US's Lightning-Proof Super Fast Interceptor

The Convair F-106 Delta Dart is often called “the Ultimate Interceptor.” Created in the 1950s as a robust response to the growing threat of attack by Soviet bombers, it soon made its mark at the heart of the United States Air Force’s interceptor fleet.
Nicknamed “The Six,” its revolutionary design included a contoured “coke bottle” shape, delta wings, and highly advanced avionics, making it a fearsome opponent for enemy aircraft day and night, whatever the weather. What’s more, its potent Pratt & Whitney J75 engine boosted the F-106 to the supersonic realm, leading it to break the World Speed Record in 1959.
In its later years, it still stood as a pinnacle of Cold War aerospace engineering and even went on to join the ranks of NASA. Through the 1980s and 90s, it took part in a series of cutting-edge experiments, a fitting end for the remarkable career of “The Six.”

[@barryervin8536]

Some of the footage when talking about the 106 is actually the 102. And one photo is an F101 Voodoo. Also, I think you've got the part about the "Crew escape capsule" wrong. The F-111 had that. The F-106 used 3 different ejection seat designs during it's development but they were all ejection seats, not capsules.

[@brianmerz6070]

I remember these beauties flying out of Griffiss AFB in Rome,NY. I could hardly wait to see them in the airshows there. What a plane.

[@RogerSanGabriel]

What a beautiful plane.

[@frankuhler1514]

The most bad ass interceptor ever made.

[@stargazer5784]

Until the F-4 and F-15 came along. The Starfighter was pretty good as well, back in the day, but both the F-106 and F-104 lacked the ability to carry the heavy (16,000 lb.) and diverse ordinance loads that the Phantoms and Eagles could bring to a fight, at mach 2.5. The Tomcat was no slouch either. All of this being said, the Delta Darts and Starfighters were still amazing aircraft for their time periods. Absolutely beautiful designs. 👍

[@tonyclewes8]

The English Electric Lightning much better.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

​@@tonyclewes8Not really. But the fan boys think so...

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

​@@stargazer5784the mission was interception. It had no need to be a multirole.

[@desmondgriffith7855]

Was'nt the F104 know as the widow maker by german pilots?​@@stargazer5784

[@bobfeller604]

One of my favorites.

[@jernejfunkl8300]

Mine too...I agree :)

[@pixelnazgul]

I KNOW RIGHT

[@robertcombs55]

GREAT Post.....I love your site!!! I am a USAF Brat; remembering the 102 and the 106 at Tyndall AFB FL

[@rudolfabelin383]

A late friend of mine was the "Group Engineer" for the control systems on the F-106. His name was Björn "Andy" Andréasson, a Swede like me.

[@scottmurphy650]

The view out of the windscreen was extremely limited. Landing at night and in bad weather must have been a sphincter shrinking event

[@pablosuarez4592]

Pucker Factor to the value of Pi.

[@brealistic3542]

Later models of the 6 had much improved canopies with far better views.

[@Newstatejournal1]

I built a model of one of these around 1974.

[@user-dz8zn9br7c]

My first and favorite aircraft of my active duty career. Part of the west coast air defense system in the mid 70’s Klamath Falls Oregon. 1973-1975.

[@mcburcke]

I was stationed at Carswell AFB in Texas in the '70s and 80's in a section that recovered and launched aircraft that were just passing through, usually to refuel. I soon learned that the F-106s passing through had a somewhat unique occasional requirement for starting the engine for launch...if the engine didn't start rotating on the first try, all of the pilots carried a little ballpein hammer in the leg pocket of their flight suits, which you would get from the pilot, then open a hinged panel at the right aft of the fuselage by the engine bay, then use the hammer to smack the engine starter housing. Never failed to work...pilot turned the start switch and by golly, engine fires up as advertised! Button up the panel, give the hammer back to the pilot, and marshal the jet out to the taxiway. Job well done!

[@owensthilaire8189]

All those century fighters looked fantastic.

[@proteusnz99]

Think you are confusing the F-106 with the B-58. The B-58 did use escape capsules eventually. The early F-106 had a dangerous ejection system, see Jack Broughton’s book, “Rupert Red Two” about these problems.

[@JackNiles-hc8yz]

Don't believe everything Lyin' Jack said about those seats.

