85 goblin, and methods of either carrying a republic f-84 thunderjet in the bomber's bomb bay (the ficon project), or attached to the bomber's wingtips (project tom-tom). one configuration studied for the xf-85/b-36 combination was for a b-36 to drop the xf-85 for a dash across enemy territory for bombing or reconnaissance and for the pilot to hook onto a different b-36 on the other side of the enemy territory. these projects were all soon abandoned, partly because aerial refueling appeared as a much safer solution to extend the range of fighters.