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American Combat Planes of the 20th Century is an incredible reference for anyone who is interested in any American Combat Plane History. There are 758 pages and 1700 b/w photos in this substantial labor of love by Ray Wagner, who has been passionately researching and writing about aircraft for over 50 years. Whether you are already familiar with his past works, or just discovering this accomplished author for the first time... This is the book that you've been waiting for!

If you'd like to see the book's Table of Contents ... Click here. You can also browse the entire Index Section to get an idea of the extensive amount of information that is covered within this book.

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F-100 to F-108 Supersonic Fighters

Page 3 McDONNELL F-101C

The whole F-102 program – and with it Air Defense Command’s principle weapon for the 1955-60 period – faced sudden termination at a time when American leadership was alarmed by Soviet weapons progress. A Soviet H-bomb had been tested August 12, 1953, and on May 1, 1954, the prototype of the Myasishchev M-4 “Bison” jet bomber was displayed over Moscow. By 1957-58, it was assumed, the USSR would possess a large fleet of intercontinental bombers with enough thermonuclear weapons to devastate U.S. targets. That assumption would prove false, but was the basis of U.S. planning for that period.

Convair’s delta wing was saved by the application of the area rule, a system of drag reduction developed by NACA scientist Richard Whitcomb. The F-102 was redesigned with a narrowed center fuselage, lengthened nose and tail fairings, and ten F-102s were followed by four longer YF-102As built with the J57-P-41, cambered leading edges for the thin wings, and a modified canopy. Supersonic speeds were achieved on December 21, 1954, the day after the first YF-102A flight. Two-thirds of the 30,000 tools prepared for the original configuration had to be discarded in favor of the new shape.

The first F-102A flew June 24, 1955, with a J57-P-23, but the production plan provided very slow deliveries until testing and modifications were complete. Many airframe changes were made, including a three-foot addition to the tail fin tested in December 1955, and standardized on all F-102As built after number 25. A TF-102A trainer with two side-by-side seats and full armament was ordered July 19, 1954, and first flown November 8, 1955. Over 50 F-102 aircraft were involved in the largest test program then ever made on an Air Force fighter, and a new wing configuration improved performance in October 1957. McDONNELL F-101C

Armament on the Delta Dagger in a fuselage bay consisted of six Falcon GAR-lD (AIM-4A) radar or GAR-2A (AIM-4C) infrared homing missiles. Twenty-four 2.75-inch rockets were held in the bay doors, which snapped open when the Falcons were extended into the air stream for launching. Three missiles of each guidance system were usually carried, to use against targets up to six miles away, but the inaccurate short-range rockets were usually omitted in service. Two 215-gallon tanks could be attached for ferry missions. CONVAIR YF-102

The first F-102A delivery to an operational ADC unit, the 327th FIS, was made on May 1, 1956, almost three years behind the original program date, and the Air Force at last had a Mach 1.535 fighter in which guided missiles replaced guns or unguided rockets. Convair’s San Diego factory completed 14 YF-102/As, 875 F-102As and 111 TF-102As by September 1958, serving 32 ADC squadrons. About 450 F-102As were modified by 1963 with MG-10 fire control, a 262-pound AIM-26A (W54 nuclear warhead) Super Falcon radar-guided missile with three AIM-4E/Fs, and an infrared search system. The aircraft cost $1.5 million dollars and 119 were destroyed in service.

Beginning in 1959, seven squadrons served in the Pacific Air Force and six in Europe, and while ADC Delta Darts began transferring to 23 ANG squadrons in 1960, there were still 20 ADC squadrons in 1964. From March 1962 to 1970, F-102As, mostly from the 509th FIS, were rotated to Vietnam. No enemy bombers ever appeared, but sorties were flown against ground targets, four F-102As lost to ground attack, two to ground fire, and one destroyed by a MiG-21F over Laos on February 3, 1968.

After the last transfers from the ADC in 1965, the last Air Force F-102A squadron, from July 1962 to July 1973, was the 57th FIS. Based in Iceland, it made over 1,000 non-combat intercepts of Soviet long-range aircraft flying from North Russia. The last ANG outfit to lose F-102s was Hawaii’s 199th FIS in 1977.

Turkey used 35 F-102As and 10 TF-102As from 1968 to 1979, and 20 F-102As and four TF-102As served Greece from 1969 to 1978. By USAF order, 70 other Daggers were converted to PQM-102A target drones in 1974 and another 145 PQM-102B added by 1981.

Republic XF-103
Republic also proposed an interceptor with delta wings, but the AP-57 design study ordered in September 1951 had a radical shape with a dual-cycle power plant combining a 12,950-pound thrust Wright XJ67 raised to a maximum 22,350-pound thrust by an afterburner, with a ramjet cutting in after reaching 35,000 feet in a climb. Mach 3 speeds, listed in January 1954 estimates as 1,985 mph at 50,000 feet, would cause so much heat that titanium was chosen as the main structural element. CONVAIR YF-102A

The long fuselage had the pilot’s cockpit flush behind the radar nose, with an escape capsule and a periscope. Short delta wings and separate tail surface were used, and fuselage bays contained six XGAR-1A Falcon missiles and pack of 36 2.75-in. rockets.

Although an XF-103 prototype, ordered in July 1954, was supposed to fly in February 1957, the dual power plant did not materialize. Republic proposed a larger research version, but the airframe was never completed and the contract was canceled August 21, 1957, after a six-year expenditure of 104 million dollars.

The F-l0lB Interceptor
A two-place long-range interceptor Voodoo was proposed by McDonnell on December 1,1954, endorsed by the Air Force on February 25, 1955, and a formal contract for the first 28 was issued on July 12. Armed with missiles instead of guns, it was temporarily called the F-109, but in August 1955 became the F-101B. (The F-109 was incorrectly identified as a Ryan VTOL project by some contemporary sources.) 1962.

The F-101B had two J57-P-55s with afterburners and MG-13 radar fire control for six Falcon GAR-lD radar or GAR-2A infrared guided missiles on a rotary door behind and below the cockpit. A launcher available later held two 834-pound AIR-2 Genie unguided nuclear air-to-air rockets externally, retaining two 120-pound AIM-4C Falcons inside. The SAGE data-link system provided automatic ground control to direct interceptions, and two 450-gallon drop tanks could be added for ferry missions. CONVAIR F-102A

First flown March 27, 1957, the F-101B was issued to 17 ADC Fighter-Interceptor squadrons between January 1959 and March 31, 1961, when production of 470 ended. When fitted with dual controls, 79 F-l0lBs were redesignated F-l0lF.

Fifty-six F-101Bs and 10 F-101Fs went to Canada, beginning in October 1961, where they were known as the CF-101Bs and CF-101F. In 1970, they were exchanged for 66 replacements with a new infrared sensor system. The F-101B interceptors served the ANG after December 1969, including 23 converted to RF-101B recon versions, and the last ANG F-101B retired on September 21, 1982.

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