Convair F-106A Delta Dart (1972 Refit): The American Dorito…
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(Polls are at the bottom)
Overview
Hello again everyone! Today I want to suggest a interesting American aircraft, using a Delta-Wing design, The Convair F-106A Delta Dart.
Basic Information
Designation:
F-106A (Military)
F-102B (Manufacturer)
Name:
“Delta Dart” (Official)
“The Six” (Nickname)
Role:
Fighter
Interceptor
Crew:
1
Manufacturer:
Convair Aerospace Company
Total built:
342 Aircraft
2 Prototypes
277 F-106As
63 F-106Bs
First Flight:
December 26, 1956
Introduced:
June 1959
Retired:
August 1988 (US Air National Guard)
1988 (NASA)
Specifications
Dimensions:
Length: 70 ft 8 in (21.55 m)
Wingspan: 38 ft 3 in (11.67 m)
Wing Area: 695 sq ft (65 m²)
Height: 20 ft 3 in (6.18 m)
Flying Performance:
Engine(s):
1x Pratt & Whitney J75-P-17 afterburning turbojet
16,100 lbf (72 kN) standard thrust
24,500 lbf (109 kN) with afterburner
Max Speed:
1,525 mph (2,454 km/h, Mach 2.3) at 40,000 ft (12,192 m)
Service Ceiling:
57,000 ft (17,000 m)
Rate of Climb:
29,000 ft/min (150 m/s)
Max Range:
580 mi (930 km) Standard*
2,700 mi (4,345 km) With External Fuel*
Aircraft Weight:
24,420 lb (11,077 kg) Empty
34,510 lb (15,653 kg) Max
Armament:
Main Gun:
1x 20 mm M61A1 Vulcan 6-barreled rotary cannon
4,500 RPM
650 Rounds
Internal Bay (Possible Loadouts):
4x AIM-4F Super Falcon Air-to-Air Guided Missiles
4x AIM-4G Super Falcon Air-to-Air Guided Missiles
2x AIM-4G & 2x AIM-4F Super Falcon Air-to-Air Guided Missiles
Additional Equipment:
IRST:
Retractable Dome
Radar:
Hughes MA-1 AWCS
Flares
~ 30+ Flares
Chaff:
~ 36+ Chaff Cartridges
Usage in Battles
The F-106 would work remarkably well as a dogfighter, reported to be able of going toe-to-toe with more advanced aircraft like F-4 Phantom II. It would be although limited in armament as it can only carry 4 Missiles and only carries 650 rounds. Boom and Zoom tactics are your best option in this aircraft, and taking advantage of its max speed and manueverability to get out of situations.
Pros:
Fantastic Speed and Acceleration
Great Maneuverability
Can Carry 4x AIM-4 Super Falcons
Cons:
Small Ammo Count
Large Target
Can only carry AIM-4s
History
The F-106 was to the pinnacle of the 1954 All-Weather Interceptor Program. Originally supposed to be a variant of its predecessor, the F-102 Delta Dagger, with a new engine and redesigned airframe/engine intakes, however once completed, it had differed from the F-102 so much that it was redesignated as a separate aircraft, the F-106 Delta Dart.
Being part of the “Century Series” of aircraft, the F-106 was noted by its advanced avionics and fantastic speeds and manueverability. The F-106 began flight testing on December 26, 1956, seeing successful trials, however its improvements were seen as not substantial enough for mass-production, thus the USAF only ordered 350 of the original 1000+ planned.
The F-106 served in the USAF as its new main Interceptor aircraft, replacing aging airframes such as the F-86 and F-89. Originally only capable of equipping AIM-4 Falcon missiles and AIM-2 Genie rockets, the Delta Dart was limited in its capabilities, arriving in a time where it was believed that gunfighting was obsolete and impractical.
The F-106 would serve quietly in the USAF, seeing no combat action, though it had preformed numerous intercept and escort missions against soviet bombers. It had nearly seen action in the Vietnam War, however its inability to carry bombs and the disappointing effectiveness of AIM-4s led to otherwise.
A experiment began comparing the capabilities of the F-106 and the newer F-4 Phantom II led to the conclusion that the F-106 had the capability to be a fantastic dogfighter, thus in 1972, “Project Six-Shooter” began, equipping F-106s with 20mm M61 internal guns, alongside other upgrades.
The F-106 would continue to serve for a total of 29 years in USAF, eventually being phased out in 1988 and replaced as the interceptor role became obsolete by more capable aircraft such as the legendary F-15.
The F-106 would continue to see service by NASA as a testbed and experimental airframe, however would also be phased out in 1988.
As of today, there are currently 31 surviving examples.
This Post is the start of a series of aircraft suggestions, characterized by their use of early-era first-gen Air-to-Air Missiles not yet seen in game (AIM-4, FireFlash, K-5, etc.)
