Convair F-106 Delta Dart
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Type | Fighter aircraft, Interceptor aircraft, Military aircraft |
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Configuration | Delta-wing aircraft |
Propulsion | Jet aircraft, Single-engine aircraft |
Manufacturer | Convair |
Author(s) | Emmanuel Baranger (3D, FDM) |
FDM | YASim |
--aircraft= | f106 |
Status | Early production |
FDM | |
Systems | |
Cockpit | |
Model | |
Development | |
Hangar | |
Website | |
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Download | |
License | GPLv2+ |
Wikipedia | Convair F-106 Delta Dart |
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Convair F-106 Delta Dart was a supersonic jet aircraft of USAF that served from the 1950s to 1990s. It was mainly used as a interceptor for NATO air defense, but also for a variety of other tasks such as a target drone at the end of its career.
First Impressions
The first impression of the cockpit of the F-106 was a very pleasant surprise. The cockpit and especially the panel, was detailed and nicely populated with instruments. The F-106 starts off rolling, with the engine on, so the only thing to do is to increase the power to maximum and take off.
Take off is quick, and lifting off at about 170 knots although the approach speeds is again set mysteriously at the standard 140 knots. To be fair, elevator effectiveness is lost completely at 120 knots or so, while not a problem, the rapid decrease in speed with the power at idle from 200 knots to 120 knots and below makes landing very hazardous unless the pilot is prepared for this. If forward speed is lost and the aircraft descends rapidly it tends to bounce off the runway, which may or may not represent what would happen in real life. To add insult to injury, and F-106 performed a belly landing in cornfield after the pilot had ejected.
In Flight
The F-106 is pleasant to fly, and gives the impression of being nicer to fly than the Mirage 5, the other delta winged aircraft that I have tried recently. The loss of speed in turns and pitch ups is similarly rather high, but can be used to slow down, but speed must be kept up in landing.
I made a few screen shots of the aircraft in flight and on landing with the Flight Gear's internal screen shot facility.