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The F-106 Delta Dart was a fantastic interceptor. I used to control them when I was a Weapons Controller in the Air Force back in the 1970's and am very familiar with its performance. It's optimum cruise speed at optimum altitude was Mach .93 at 37,000 feet. It could cruise faster than the speed of sound without using afterburner. It had a display map in the cockpit that allowed the pilot to have excellent situation awareness. It could be controlled by the Weapons Controller via data link which allowed it to be literally flown by the controller at the radar scope while the pilot focused on operating the aircraft's onboard radar and weapons systems. It had really long legs, which allowed us to fight the battle far from home, plus it could be refueled in the air. It was a wonderful, wonderful aircraft for the air defense mission.

Interesting footnotes for the 'cornfield bomber' incident: After its pilotless landing, the 6's engine continued to run, pushing it several hundred feet towards an alarmed farmer's ranch buildings until it ran out of fuel. Then, after the F-106 was recovered and repaired, the original pilot flew it again; making it the only single-seat aircraft that was flown again by the pilot that bailed out of it!

You GOTTA do the F-15 Eagle. Please. The beast definitely deserves a spot.

You left out the most important modification that turned the 102 into the 106- applying "area rule" to the fuselage, the famous "coke bottle" shape. It dramatically reduced drag, increasing both speed and range.

I was once stationed at Loring Air Force Base in northern Maine where we had a f-106 unit. One day I witnessed 16 of the 16 airplanes they had fly low over our base. They had returned from Canada where they had flown over another NORAD base. The Canadians paid them back with their own low flyby over our base in the f-101 voodoo. 16 of them not to be outdone by The Americans. It was impressive, both flybys. The f-106 was my favorite

The F-106 is one of the most handsome fighters ever built. Very clean lines.

My dad was flying F-106’s at Castle AFB in Californian when I was born. He still has his flying boots with the stirrups that were attached to the seat by cables and would suck your legs in during ejection. Unfortunately the seats were not very reliable back then and he lost several squadron mates to accidents. When I was an ROTC cadet going through the Third Lieutenant Program at McChord 20 years later, they were still flying the F-106 with the 318th FIS. Although I didn’t get a 6 ride, I got to fly along side of them in a T-33 acting as a radar target over the ocean. While I was there the squadron got a visit from weapons school instructors from Nellis in F-15 Eagles as the squadron would soon be transitioning from the 6 to the 15. I went on to fly the Eagle in Germany at Bitburg after getting my wings.

The F-106, a fighter that never got the full appreciation it deserves

My father flew the F-106 in the Florida Air National Guard. He liked to tell stories of playing "grab-ass" with Migs around Cuba.

I always loved the F-106. I'm surprised no mention was made of the addition of area rule to the design of the F-106, it was a big part of the reason it was faster than the F-102. They actually were in Vietnam for some evaluation against other fighter types, but as mentioned they could not carry the ground-attach weapons that the F-4 could. If you really want some detail about the flight characteristics then visit F-106 pilot Bruce Gordon's channel.

I was an avionics tech on the F-106A/B, as well as the F-101B Voodoo and T-33A trainer, at Tyndall AFB, Fl. in the late 1970s. Tyndall was an ADC training base for interceptor pilots, and was the ADWC or Air Defense Weapon Center, where a lot of things were tested. Including the 20mm Vulcan gun pod. We had two planes carrying it during my time there, including tail number 795 which is seen a couple times in this video. The Six Shooter program was successful, though the gun pods, which reached operational service were rarely carried The internal mod, including the ammo magazine, replaced the Genie nuclear tipped rocket. All four Falcon missiles were still carried in the weapons bay. The Falcons worked well in the Six, though were not successfull when adapted to the USAF F-4 Phantom II. The F-4's fire control just wasn't compatible. So the USAF F-4 got the Sidewinders like the Navy Phantoms. The F-106 had a data link with the SAGE controllers, and could actually fly the entire intercept on ground control, the pilot only doing the take-off and landing..... but what fun is that for the pilot? The Six's pilots loved it. It was a bit of a maintenance nightmare, the way so many systems were integrated. Many have now been expended as QF-106 target drones. Sad end for me a fine thoroughbred airplane. The F-106A still holds the official speed record of 1,525MPH for the fastest single engine jet aircraft, set in 1959!

Either knowingly or not, Delta dagger, dart and Mirage III are planes drawn by all aircraft obsessed kids around the world since 1950's . There is something about delta wings that naturally makes plane goes faster in childs mind.

As a kid, I remember 106s heading for the coast from the 144th out of Fresno Air Terminal. They would routinely break the sound barrier over the city before that was prohibited. They were loud and fast. I always stopped and watched them go over.

