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| F-102A Delta Dagger |
Convair F-102 Delta Dagger / ‘Deuce’
First Flight: 1953, October 24
Type: Single-seat
interceptor
Power:
Pratt
& Whitney J57P-23 turbojet
5307kg
/ 11,700lb thrust
7802kg
/ 17,200lb afterburning thrust
Armament:
AIM-4C
Falcon infra-red homing air-to-air missiles (3)
AIM-26A
Nuclear Falcon
Or
AIM-4A
semi-active radar homing (3)
AIM-4C
Falcon infra-red air-to-air missiles (3)
Weapons System:
Hughes
MG-10 fire-control system
Track
several targets simultaneously – 50km / 31 miles
Lock-on
individual aircraft – 25km / 16 miles
Internal
weapons bay holds all armament to reduce drag
Size:
Wingspan: 11.62m / 38ft 1.5 in
Length: 20.84m / 68ft 5in
Height: 6.46m / 21ft 2.5in
Wing
Area: 61.45m2 /
661.5ft2
Weights:
Empty: 8630kg / 19,050lb
Load,
normal: 12,565kg / 27,700lb
Max
Take-off: 14,288kg / 31,500lb
Performance:
Max
speed: 1328kph / 825mph
Cruise: 869kph / 540mph @ 10,670m /
35,000ft
Ceiling: 16,460m / 54,000ft
Range: 2173km / 1350 miles – max
1610km
/ 1000 miles – 2 drop tanks / full armament
Fuel: 4107 liters / 1,085 gallons – internal, max
5735
liters / 1,515 gallons – drop tanks, 2
Climb: 5304m / 17,400ft per minute
Production: 875
aircraft delivered to the US Air Force
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| YF-102 pre-production model |
The early interceptors used by the US Air Force lacked the
necessary speed and climb rate to intercept enemy bombers far from their
intended target. The jets coming off the
drawing board following World War II were designed to be fighters, able to
maneuver in dogfights, although these first efforts like the F-80, F-84 and
F-94 were disappointing in this ability.
They also lacked thrust and swept-wing aerodynamics.
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| F-102 shadows Tu-95 Bear |
An interceptor doesn’t need dogfighting ability to defeat
bombers. It just needs speed and lots of
it. It also needs to pack a knockout punch
that will quickly dispatch a bomber from the sky. What the Air Force wanted for this role was
an airborne weapons system that could fly faster than the speed of sound at
level flight. Using gravity in a dive to
break the sound barrier was cheating. The
winning design was for a jet that would eventually come to be known as the
F-106 Delta Dart. It was a very
ambitious project and it was soon apparent that development would take too long
to meet the current threat posed by Soviet strategic bombers. The Air Force agreed to produce an interim
solution that would become the F-102 Delta Dagger, or ‘Deuce’ as it was called
by its pilots.
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| Early F-102s fired unguided Mighty Mouse missiles |
The F-102 benefitted from a research plane developed by
Convair in 1948. This was the XF-92. It was specifically designed to test research
Germany had done on developing a delta wing jet during World War Two. The knowledge gained from flying the XF-92
contributed considerably to the design of the F-102. Still, there were unanticipated
problems. Despite a powerful jet engine
the F-102 was not able to attain supersonic speed at level flight – a basic
requirement. The problem was the aircraft
wasn’t slippery enough in cutting through the atmosphere. It had an unexpected problem with drag. Transonic speed, or going faster than sound, required
the fuselage to be redesigned so that it was narrower over the wings and wider
on the ends. This became known as the “area
rule” and it resulted in a fuselage that vaguely resembled the shape of a Coke
bottle.
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| All armament was within an internal weapons bay |
The exotic fire control system developed by Hughes also delayed
the jet’s delivery date. Besides having
an airborne radar system capable of tracking multiple targets simultaneously,
it introduced an on-board computer to fighter-sized jets and it provided a
datalink system synchronized with the ground-control radar operator. It was a fine package but it proved to be a
difficult birth and when the F-102 finally went into service with the Air Force
in 1956 it was three years late.
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| XF-92 had a nose air intake |
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| Captured German war designs benefited the XF-92 |
Better late than never.
The F-102 performed admirably and at its peak it was flown by 26 squadrons
of the US Air Defense Command. It was
more than an interim solution. It was a
world-class interceptor in its own right and it made a significant contribution
to the history of Cold War aviation.
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| Tail bulge, or Marilyns, enabled supersonic flight |
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