And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
This is the craft that used the area rule to good effect. I'm assuming with more powerful engines later craft could just power-thru the barrier without particular attention to area rule.
admittedly, Convair had a rather steep learning curve on it's first production delta, the F-102 which because of the lack of area rule design initially was a beaten dog when it came to acceleration and speed. also caused by DOD's insistence on not crafting a prototype and just building them. problem would have been caught in the prototype stage. but taxpayers in the 50's were flush and their money was flushed. at any rate, the company learned their lesson and the F-106 was reasonably excellent, except for the ejection seats and no fucking gun and of course the much criticized Hughes Falcon and Genie missile systems. automated systems left little for the pilot but the blame when things went poorly. J-75 was quite stout. could turn fuel into smoke, noise and thrust quite well...
Over the years, most of those deficiencies were addressed: gun, bulged canopy without a bar at the top, an effective zero-zero ejection seat, and many, many updates to the MA-1 radar/fire control system. The Falcon missiles were lousy against fighters, almost (but not quite) to the point of uselessness. But against bombers trying to penetrate the North American air defense zone, they were probably sufficient (less so as countermeasures were deployed). They became good interceptors and served for a long time. One even landed itself (gear up) without a pilot on board (he ejected because in mock combat, the 106 entered an unrecoverable flat spin) in a snow covered field near Big Sandy, Montana. That plane didn't want to die, and was quickly returned to service!
This is the craft that used the area rule to good effect. I'm assuming with more powerful engines later craft could just power-thru the barrier without particular attention to area rule.
ReplyDeleteadmittedly, Convair had a rather steep learning curve on it's first production delta, the F-102 which because of the lack of area rule design initially was a beaten dog when it came to acceleration and speed. also caused by DOD's insistence on not crafting a prototype and just building them. problem would have been caught in the prototype stage. but taxpayers in the 50's were flush and their money was flushed. at any rate, the company learned their lesson and the F-106 was reasonably excellent, except for the ejection seats and no fucking gun and of course the much criticized Hughes Falcon and Genie missile systems. automated systems left little for the pilot but the blame when things went poorly.
DeleteJ-75 was quite stout. could turn fuel into smoke, noise and thrust quite well...
Over the years, most of those deficiencies were addressed: gun, bulged canopy without a bar at the top, an effective zero-zero ejection seat, and many, many updates to the MA-1 radar/fire control system. The Falcon missiles were lousy against fighters, almost (but not quite) to the point of uselessness. But against bombers trying to penetrate the North American air defense zone, they were probably sufficient (less so as countermeasures were deployed). They became good interceptors and served for a long time. One even landed itself (gear up) without a pilot on board (he ejected because in mock combat, the 106 entered an unrecoverable flat spin) in a snow covered field near Big Sandy, Montana. That plane didn't want to die, and was quickly returned to service!
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