I was stationed at K.I. Sawyer in ‘85 when the 87FIS stepped down. I loved those birds. The Red Bulls. We did have the New Jersey ANG keep coming by to train until ‘88 when the last of the Sixes were finally taken out of service.

There is an F-106 on display in Stephenville Newfoundland. The town had a US military base during the cold war and the US often comes back for air shows. The story was that the F-106 came for one of the air shows but had a breakdown while there and it was given to the town instead of being repaired or moved.

2:30 - Chapter 1 - Development 7:05 - Chapter 2 - Specifications 8:35 - Chapter 3 - Ejection seats 10:00 - Chapter 4 - F106 in service 11:35 - Chapter 5 - Bears, badgers & bison 12:50 - Chapter 6 - F106 Milestones 13:40 - Chapter 7 - Drone conversion & retirement

We often had delta darts flying over when I lived in Spokane WA. Fairchild AFB was then a SAC base with B-52s. The delta darts weren't around all the time but were fun to see.

Great video. My grandfather worked for convair for a lot of years. Years after he passed I was looking at the Dagger/Dart in a book and my grandmother said "oh I remember one of the test flights of those, your grandfather called home and said I should go out on the porch and watch.

I have a good friend that used to work on electronics of the f-106 he told me all about the genie nuclear rocket. His squadron operated along the east coast and he told me in the 80s that they would escort those Russian bear bomber who were flying down the East Coast on their way to Cuba, if they got too close to the United States they would scramble and escort them until they got out of American airspace.

My dad flew these during the cold war, among other planes including the 100 in Vietnam, but the 106 was easily his favorite

Not quite sure this would be a Mega-Project, but you should do an episode on the Fletcher class Destroyer, the most produced American Destroyer in history.

I was a jet engine mechanic on the F-106 at Malmstrom AFB where the cornfield bomber was stationed with the 71st FIS. I was TDY on Okinawa with an F-106 unit from Dover when that incident took place. The jet shop was on Okinawa and the planes were in Korea. I remember being told about this when I was overe there. There was nothing like the sound of a 6 lighting the afterburner and taking off. It shook the whole base.

After vietnam my dad (Col Larry Wusk) flew 106's until they were decommisioned, was squadron commander of the 49th for a few years dudring the time they excelled at William Tell. We moved to AFB's anywhere a 106 squadron was, Dover, KI Sawyer, Malmstrom, Mcchord, and Griffiss; it was an amazing time to be an air force brat. Btw the famous “cornfield bomber” which landed itself after a flat spin during and excercise. My dad was good friends with the pilot Gary foust for years and the wingman that was doing the maneuvers against him was on of my dads best friends, the infamous Jimmy Lowe, who coincidentally drove a riding lawnmower into the officers club one time and bit the panty hose off the generals wife. Dick Stultz drew during dinner out with the sqaudron in Rome NY for my dad (an original artwork "The Wusk Wonders" it still hangs in my parents house). also the memorable John Kane who was a young pilot at the 87th when he ejected during my dads time there, i thought that guy was so cool with his black eye and scars from hangin by his chute in a tree, one night at the sqaudron party he tuaght me how to pump the keg for the pilots and told meto have a beer so i helped myself to a few beers at 10 years old. Long and amazing stories I grew up listening to those men talk with theirs hands while drinking too much scotch and lots of laughs; back then when it was truly the old days of the Air Force, most of them farmers turned pilots from simple backgrounds. My dad was good friends with a lot of legends as I call them. He would just say they were damn good pilots, but not as good as him. John McCain, robin olds, Yeager, and the great Robbie Risner. Amazing test pilots, and combat pilots. Most of those air force fighter pilots are gone now, was an honor to sit and listen to their stories as a little kid.

As usual, Mr. Whistler provides the curious viewer with an accessible, succinct, well-rounded overview of a military aircraft model.

I had the pleasure to be in the 87th Red Bulls, Marquette MI, 76-80. I worked on the MA-1 radar/computer/ir/weapons control system. It weighed 2200 pounds for the system. A beautiful plane on the ground sitting and a beautiful plane to watch take off, especially at night with the afterburners flaming.

When I was a young man there was F-106's based at Richards-Gebaur Air Force base near my home. They had ready/alert hangars on the north end of the base that you could see driving by the north end of the base. They were huge Quonset Hut style hangars and they were there many years after the base was abandoned.

The 106 has to be one of the most beautiful airplanes ever built.

Thanks for the history lesson Simon. Love the videos.

