When i was stationed at McClellan AFB in the 1970s i had the opportunity to inspect the damage to this F106A as it was being repaired for return to service. the belly was gnarled fairly well but repairable. of interest, while it was in storage the tail number was deleted from inventory. it got a new tail number after it was restored to combat ready. of interest, the original ejection seat was a real genuine man killer. very few survived the sequence. F106 was robust and very very fast to perform its continental air defense mission. the weapon system was almost all vacuum tube and data linked to the SAGE control web. the aircraft was a true weapon system in every sense of the word. for such a huge aircraft, had it a gun system and much better missiles(Hugh's falcon and genie missiles were just woefully poor), it would have been excellent in ACM, even though it was not designed to be a dogfighter. Fighter pilots need to actually fly their aircraft to maintain their edge. sitting in a simulator is not enough to put the peak in the seat cushions. when flying time on the airframe of the combat aircraft is too expensive(F35 is over $36K/hr.) sticking the pilot into a simulator with a pause button is not a good alternative for keeping the warfighters skill levels sharp enough to cut. train like you will fight with what you will fight with against what you will fight against.
When i was stationed at McClellan AFB in the 1970s i had the opportunity to inspect the damage to this F106A as it was being repaired for return to service. the belly was gnarled fairly well but repairable. of interest, while it was in storage the tail number was deleted from inventory. it got a new tail number after it was restored to combat ready.
ReplyDeleteof interest, the original ejection seat was a real genuine man killer. very few survived the sequence. F106 was robust and very very fast to perform its continental air defense mission. the weapon system was almost all vacuum tube and data linked to the SAGE control web. the aircraft was a true weapon system in every sense of the word. for such a huge aircraft, had it a gun system and much better missiles(Hugh's falcon and genie missiles were just woefully poor), it would have been excellent in ACM, even though it was not designed to be a dogfighter.
Fighter pilots need to actually fly their aircraft to maintain their edge. sitting in a simulator is not enough to put the peak in the seat cushions. when flying time on the airframe of the combat aircraft is too expensive(F35 is over $36K/hr.) sticking the pilot into a simulator with a pause button is not a good alternative for keeping the warfighters skill levels sharp enough to cut. train like you will fight with what you will fight with against what you will fight against.
train like you will fight with what you will fight with against what you will fight against.
ReplyDeleteKinda like ammo.
https://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2018/06/f106a-info.html