F-106 Delta Dart
All-weather interceptor aircraft · 1956
The Convair F-106 Delta Dart is an all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Convair, a division of General Dynamics. The F-106 was designed as part of the 1954 interceptor program. Envisioned as an imagined "Ultimate Interceptor", it was a development of the F-102 Delta Dagger, and commenced as the F-102B prior to being redesignated by the United States Air Force (USAF).
The F-106 was designed without a gun or provision for carrying bombs, instead carrying its AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missiles within an internal weapons bay; its clean exterior was beneficial to supersonic flight. Major differences from the F-102 included the adoption of the more powerful Pratt & Whitney J75 turbojet engine, heavily redesigned air inlets along with a variable-geometry inlet duct to suit a wide range of supersonic speeds, and a general increase in size.
On 26 December 1956, flown by Richard L Johnson, the first prototype performed its maiden flight. After flight testing demonstrated lesser performance gains than anticipated, the USAF only ordered 350 of the planned 1,000 F-106s. Becoming operational in June 1959, the F-106 was the primary all-weather interceptor aircraft of the USAF through much of the Cold War era; it ended up being the last specialist interceptor to be used by the service to date.
