The best fighter of the 1950's.

[Lucky13]

Cool pic mate, thanks for sharing!

 

[Lucky13]

Update! J35A Draken was first delivered to fighter squadron F13 in December 1959! So this crate fits in here in this club.....

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I just found this after someone sent me a piece on the -106. My father in law is either flying the B-1 or the chase plane.

 

[davparlr]

My father in law ran the last operational F-106 squadron in the USAF. These were the chase planes used on the B-1B program. He said he also had a chance to fly dissimilar air combat simulations against F-15s, and depending on the pilot and scenario, sometimes the -106 would come out on top.

He said it lost a lot of energy in turns and didn't accelerate fast, but would continue to accelerate to the point where it would self destruct, one of the fastest aircraft he flew.

This is him in his aircraft

Lucky guy. I love the looks of the F-106, one of my selections of best looking aircraft. Unfortunately, when I graduated from pilot training, the only F-106s were in Guard units. We only had five fighters come down in our block, one of which was an F-100 which switched to an OV-10 for the unlucky guy, of a class of 52, I was 13. It would have been great to move into the 106, as one of my classmates did, who was in the Guard.

 

[Lucky13]

I have to ask though.... Wasn't it bl**dy annoying to have that frame right infront of you, like the early P-47's?

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I have to ask though.... Wasn't it bl**dy annoying to have that frame right infront of you, like the early P-47's?

I asked him about that and he said you just got used to it.

 

[Lucky13]

Right... Thanks!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Just got off the phone with him - In the picture I posted on the previous page, he's in the -106.

 

[Lucky13]

The lucky s-o-b.....whoops...sorry!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

The lucky s-o-b.....whoops...sorry!

"On July 4th 1987 86-0098 broke four existing world records and set 14 new ones during Freedom Flight I. The aircraft flew 2000 km with a payload of 30000 kg , breaking records for 1000 km and 2000 km at a variety of payload weights. The crew consisted of pilots Lt Col Robert Chamberlain and Capt Michael Walters, OSO Maj Richard Fisher and DSO Capt Nathan Gray. The records were all set in Class C-1q for aircraft with a takeoff weight of 150000 kg to 200000 kg."

Target Lock: B-1B : Squadron Service 1985 to 1992

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) - Aviation and Space World Records

 

[drgondog]

So what about a comparison between the Lightning and the F-106. Who's got the edge in your opinion ?

If you look at the mission - namely bomber killing interceptor - and maybe take on some unlikely escort with those bombers - I would go F-106 all day long. Far greater range for 106 vs Lightning and near equivalency against each other but superior to the 'other guy'

The intangible is that the 106 also had the lowest accident rate of any of the Century fighters for USAF. It was one helluva ship when all the bugs were ironed out of the fire control systems.

 

[davparlr]

It was one helluva ship when all the bugs were ironed out of the fire control systems.

If it was available, I would have jumped on that plane in a flash, even if F4s would had been available. Hot jet, single seater, and great looking. The F4 slots were all, I believe, back seaters. The AF used pilots as Weapon Systems Officers in the F4. You had to pull a tour in the back before you move up front.

 

[Soren]

At the same load (4038 lbs) as what generated the 1.02 T/W of the lightning, I get .86 of for the F-106 (loaded weight of 28458 lbs).

The loaded weight of the F-106 is 38,700 lbs according to this place, which seems to be a very reliable source: F-106 Delta Dart - Specifications

So that's actually a wing loading of 285 kg/m^2 and a T/W ratio of 0.63. Abit worse than before when using the figures from Wiki.

Max loaded weight is 41,831 lbs according to the site.

 

[Soren]

If you look at the mission - namely bomber killing interceptor - and maybe take on some unlikely escort with those bombers - I would go F-106 all day long. Far greater range for 106 vs Lightning and near equivalency against each other but superior to the 'other guy'

The intangible is that the 106 also had the lowest accident rate of any of the Century fighters for USAF. It was one helluva ship when all the bugs were ironed out of the fire control systems.

I'd choose the Lightning I must admit. The reason being that the Lightning turns climbs much better than the F-106, plus it's got a higher ceiling as-well.

The only two things the F-106 seems to have going for it is its' speed range.

So apart from the fact that the F-106 has over double the range, I can't really see why you'd choose it over the Lightning ? Atleast not for defense. For escort, yes, then I can see why and I'd agree.

 

[red admiral]

From reading more about the F-106 I'm beginning to be even more unsure about the weapons system. There were a lot of problems with the MA-1 integrated fire control system and its coupled to missiles that aren't particularly good. The performance of the AIM-4s is not great and they have very small warheads (The US is using 8lb warheads to shoot down bombers whilst at the same time the UK is using 150lb warheads?) with contact fuses. Guidance is a bit so so, but salvos of missiles would make it a bit more effective. Even so, assuming the hit probability of the AIM-7 a decade later things don't look too good. It pretty much leaves the Genie unguided nuclear rocket as the only effective armament.

The Lightning has Firestreak and cannons in this period. Firestreak is more complicated but has a wider engagement range, much larger warhead and actually seemed to work reasonably well.

 

[neilf92]

Scimitar - just 'cause I used to see them low level near my school as a youngster . Made a big impression.

 

[drgondog]

I'd choose the Lightning I must admit. The reason being that the Lightning turns climbs much better than the F-106, plus it's got a higher ceiling as-well.

The only two things the F-106 seems to have going for it is its' speed range.

So apart from the fact that the F-106 has over double the range, I can't really see why you'd choose it over the Lightning ? Atleast not for defense. For escort, yes, then I can see why and I'd agree.

The fact the 106 manuevered extremely well against the F-15 is a very high testimonial on it's manueverability with a fighter 20 years younger.

It would be nice if we had access to a Red Flag type exercise between the 106 and Lightning but I haven't found anything of that nature.

It had no role as an escort. The 102 performed that a couple of times in Nam but that wasn't its mission either.

 

[Waynos]

If there are any 106's available maybe Thunder City could arrange a flyoff. How cool would that be!

 

[Soren]

The fact the 106 manuevered extremely well against the F-15 is a very high testimonial on it's manueverability with a fighter 20 years younger.

It probably maneuvered very well at some speeds, esp. in roll rate, but the Delta wing isn't suited for turn fighting. And that coupled with the much lower T/W ratio means that the F-106 most likely got its ass handed to it in any form of turn fight with either the Lightning or F-15.

It would be nice if we had access to a Red Flag type exercise between the 106 and Lightning but I haven't found anything of that nature.

Agreed.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

As mentioned earlier, my father in law took his -106s up against F-15 and sometimes they (the -106 guys) would come out on top and I think in the exercises they exploited their speed and roll rates as Soren mentions. At the same time a few of his aircraft were brought back to the Rockwell facility with some screw heads popped off wing panels. His maintenance chief would have fits. BTW, he's one of the guys who put together this page.

F-106 Delta Dart - B1B Chase Program

Looking around, I found this. Again my father in law's airplane

erv40large

This is what the last operational 106 flight line looked like

erv44large