[@proteusnz99]

@@JackNiles-hc8yz Well, given that Col Broughton did combat tours, I’m willing to accept his version of events. That the F-106 wound up using 3 models of ejection seats would support the idea that there were deficiencies in the first two installed. Similar perhaps to the downward firing C-2 seat Lockheed put in the early F-104 being replaced by an upward launching MB in the F-104G.

[@JackNiles-hc8yz]

@@proteusnz99 Jack Broughton repeated an old rumor in his book that had no basis in fact, similar to the rumor I've seen in print about the Lockheed C1 seat in the Starfighter killing the first 21 pilots who tried to use it. Both rumors are bullshit. The MB seat replaced the upward-firing Lockheed C2 seat, but not every F-104G got the MB seat.

[@proteusnz99]

@@JackNiles-hc8yz To my mind the problem with the downward ejecting C1 (I stand corrected) seat was not in itself faulty, but the situations in which it was used especially low level engine failures at take-off meant it was too often unsuccessful (similar to B/N seat in B-47). My understanding is that Lockheed went with downward ejection to try and avoid pilot hitting the T-tail, when to C-2 when improved boost sequencing meant seat could clear tail without causing spinal injuries to the pilot.

[@JackNiles-hc8yz]

@@proteusnz99 Given all the problems they had with the J-79 engine, the C1 seat turned out to be a poor choice. It did work as advertised at altitude, however.

[@KingPantocrator]

Ejecting from an airplane that later on land itself unscathed is a little bit embarrassing

[@rick3514]

I worked in NORAD Air Defense Radar Operations at Luke AFB; 26th Air Divison/NORAD REGION for over 4 years, 1976 thru spring of 1980, in weapons control. The F-106 was a vey fast fighter/ interceptor.With one engine it would do Mach 2.34. It also could cary the Genie NUKE and also used DATA LINk from the NORAD computers that guided it to intercept, without talking to a weapons controller.

[@Trev0r98]

Strange as it may seem, the F-106 Delta Dart was as fast as the Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor. And it was 40 years older.

[@RogerSanGabriel]

I remember these are the tarmac at March AFB in Riverside in the late 1980's

[@dyer2cycle]

I've always loved the look of Delta-wing fighters(and the B-58, too)...I always wondered what the F-106 would have been like had they added a Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan, modern avionics, and perhaps canards.....

[@prowlus]

The Six never had escape capsules

[@gort8203]

Yes, this video is full of misinformation.

[@keithsargent6963]

That’s F- ONE -OH- SIX. NOT F 100 and 6.

[@bryanst.martin7134]

In the Computer's defense, it didn't write it's own program. No defense for the poster of this vid.

[@johnfontenot7861]

🤦‍♂️

[@bradyelich2745]

F-106 ejection seats proved fatal to the early pilots, killing all 12.

[@phil9410]

What a terrible statistic

[@dukeford8893]

I believe that is an exaggeration, like a lot of Jack Broughton's bullshit.

[@bradyelich2745]

@@dukeford8893 Go do some reading and learn something.

[@dukeford8893]

​@@bradyelich2745 I can read a USAF Accident Report, sport. Try it sometime. You might learn something yourself. The bobsled seats worked right from the start, with a few unfortunate incidents. It never killed 12 pilots. And if you want to believe Jack "I lied to my superiors and was forced to retire in disgrace" Broughton, go right ahead.

[@bradyelich2745]

@@dukeford8893 You should enlighten us with your findings, slick. So far, nothing new. Not like the US screw up and cover up, eh Boeing?

[@regispotasio4657]

He was beyond his time. Beginning of fighter aviation!

[@user-ym2ve7be8l]

If the Air Force would've given it anything close to a digital avionics suite, it would've flown until its airframe gave out (rated until 2022.) I second Proteus' point about the ejection system.

[@shadowgunner69]

The MA-1 System was upgraded to solid-state electronics late in it's life. I've read from MA-1 techs the code-1 percentage skyrocketed after the upgrade.

[@lindeleasley]

It had vacuum tubes throughout the aircraft's service life. I was a MA-1 tech, and worked in the MockUp, at Griffiss AFB, from 1978 to 1985. As far as the airframe goes, that's why they retired it, the planes started developing cracks in the wing roots. Making them not safe to fly.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

The aircraft no longer had a mission.

[@georgew.5639]

I was expecting this video to be about lightning research that used the aircraft to attract midair lightning strikes. It is a good video about the history of aircraft itself though.

[@KRW628]

Anybody know what the helmet-mounted optical device is at O6:27?