The mission: Go fast as fuck.

Every time I see stories on this fighter I always think it's amazing. My grandfarther was on the prototype program for this dealing with coms. So cool.

The F-106 couldn't have been that bad. It took 2 of the most awesome planes ever to replace it.

If we're talking Cold War aircraft, why not the B-36 Peacemaker? It was the largest bomber to enter USAF service.

Thanks for doing this! I love the Six! My grandfather worked with them in the 60s. Going to visit one in person at a museum tomorrow!!!

Gotta love the Six. Can't count how many times the 49th FIS' sonic booms rattled my windows when I was a kid.

This beast of an airplane was capable of 2.3 Mach!!! It's amazingly underrated!!!

I worked the F-106 from March 1983 to May 1985 in the 5th FIS at Minot AFB. To this day it is still my favorite aircraft and I was working A-10s when I retired in 2003.

As a kid in the 80's I built a model of this plane! Thanks for the video!

Nice to see someone give the Six a little love. Thanks!

I was stationed at K.I. Sawyer from 82 - 86 and we had the 87th Fighter Interceptor Squadron flying F-106's there. They were a fast and durable plane. We had one come in to land with a malfunctioning nose wheel that didn't want to come down. The pilot flying it did an outstanding job of landing it.....bringing the nose down slowly at the very last moment. A write-up in the base newsletter said that, aside from the mildly scraped up sheet metal, nothing else was damaged.

My mom was the crew chief for the Six when it was rotated out for the Eagle at Langley. Her crew received the one of the first Combat ready 15's in the USAF. She always said the Eagle was a beautiful beast, but the Six was just plain gorgeous.

In the early seventies, I had the thrill of seeing a pair of these pop over the mountain that overshadowed my grandfather's farming community in southeast Arizona and streak away to the north. Beautiful.

I ran the base photo lab at McCord in the '70s. I had a chance to photograph the Delta dart flying around Mount Rainier for the bicentennial. Beautiful aircraft.

According to F-106 pilot Bruce Gordon (check out his youtube channel), the main reason the F-106 never saw combat in Vietnam was because it lacked the electronic countermeasures required to operate in a lethal air defense environment over or near enemy territory. As an interceptor defending friendly territory such as Canada or Alaska it didn't need to be equipped to deal with surface-to-air missiles and enemy fighters. The fact that it couldn't do air-to-ground missions was a factor, but survivability was the main one. As it turned out the 106 did a fine job of defending NATO turf for 3 decades and was ahead of its time technology wise for the 1950s, with a good radar and data link to the SAGE air defense system.

I always thought this was a beautiful aircraft. Thank You

What's brilliant about the F106 is the fact they were still allowed to be painted in colours like bright red and yellow. F102s went to Vietnam and shot down nothing, indeed their IRST systems were used to attack trucks.

Great acft. I was a crew chief @ Langley AFB in "71", trained on base Commanders plane, then moved on to the F-4 Phantom in "72" SE Asia. CRAZY TIMES!

Man my whole perception of this dude got totally changed, I never saw him more than just a washed QB but now I have so much more respect for the guy and hope he gets that fire back even if it’s just to be the Backup, respect!

A beautiful interceptor.

Since I see quite a few recommendations for the F15 I shall jump on that band wagon. I can also see you enjoy comparing Cold War counterparts so I shall also throw out for a potential future episode Sukhoi Flankers Su 27 and onward

Good one

This was the first aircraft I loaded munitions on in my Air Force career. Fond memories of my first flight in a b model.

Knew an egress guy, Bob Dourte who was almost killed at Castle AFB when the seat he was working on fired. Threw him up over a beam in the hangar and landed on the wing

One of my favorites from the Century Series 🤠🤠

Only reason to live today, thanks Simon.

Note the Stanley Aviation tag on the ejection seat, I work minutes away from the old Stanley factory in Denver, and now it has been turned into a multi-business marketplace with bars and restaurants. Some of the old factory elements are still visible, it's a neat place to visit.

MiG-25 and MiG- 31 are the ultimate interceptors in my world.. but I love the 106 too

We had one of these do a gear up landing at Minot AFB, ND.

Stationed at Tyndall AFB 1978 - 1982. Primary crew chief at different times of F-106A 58-0795 and F-106B 58-0900 & 58-0904. The "A" model -0795 was primarily a test bed used by the 475th Test Squadron for the gun modification. This aircraft flew many sorties with several camera pods installed to record the gun test flights. The aircraft had a HUGE VCR mounted in the left electronics bay behind the cockpit to record the camera feed. Various Tyndall aircraft are in the video and identified with the red, white, and blue tail flash on the rudder.

