rides

Still Convair,

The F-106 emerged from the USAF's 1954 interceptor program of the early 1950s as an advanced derivative of the F-102 Delta Dagger known as the F-102B, for which the United States Air Force placed an order for in November 1955. The aircraft featured so many modifications and design changes it became a new design in its own right, redesignated F-106 on 17 June 1956.[3]

The F-102's delta wing had to be redesigned with an area ruled fuselage to exceed supersonic speed in level flight. To exceed Mach 2, the largely new F-106 featured a more powerful J-75-P-17 afterburning turbojet with enlarged intake diameter to compensate for the increased airflow requirements and a variable geometry inlet duct, which allowed the aircraft improved performance particularly at supersonic speeds, as well as permitting a shorter inlet duct. The fuselage was cleaned up and simplified in many ways featuring a modified, slightly enlarged wing area and a redesigned vertical tail surface. The aircraft's exhaust nozzle featured a device known as an idle thrust reducer, which allowed taxiing without the jet blast blowing unsecured objects around, without adversely affecting performance at high thrust levels, including afterburners. The fuselage was also slightly longer than the F-102 Delta Dagger's.

Chasing a Bear:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Well, there were some two-seat F-106Bs, but I doubt if any of those are still around. The 106 started out as an upgrade of the 102 but by the time Convair was done it was virtually an all-new airplane, and much faster.

Incidentally, the JT3C and JT4A turbojets that powered the early U.S. jetliners before turbofans replaced them were basically just civilian versions of the J57 and J75, respectively.

The JT3D turbofan still used the core of the J57, but in military use, it got a new designation, TF33. That was used on many of the military versions of the 707 and was retrofitted to some KC-135s, and also powered the C-141.

And the GE engine that powered the Convair 880, which I believe was the CJ805, was a civilianized J79, the same engine as in the F-104 and F-4, though without afterburner, of course. The 990 used a version of the same engine with an aft fan added.

 

I can't imagine any flyable F-106's still being around. They could barely keep them in the air as targets in 1995. I remember the expediter telling me that they had 12 class A mishaps that year. He told me the last one occured during a normal landing where the landing gear puched up through the fuselage and into the fuel cell.

Jim

 

Jim- We used some of them for DACT in the 70s and early 80s. Thing actually turned really well and was a pretty good Mig-21/29 analog, except much larger. My friends that flew them enjoyed flying them except the ADC mission was so bloody boring most of the time sitting Zulu alert. They were armed with live, nuclear tipped AIR-2A Genie unguided rockets as late as 1988. That really complicated the mission.

That mission was even worse than when I sat Victor alert.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I know the F-4 was offline for a while, but I had been signed up a few years ago before it went dormant. Cost then was $10K, two days in Texas. Day one is classroom, day two AM is ejection and egress training, then 1.0 hour flight over water.

Requirements were pilot license and current flight physical, so it kept some people out who did not already have a license.

Rotating pilots, including Steve Ritchie every now and then.

 

Canadian CF-101B Voodoo nuclear posture (up to 84 when they got rid of them) was to do a full squadron "mass load" of the Genie and place everyone on 15 minute runway alert, but only if D2 was reached. The rest of the time Falcons were the only AAM loaded for "peace time" Zulu duty, while the Genie's sat in one of our blockhouses and the Americans held the warheads and PAL codes in a different WSA all together.

The 106 was one of the most beautiful fighter jets ever designed IMHO.............

 

A couple years ago i thought there was a guy out of Van Nuys who was giving 30 minute L39 rides for something like $1800.

 

Kds- They actually launched a live one off of an F-89J and had volunteers on the ground below the reaction. No problem and they did not even get much of a dose. They were trying to doscover if you could use them above a major metropolitan area. A scarey thought, but apparently possible with virtually no collateral damage. The warhead was ~1.5 Kt, IIRC.

We had the same arrangement for nukes with several nations like we did for Canada. We maintained the stockpile and controlled when and where they went. No comment on current arrangements. I was a voting member on the Nuclear Weapon System Safety Group and did Nuclear Surety Inspections during my last active duty years. That was 15-20 years ago. Taught nukes for years before that. Victor Alert (15 minute alert) is pretty much dead now. Big new emphasis on nukes now after the firing of the Secretary of the AF and Chief of Staff over nuclear incidents. That is really serious crap and neither incident could have happened a couple of decades ago. No practice equals no clue.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Terry.....

Yeah I read about that from one of the volunteers who stood underneath the blast......his article was written some 40+ years later.......from what I remember, in order to alleviate fears of detonation over a friendy city at a low altitude, the Genie also had very specific fusing that wouldn't permit final arming of the warhead before firing (IIRC which was not pilot controlled BTW) until they had reached a certain altitude, and then accelerated past a certain speed, while still hanging on the aircraft..........