The total area of the delta wing is 697.83 square feet (64.83 square meters). The F-106A is 70 feet, 8.78 inches (21.559 meters) long with a wingspan of 38 feet, 3.5 inches (11.671 meters). However, so many changes were made that it was considered to be a new aircraft. The airplane was a development of the earlier F-102A Delta Dagger, and was initially designated F-102B. It was a single-seat, single-engine delta-winged aircraft capable of speeds above Mach 2. The Convair F-106A Delta Dart was the primary all-weather interceptor of the United States Air Force from 1959 to 1988, when it was withdrawn from service with the Air National Guard. Convair F-106A Delta Dart 58-0787 sits in a snow-covered Montana farm field, February 1970. It was then transported to the Sacramento Air Logistics Center at McClellan Air Force Base, Sacramento, California, where it was repaired and eventually returned to flight status with the 49th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 21st Air Division, at Griffiss Air Force Base, New York.Īfter the Convair Delta Dart was retired from active service, 58-0787 was sent to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Lieutenant Foust safely parachuted into the mountains and was soon rescued.ĥ8-0787 was partially disassembled by a maintenance team from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and loaded on to a rail car. Eventually the airplane ran out of fuel and the engine stopped at about 12:15 p.m. With its engine still running, -787 continued flying, gradually descending, until it slid in to a landing in a wheat field near Big Sandy, Montana. Air Force)Īfter the pilot ejected, the F-106 came out of the spin and leveled off. Convair F-106A Delta Dart 58-0787 made an un-piloted belly landing onto a snow-covered farm field near Big Sandy, Montana, 2 February 1970. With no options remaining, at about 15,000 feet (4,572 meters), Foust ejected from the apparently doomed airplane. Very flat and rotating quite slowly.”įoust tried all the recovery procedures but could not regain control of the Delta Dart. Captain Curtiss described it: “The aircraft looked like the pitot tube was stationary with the aircraft rotating around it. Foust’s interceptor stalled and went in to a flat spin. Diagram of Vertical Rolling Scissors Maneuver. Foust entered into a vertical climb with his “opponent,” Captain Tom Curtis, who was also flying an F-106, and they both climbed to about 38,000 feet (11,600 meters) while using a “vertical rolling scissors” maneuver as each tried to get into a position of advantage. FoustĢ February 1970: At approximately 9:50 a.m., three Convair F-106A Delta Dart supersonic interceptors of the 71st Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 24th Air Division, based at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, were engaged in an air combat training mission.ġst Lieutenant Gary Eugene Foust was flying F-106A-100-CO 58-0787, an airplane usually flown by the squadron’s maintenance officer, Major Wolford.ĭuring the simulated combat, Lt. This is the same type aircraft flown by Lieutenant Gary Foust, 2 February 1970.

Convair F-106A-100-CO Delta Dart 58-0775 of the 71st Fighter Interceptor Squadron with a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, circa 1970.

Four basic air combat maneuvering