Convair F-106 Delta Dart

what is it?

The Convair F-106 Delta Dart is an all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Convair, a division of General Dynamics. The F-106 was designed as part of the 1954 interceptor program. Envisioned as an imagined "Ultimate Interceptor", it was a development of the F-102 Delta Dagger, and commenced as the F-102B prior to being redesignated by the United States Air Force (USAF).

🔎How to recognise it: 1 jet engine · 11.7 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 2,454 km/htop speed
• size 15.7 tmax take-off weight
• built 342made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 70 years ago, in 1956.
• 🏎️Top speed is 18.9× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 2.0 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 11.7 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 3 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 2.0× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1956-12-26

introduced

1959

retired

1988

status

retired

number built

342

role

fighter interceptor

origin

🇺🇸 United States

makers

General Dynamics, Convair

engines

1× Pratt & Whitney J75-P-17 / J75

crew

1

length

21.6 m

wingspan

11.7 m

height

6.2 m

max take-off weight

15.7 t

top speed

2,454 km/h

range

—

ceiling

17,374 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.