10.0
Incredibly fast, agile, powerful cannon. Missiles have 25g overload which somewhat makes up for impact fuse. They’d definitely be situational but still useful.
Why TF is 8.0 even an option in the poll???
After the F-101A and rest of the Varks this is the American jet I’d like to see in game the most- it’s a pure fighter which the US could really use at the BR.
F-106 could carry 4 Falcons and a Vulcan after the 1972 refit. Also, while it wasn’t ever fitted, the experimental XAIM-4H with a new motor, increased manuverability, and a proximity fuse was tested while “The Six” was in service. IMO this plane is long overdue and I hope to see it soon! 😁
Where’d you get this from? Not being that guy, just curious, as if it really did have countermeasures that’s more points in its favor. Pretty much everything I’ve seen says it did not receive countermeasures.
According to the 1961 SAC, the climb rate is supposed to be between 198 and 250 m/s at sea level, or between 214 and 266 m/s according to the 1964 SAC, so that’s worth correcting (unless the stated climb rate in the post is some sort of average)
It seems like this QF-106 was equipped with, what looks like, flares, but they are probably illumination flares. Can’t find anything else other than the picture.
I was thinking illumination flares too, but considering it is a QF-106 target drone, it could certainly be using countermeasures here. That would be a bit of a stretch to put on the normal F-106, though.
It’s very possible it’ll end up at a BR where flares are a must, I can definitely see it getting them for balance purposes, especially as the QF-106 should not be that different compared to a normal F-106 to allow flares to be installed.
I believe when I was gathering information the post I did one of 2 things:
Misread/Misinterpreted information regarding the QF-106 as for the standard F-106
Found information that claimed the F-106 had countermeasures near the end of its service, however their credibility was questionable and a handful eerily I can no longer find.
I was already wary of it, thus I added the tilde (~) as approximations assuming they were correct, however you’re all right in there being no offical reports of countermeasures being retrofitted or modified on, however it is possible they could’ve been added.
Granted, I probably shouldn’t have used them.
For this, I apologize for providing false and misleading information. My intention was never to deceive anyone, and I deeply regret any harm or confusion my words may have caused. I take full responsibility for my actions and will strive to be more transparent and honest in the future. Thank you for holding me accountable.
So no flares/chaff, correct?
Not that it matters all that much, at 10.0 the DD would be able to defeat most missiles kinematically. Certainly better than the F-4C can.
I love the -106. Going to state that at the outset. But I don’t know how well it’d do in game.
The Falcon missiles it had were… not spectacular. (And I kind of doubt we’d get the Genie as an option replacing the gun! Hilarious though that might be, I think it’d be fairly unpopular with both the enemy team and your own teammates in the blast radius… )
You allude to their record - Trying to use them in Vietnam, they had something like 5 kills out of 50+ launches (and quite a few failures.) I seem to recall the pilots’ attitude being “We hated the things.” I don’t think that’s the experience that Gaijin would want their players to have.
Of course, on the plus (?) side, if the Falcons were modeled, they could be inflicted on - er, propegated to - other aircraft, like the F-89, F-4, the Voodoo if it made it into the game, the -102 (I mean, if you’re going to do the six…) and the Viggen. Which fits into your “introduce early AAMs” theme, but… I mean, they were bad.
… Ehhh.
Like I said, I love the -106. If it did come to the game? I’d grab or grind it, absolutely. I just don’t know how fun it would be with meh missiles and limited ammo. (I’d find it more fun probably in a sim of its own, interacting with the entire SAGE system and pulling actual intercepts.) And the only mode we have here intercepting bombers has F-14s and MiG-29s zipping by to blow up WWII era aircraft… also not actually fun. I think there’d have to be far more graduations of the tiering/BR system and some relevant game modes for this to really shine.
I don’t think the AIM-4F/G would be all that bad. It’s got a long range, decent velocity, and high maneuverability (25g!). Of course its impact fuse is its biggest weakness, and would be likely even more so in WT than IRL (due to higher situational awareness).
In terms of kill probability, the AIM-4 had a 9% success rate, which isn’t good. But compared to the 16% for the AIM-9E and 9.2% for the AIM-7D/E/E2 it’s not terrible.
Overall where the F-106A would excell is in a dogfight. Excellent top speed, acceleration, climb rate, and incredible maneuverability combined with the excellent M61A1 would make it one hell of a gunfighter. It’d handily outperform everything around its BR except maybe MiG-21SMT/MFs and Mirages. The missiles would really just be a bonus and a secondary weapon, unlike most aircraft at the BR. That’s the type of aircraft I personally love to play.
+1
Absolutely ridiculous we haven’t received this gorgeous aircraft in-game yet. Especially since they claimed to have had plans for the 101, 102, and 106.
