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| F-106 Delta Dagger |
Convair F-106 Delta Dart
First Flight: 1956,
December 26
Type: Single-seat
interceptor
Power:
Pratt
& Whitney P-17 turbojet engine
11,113kg
/ 24,500lb after-burning thrust
Armament:
M61A-1
20mm / 0.78 cannon (1)
AIM-4Falcon
AAM (4)
AIR-2A
Genie air-to-air nuclear missile – 1.5 kiloton warhead
Size:
Length: 21.55m / 70ft 8.75in
Height: 6.18m / 20ft 3.3in
Wingspan: 11.67m / 38ft 2.5in
Wing
area: 64.8m2 / 697.8ft2
Weights:
Empty: 10,800kg / 23,814lb
Normal: 16,012kg / 35,500lb
Max
Take-off: 17,350kg / 38,250lb
Performance:
Max
Speed: 2393kph / 1487mph / Mach
2.25 @ 40,000ft w/out tanks
Ceiling: 17,680m / 58,000ft - sustained
Range: 3138km / 1950 miles – external
tanks
1850km
/ 1150 miles – internal fuel
Climb: 9144m / 30,000ft per minute
17,374m
/ 57,000ft – 4.5 minutes
Production:
F-106A: 277
F-106B: 63 (two-seat)
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| Indented fuselage over wing aided streamlining |
The nuclear weapon that destroyed Hiroshima had the blast
equivalent of 14,000 tons of TNT. A
nuclear weapon targeting a city during the Cold War would likely be over 70 times
that powerful. These thermonuclear
weapons were measured in megatons, or increments of a blast equaling 1,000,000
tons of TNT. A one megaton explosion would
create a blast of heat that would instantly ignite fabric and paper six miles
from the detonation. The old ‘Duck and
Cover’ drills practiced by school kids in the 50s had the benefit of giving
people a false sense of hope. In reality,
the few survivors there were of such a blast would likely hope death would
relieve them of their misery.
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| Genie missile capable of carrying nuclear warhead |
When the F-106 was being developed during the 1950s both the
Soviet Union and the United States were limited to the use of strategic bombers
for delivering their nuclear devastation on an opposing city. Assessing the Soviet inventory U.S. military
planners most feared the Tupolev Tu-95 ‘Bear’.
It was capable of flying long distances at very high altitudes. Its likely path of attack was over the Arctic
Circle from a base somewhere in northeast Siberia. A network of very large radar installations,
known as the DEW Line (Distant Early Warning) was set up to meet this
threat. Likewise a number of jet
interceptors were designed during this period with the exclusive purpose of
intercepting these Russian bombers before they could reach their North American
targets. Among these aircraft were the
F-89 Scorpion, the F-94 Starfire and the F-102 Delta Dagger. None of them adequately met the requirements
of the Air Force’s Air Defense Command. The
United States Air Force wanted an aircraft capable of flying Mach 2, twice the
speed of sound, and be able to reliably destroy an enemy bomber even if it were
flying well above 50,000 feet.
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| Tupolev Tu-95 'Bear' - best Russian strategic bomber |
The initial flights
of the prototype F-106 in late 1956 were disappointing. There naturally was some grumbling about
scrapping the program but the plane showed potential. Its avionics were absolutely revolutionary if
only they could make it work. An
aircraft promising a technological leap in aviation is going to take time to
properly develop. No one should really
be surprised that the F-106 would not become operational for another three
years. When the F-106 Delta Dart, or
simply Six as it was referred to by
its pilots, went into service with the Air Force in 1959 it could already go
twice the speed of its predecessor the F-102.
The instrumentation featured a Tactical Information Display that graphically
summarized the current situation by pointing out where you were, where your
target was in relation to you as well as other contemporary information
relevant to the pilot’s mission. The
F-106 had infrared target acquisition technology to back up its radar-based, Hughes
MA-1 fire control system. It took Hughes
Aircraft years to get this setup right but it was worth the wait. The cutting-edge avionics were computerized,
digitized and data-linked with those manning the powerful radars on the ground. If you were part of this system put together
by ADC (Air Defense Command) you had to feel any enemy bomber formation coming
over the Arctic horizon was doomed. Your
feeling of security and well-being was short-lived.
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| New air intakes for powerful and thirsty jet engine |
Within a couple of years both the United States and Soviet
Union were bringing on line a new technology that made the Buck Rogers cockpit
of the F-106 irrelevant. There simply
was no defensive response to the launch of a nuclear tipped Intercontinental Ballistic
Missile. You make your peace with God
and comfortably sit in your favorite easy chair waiting to be vaporized. Around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis some
entrepreneurial types offered to sell their neighbors bomb shelters for the
back yard. When it wasn’t being used on
doomsday it made for a great family rec room.
Such were the unintended benefits of the Cold War.
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| F-106 - pilots simply referred to it as Six |
The F-106 was an impressive aircraft. It even displayed remarkable dogfighting
characteristics although that never was its designers’ intent. It remained on duty as this nation’s primary defense
against air attack well into the 1970s, shadowing curious Tupolev ‘Bears’
snooping off the coast of Alaska and keeping Soviet aircraft an honest distance
from the American east coast while on their way to Cuba. It was clear the threat of nuclear
annihilation now came from giant land-based ballistic missiles and from
missiles launched from submerged submarines hidden somewhere in the vast spaces
of ocean. Still, so long as there were
bombers capable of flying thousands of miles there would continue to be someone
on patrol in a cockpit ready to respond.
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| America's original seven astronauts pose by F-106 |
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