[@michelbrown1060]

The f-102 became F-106 following a meeting in NASA of CF-105 team engineers , canada Science engineer, who contested the probable flight caracteristics et A.V.ROE , and NASA top engineer. . . . The 3 days of questions answers, other questions . . It ended by NASA top heads saying : Supersonic is at this time, more of an ART then a science. . You face the same problems as we all do in the industry. . . Your solutions seem very plausible and promising. . . So yes your Arrow is a supersonic capable . . . There were North American engineers in the group. . and they brought in the Coke Bottle , solution to the Bernoulli theory for profiling airflow. . for trans-sonic and super-sonic airplane . to. modify the F-102 . . It changes so much that it became the f-106; a truly superconic controlled airplane. .

[@brealistic3542]

Beautiful Jet , the NY State National Guard operated them.

[@OmahaWayne]

Not a single bull shown :( 87th fis KI Sawyer 79-82

[@lindeleasley]

The Griff, 78 - 85.

[@amandastevenson4948]

This was actually pretty good always like the f-106 they were King until streak Eagle came along I sat in the cockpit of that 😁🇺🇲

[@joeatwood1346]

A lot of airplane for a little weapons system; looked impressive but the Falcon missile was a dog and the Genie was unguided. Still, I remember these things scrambling out of McChord, and Deuces out of Paine, and Voodoos out of Geiger. They all looked impressive but the intercept rate was about 25% according to the Sky Shield exercises in the early ‘60s.

[@proteusnz99]

The F-101B could carry TWO AIR-2A rockets

[@AugustusLarch]

There is nothing of the SAGE system. The integrated ground and air based radar network.

[@gort8203]

That would take knowledge and research on the part of the content creator. I gather from reading other comments that most consumers of KZbin videos are uncritical and happy to see anything at all in a video. The number of serious inaccuracies in this video is rather stunning.

[@AugustusLarch]

The area rule concept is often explained horribly. This video is no exception.

[@dukeford8893]

"Lightning-proof". Lol. Some folks will take serious (and probably irrational) exception to that.

[@gordonbesancon709]

THE AVRO ARROW WAS FASTER.

[@gort8203]

LOL. No it wasn't. Wasn't faster, wasn't even produced.

[@colinw7205]

@@gort8203 Prototypes were built and tested. I think that @gordonbesancon709 is actually right.

[@jamessnyder1175]

Pure speed. Looks fast sitting still.

[@HotelPapa100]

fails utterly to explain the core of the area rule.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

He explained that enough for the context of the topic.

[@robertbolding4182]

Bealls out in a chair while talking about capsules

[@eoinj3929]

Former President George W Bush flew the F106 in his younger days as Air Force officer

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

I believe he flew the 102.

[@brucemcglasson]

​@@WALTERBROADDUSYep. Your right.

[@colinw7205]

@@WALTERBROADDUS There was a running joke or I should say observation is that "W" was actually a better pilot than Sen, John McCain b/c the F-102 was a notoriously difficult plane to fly than the sweet handling A-4 Skyhawks that McCain flew and McCain all through his flying career had a nasty habit of losing whole airframes. This is where being a full admiral's son came in handy.

[@user-ih8fw7bu5p]

❤❤😂🎉😢😮

[@georgeburns7251]

The dialog was poor. You Obvisouly don’t know about fighter aircraft. Maybe you should develop content about cooking instead.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

Since you wish to play content creator; why don't you produce a video?

[@gort8203]

@@WALTERBROADDUS He didn't say he wants to be a content creator, he said this content was poor. The consumer has no right to judge the product?

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

@@gort8203 he seems to think he can do better? Let him try....🎬

[@gort8203]

@@WALTERBROADDUS He did say he can do better, he is just willing to criticize crap when he sees it. I guess he can't criticizes a bad Hollywood movie unless he can make a better one of those also.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

@@gort8203 it's pretty easy to throw stones in a greenhouse. It's kind of hard to place those glass panels however....

[@edwardteller5879]

i see French Mirage being copied !

[@joeatwood1346]

Nope! The Mirage specification wasn’t issued until 1952. The original specification that lead to the 106 via the 102 was issued in 1949. The 102 flew in 1953; the Su-9 and MiG-21 (tailed deltas both)flew in June 1956, the Mirage flew in November 1956; the 106 (via-102B/C) flew a month later in December 1956.

[@edwardteller5879]

@@joeatwood1346 🎉♥