Subject: Number 106 in the Series--Convair F-106 Delta Dart (3 of 4)

From: [email-masked]
Date: 24 Feb 94 17:35:48 GMT

>From [email-masked]

The F-106C/D (Model 8-28/8-29) was a 1956 design study for a Delta Dart 
follow-on.  This study envisaged an interceptor with a canard layout 
that was powered by a JT4B-22 turbojet fed by rectangular air intakes.  
Originally known as the F-106X, it was to have a fire control system 
fed by a 40-inch radar dish.  The C was the single seater, the D the 
two-seat version.  The F-106X was extremely advanced for its time--a 
Mach 5 performance was envisaged.  

At one time the Air Force had considered acquiring 350 of these 
advanced interceptors, but the F-106X project was cancelled on September 
23, 1958.  

Following the cancellation of the Model 8-28/29 project, two 
production F-106As (57-239 and 57-240) were modified to test the new 
radar housing with a five-foot nose extension.  They made ten flights 
with this new nose in 1959.  

Sources:

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
  Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.

  Fighters of the United States Air Force, Robert F. Dorr and
  David Donald, Temple Press Aerospace, 1990.

  American Combat Planes, Third Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner, Doubleday,
  1982.

  Post-World War II Fighters, 1945-1973, Marcelle Size Knaack,
  Office of Air Force History, 1986. 

  General Dynamics Aircraft and their Predecessors, John Wegg, Naval
  Institute Press, Naval Institute Press, 1990.

Joe Baugher		AT&T Bell Laboratories   	
2000 North Naperville Road      Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033