I live in Panama City Florida, home of Tyndall Air Force Base. I have watched the F106’s flyover head since junior high school. Locally there were all of the Century series in the sky. Now you can scuba dive on a number of them that have been sunk as artificial reefs.

If you want to hear about the interceptor line to include the F-106 than look no further than Bruce Gordon a log time US Air Force interceptor pilot who's done it all. He has a KZfaq channel with many stories of his time in service. The man is a sharp as the day he entered service and can clear up many misconceptions.

Look into SAGE, the Air Force's Semi-Automatic Ground Environment that was used to vector theses birds to the inbound bombers. or other bogies. My dad was in the Air Force and worked at two SAGE facilities to monitor ADIZs (Air Defense Identification Zones). I saw my first track ball there on a Saturday visit with my dad who ran a simulated target for me to intercept. I was 15 years old. It was awesome. I also saw a light gun in use by a controller. It was used to identify a target.

@1:46: Great shot of a NJANG F-106A equipped with the M61 Vulcan 'belly pack' 20mm cannon.

The New Jersey National Guard unit here finally got rid of their last F106’s in 1990 when they got their F-16s. Now everyone is slowly going to F 35s.

I’d like to see an episode on the German night fighters of WWII. The TA154, Me110, He219, etc. maybe work in some of the Mistel combinations they conjured up in desperation.

I just watched the "Skinwalker Ranch" video on your Decoding The Unknown channel. The picture of Uinta County (4'53" into the video) that you used has an interesting group of round, sunken areas which are in a relatively straight line which look interesting. Maybe you could do a Geographics video on them. I imagine that they might be volcanic collapses, but I haven't seen anything like that before. The supervolcano in Yosemite has below ground geography similar to this, due to continental drift - but the several crater-like objects in the picture are all above ground.

Simon I think that the giant Saudi projects are among the most daring, innovative, sustainable and distinguished in their idea, including: 2. The Qiddiya project to build the largest entertainment city in the world according to the latest designs and build the most exciting games to break 3 records (The site is associated with one of the most important geological features in the Arabian Peninsula ، Before Islam, Arab poets wrote many poems about the Najd plateau) (Saudi tourists are among the world’s most spenders on entertainment, and this will limit the travel of many Saudis abroad) 3. Al-Ula oases project with a unique design in one of the most important archaeological cities to build a tram linking the five oases to be the largest open museum in the world and provide a rich tourist experience by visiting these stations by establishing services in institutes, museums, academies, exhibitions, cafes, etc... that meet the needs of the tourist Project title (Discover The Journey Through Time Masterplan, AlUla, North West Arabia) 4. The unique Red Sea Islands project in its idea of ​​benefiting from renewable and clean energy without affecting the environment for its sustainability and building very distinctive and innovative hotels in their designs The Amaala project will be parallel to the Red Sea Islands project in luxury hotel services in the field of health and recreation ، So that the two projects compete with the best international projects in island tourism 5. Al-Soudah Company’s project, which has completed the final design to make the city of Abha one of the most important tourist cities for nature lovers after studying the advantages of the most important and most beautiful tourist cities in the world ، And taking advantage of the relative advantages of the culture of the Asir region, which is characterized by Asir architecture, fine arts, folklore, etc. 6. The downtown Jeddah project, which started the rapid demolition operations to rebuild Jeddah according to the latest engineering designs and take advantage of the advantages of Hijazi architecture as a landmark that distinguishes the city of Jeddah from other cities in the world and building a civilized city that competes with the most beautiful cities in the world 7.Diriyah project: which aims to be the largest cultural city in the world and be a major tourist and cultural attraction ، Which has hosted international sports tournaments such as Formula E and the World Boxing Cup, etc. Its political symbolism is that it is the first capital of the Saudi state in 1744 AD ، The project focused on the shape of the old city in the Najdi urban style 8.The King Abdulaziz Road Project in Makkah to improve the quality of life for the people of Makkah and a main goal for Makkah to receive about 30 million pilgrims and pilgrims annually. 9. Knowledge Economic City of the Madinah : creating an exciting and dynamic urban district offering the largest and most diverse shopping, dining and entertainment venue in the globally significant pilgrimage destination. 10. King Abdullah Economic City project / to be a major logistic center for ports between the three continents and a center for exports of industries from the industrial cities ، It is the fifth largest industrial city in the world 1. NEOM projects, most notably: the largest solar chips project in the world, green hydrogen facilities projects Which may be the project that will save the Europe from global warming

Use to watch the F106s in the Montana National Guard do emergency operation drills out of Helena MT airport as a kid. They always looked like they were going Mach every time they flew.

