The Convair F-106 Delta Dart was an all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Convair.

The F-106 was designed as the so-called "Ultimate Interceptor" as a consequence of the 1954 interceptor program of the early 1950s. It was a development of the F-102 Delta Dagger, and thus was originally designed 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, application of the area rule to the fuselage shaping, and a general increase in size. On 26 December 1956, the first prototype performed its maiden flight. After flight testing demonstrated less performance gains than anticipated, the USAF ultimately only ordered 350 of the planned 1,000 F-106s once planned.

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 final specialist interceptor to be used by the service to date. It was never used in combat nor were any export opportunities secured. During the 1960s, a competitive evaluation between the F-106 and the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II determined the latter to be marginally superior, yet the type continued to be operated for a further two decades on account of extensive demand for the F-4 in other roles. Convair proposed various improved models of the F-106, typically focused on the radar, communications, and other avionics, but none of these schemes would be pursued by the service. In one high-profile incident over Montana on 2 February 1970, an unmanned F-106 recovered from a flat spin after its pilot had ejected, landing relatively intact in a snow-covered field; it was recovered and continued to be flown for numerous years afterwards.

The F-106 was gradually withdrawn from USAF service during the 1980s as the arrival of newer air superiority fighters, particularly the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, had made the role of dedicated interceptors increasingly redundant. Numerous F-106s would be operated for a time by the Air National Guard. Many withdrawn aircraft were promptly converted into target drones and redesignated QF-106 under the Pacer Six program; in this guise, the aircraft continued being used up until 1998.[1][2][3] A handful of F-106s were operated by NASA for experimental purposes, such as the Eclipse Project, through to 1998.

Design
The F-106 was envisaged as a specialized all-weather missile-armed interceptor to shoot down bombers. It was complemented by other Century Series fighters for other roles such as daylight air superiority or fighter-bombing.[26] To support its role, the F-106 was equipped with the Hughes MA-1 integrated fire-control system, which could be linked to the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) network for ground control interception (GCI) missions, allowing the aircraft to be steered by controllers. The MA-1 proved extremely troublesome and was eventually upgraded more than 60 times in service.[32][33]

Similar to the F-102, the F-106 was designed without a gun, or provision for carrying bombs, but it carried its missiles in an internal weapons bay for clean supersonic flight. It was armed with four Hughes AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missiles (either AIM-4F/G infra-red guided missiles or semi-active radar homing (SARH)-guided (which detected reflected radar signals) AIM-4E missiles[34]), along with a single 1.5 kiloton-warhead AIR-2 (MB-2) Genie unguided air-to-air rocket intended to be fired into enemy bomber formations.[35] Like its predecessor, the F-102 Delta Dagger, it could carry a drop tank under each wing.[36] Later fighters such as the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle carried missiles recessed in the fuselage or externally, but stealth aircraft would re-adopt the idea of carrying missiles or bombs internally for reduced radar signature.

The first ejection seat fitted to early F-106s was a variation of the seat used by the F-102 and was called the Weber interim seat. It was a catapult seat which used an explosive charge to propel it clear of the aircraft. This seat was not a zero-zero seat and was inadequate for ejections at supersonic speeds as well as ground level ejections and ejections at speeds below 120 knots (140 miles per hour; 220 kilometres per hour) and 2,000 feet (610 metres). The second seat that replaced the Weber interim seat was the Convair/ICESC (Industry Crew Escape System Committee) Supersonic Rotational B-seat, called the supersonic "bobsled", hence the B designation.[37][38] It was designed with supersonic ejection as the primary criterion since the F-106 was capable of Mach-2 performance. Fighter pilots viewed high speed ejections as the most important. Seat designers viewed an ejection at low altitude and slow speed as the most likely possibility. The ejection sequence with the B-seat was quite complicated and there were some unsuccessful ejections that resulted in pilot fatalities. The third seat, that replaced the Convair B-seat, was the Weber Zero-Zero ROCAT (for Rocket Catapult) seat. Weber Aircraft Corporation designed a "zero-zero" seat to operate at up to 600 knots (690 miles per hour; 1,100 kilometres per hour). High-altitude supersonic ejections were rare and ejections at relatively low altitudes and low speeds were more likely. The Weber "zero-zero" seat was satisfactory and was retrofitted to the F-106 after 1965.[39]

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