The Century series of Fighters produced some of the most beautiful aircraft to ever serve in the US Air Force history. My favorites being the F-104 and F-106's. True hot rods.

Story circa (about) 1976. Had an uncle (Mike) who was a traveling salesmen and formerly served in the USAF from 1947 - 49'. In his free time he liked to travel the back roads of S. Jersey and bring me along on occasion. Once we were driving by Pomona Air Station that had a squadron of F-106's. He knew I was into military aircraft so turns into the entrance to the base. Gave some salesman line to the guard we were through. Joy was short lived for as soon as we made a left turn to the flight line their were MP vehicles in front & behind us :-P. They didn't give uncle Mike a hard time (still carried around his old military ID) but had to leave 'immediately' the way we came. His comment after we left, "It was worth a shot..". Indeed it was.. for the F-106 was one pretty aircraft. Thank for trying uncle Mike ;-) RIP.

Heard a funny story regarding the cornfield bomber incident. The force of the ejection caused the aircraft to recover from its spin condition which resulted in a wings level slight nose down attitude which aided in its “landing”. After seeing this the wingman of the ejected pilot transmitted over the radio “Hey wait..get back in!”

Megaproject Excellent video 📹 Silent guardian

The f106 was certainly a looker and should have paved the way for many US delta aircraft. Why that never happened is a mystery. Certainly from a SST point of view. Convair must have had loads of useful data for a scaled up SST delta.

Such an awesome jet. Needed a modern F100 series turbofan though.

Good video.

I live in North Texas and while on my way to lake Murray in Oklahoma I saw an F-106 (no wings) sitting on a flatbed beside a farmhouse. It had the orange nose so was probably a drone but I always wondered how it came to be there.

Make a video on the Pacific fleet of USA.

And the award for the most tasteless sponsor goes to...

You need to do the English Electric Lightning. Apart from fuel consupmtion, it was the best interceptor ever.

Add a sub series on river projects : St Lawrence, Rhine, Columbia River

A video on the J-35 (Draken) or Ja/Aj-37 (Viggen) would be awesome, some real advance tech and tactics, RB-04 (which already existed on the J-32 Lansen), RB-05, BK-90, Rb-15, Datalink 10-20 years ahead, jammers, chaff/flare pods etc. Short parade, 20 years earlier than sukhoi's cobra... Anti-ship missiles, roadbase capable, radar lock on a SR-71 (Blackbird)... And I can go on. the Draken is mostly cool to look at and it found super-stall capable dogfight uses.

More military Megaprojects, please. Aircraft, ships and vehicles from countries other than, the US, Russia and Canada would be interesting. Also, how the names for them are come up with.

All important aircraft were missing in this series: F-5 Tiger & the best aircraft never built- The F-5G(F-20) Tigershark.

area rule modification is one of the big deals in getting these planes to go faster.

When talking about the duck and cover drills, you should have also shown the turtle cartoon that was used to teach about duck and cover.

Little Known fact about F-102 and F-106, the last US F-102 squadron was Hawaii Air National Guard in 1977. At a time when the F-106 was still in active service and being transferred go the National Guard, Hawaii Air National Guard skipped the F-106 and went straight to the F-15A which they kept in service until being one of the only Guard unit to receive the F-22 in 2010. Most other guard units had switched to F-106s in the 70s and didn't get F-15 or F-16 until the mid to late 80s.

And interesting one to do next would be the English electric lightning

Do one about the B 24 liberator

Simon can you please cover the F-4 ,Phantom

Beautiful plane. The fact it was underrated and nearly cancelled makes me sad.

Hoping you can do the Saab J35!

Could you please do the English electric lighting so we get a British interceptor as you have done the and American

Do an episode on the AVRO Arrow.

Mig- 31 Foxhound: am I a joke to you?

Can you do the B-36 peacemaker it was a stop gap between the b-29 and b-52 that used piston and jet technology and was an amazing plane

Video idea: you could discuss the end of the Soviet Union in terms of how it happened. Specifically glasnost and perestroika and how the transition was expected to go versus how it actually happened.

14:32: "trolling for lightning"... Dang, it's like playing practical jokes to Zeus/mother nature with man's unmanned creation.

I'm British, so even though flawed still reckon the Lightning is the better interceptor

One vital omission in this video was the AIR-2A Genie air to air rocket. One of the most unique air to air missiles in history as not only was it unguided, but carried a small nuclear tipped warhead to wipe out Soviet bomber formations.

First time I saw one of these was in the original Flubber movie.