F-102 & F-106 Interview | Bruce Gordon (Part 2)
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- Опубликовано: 4 сен 2024
- In part 2, Bruce Gordon chats about what it was like to fly the F-102 Delta Dagger, the F-106 Delta Dart, and what the differences between each aircraft were.
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A true scholar and a gentleman... To you both!!!
I actually purchased my book from Mr Gordon himself but I included an extra $15 (the amazon price) cause I felt like I was ripping him off... He sent me the $15 back!!! I sent it back to him again with a note to take his wife out for supper one night and use the $15 to help offset the cost... He did, but what a genuinely nice and honest man!!! Thank you both for a terrific interview and I highly recommend Mr Gordon's book :-)
He probably figures the tax payer has funded his life and he does'nt want anything else.
Amazing, but somehow, I'm not surprized.
What an energy that guy has for his age. Enjoyed this one immensely
Amazing gentleman, and he like the men of his era that flew in ADC are my boyhood heroes...I’m 60, but still that 10-year old that loves these men!
I bought his book and ate up every page like it was ice cream! What a wonderful example of the USAF at its BEST!
You are such a treasure Bruce. Fly high, fly fast, fly far.
I remember the last days of the F-106 at Homestead AFB. The thunderous roar of the AB was just awesome! I worked as an Ammo Troop and our break room was about 200 yards from the EOR. Best seat in the house!
My friends deployed the F-106 to Homestead AFB during the Cuban Crisis of 1962 ( I was up in Alaska at the time). They said there were so many fighters on the base that there was no parking area and they were parked on the grass! There was no housing, so they slept under the wings of their airplanes...
@@spiritofattack cool , I’m a Clewiston native and Homestead history as a parachute rigger and aviation enthusiast it intrigues me
The F-106,my favorite Aircraft of all time, glad to have a copy of Mr. Gordons Book! (P.S. SR-71 is up there Smile)
I remember having an old Osprey book on the F-15 which said that F-106's were used as aggressors against the F-15 in its early days of service. The F-106 actually did pretty well against the F-15 from what I recall.
Hi! Please give me a tip what is this book? Yes F-106 with his delta was able to make hi AOA turn and sustain it with small radius even against F-15! But F-15 is new generation was made to perform crazy things and to be superior!
A lot of that stuff was at Nellis AFB, but I was stationed at Langley AFB with the 48th FIS flying the 106 and First Fighter was also there, the first squadron to deploy the -15s. This was back in the late 70's. They put two -15s in the Alert barn with the -106s there. All were armed with 'white ones' (live ammo) and were on scramble duty for the intercepts of the TU-95 Bears that routinely flew down the East Coast of the U.S. to Havana. First Fighter wasn't too happy when we beat them out of the barn and into the air.
@@_RAF_SkyRider_ This book was some time ago when iIwas a teenager. However, it did show the F-106 although not designed as a dogfighter could in the right hands aquit itself well against the then air-superiority champ.
Interesting , I love this shit , delta wing hemorrhages energy in tight turns , missile dependent
The 106 is a great plane. You notice the new planes have the same internal bomb bay. But are a lot slower. Hard to believe George Bush flew one.
I still think the F-106 is the most handsome interceptor ever flown. Sorry Lighting and Draken fans!
Convair made some magnificent aircraft back in the day.
No need to feel sorry, you are describing personal taste in visual appearance. And beauty is in the eye of the observer. (or however this saying goes ;-) )
I love the F-106 a far prettier delta wing than any of the Mirages, thought the Mirage 2000 is a sweet little ship.
@@mikewysko2268 well they made the f16 also , convair mutated into general dynamics
Ha , ugly but capable of late in time would be the three point parking f 37 Viggen of Saab
Mr. Gordon is a class act.
I was a sentry dog handler at Osan AB Korea at the time. From a post near the end of the runway just after dawn I watched the RC-121 take off and then pairs on F106 would take off firing their after burners. A beautiful sight with the snow on the ground. What a pleasant surprise it is to see the pilot of one of those planes
51st SPS in the mid 80’s. Still had a huge kennel then with 2 sentry dogs still working. It was F-15’s on alert by then. Defender of the Dawn.
But, did see F-106’s flying out of Charleston AFB in the early 80’s. With videos like this and other materials I have learned the 106 was very advanced and capable.
Great interview. Great man. Hope everyone who makes 85 can be as active, alert, and present as he is.
I bought his book a few weeks ago, haven't had the chance to read it yet.
I accidentally found his channel and was blown away, I just love his passion. He's helped me a lot with my virtual pilot career :)
So glad to see Bruce - he is a grand gentleman and a national treasure! he will forget more cool stories than I will ever know. Well done Bruce!!
I spent hours in third grade drawing F106 in crayon...like I still do
Worked at the NORAD SAGE site in Duluth. At the time I was there Selfridge had F4s and KI Sawyer had F-106's. The Data link system was great. If all worked as it was supposed to we just selected the target for our F-106 and Called out "Follow Dolly" and all we had to do was make sure the tracking of the datalink stayed with the correct target and wait for the Pilot to call out "Judy" after that it was all up to him. Great system, it was a shame that the datalink capability died with the F-106/SAGE systems retirement and we had nothing for years and now it's back with the new Fighters.
One funny story - During an open house they USED to let civilians tour the SAGE building including the computer room - until one year some Yahoo walking by the computer (Which took up one entire floor of the building) looked at all the vacuum tubes and said to his wife - "Look Martha, Vacuum tubes" as he proceeded to pull on of the tubes out. The computer was one of two halves (Duplicate systems for backup) BUT he pulled a tube out of the ACTIVE system at the time. Our Entire NORAD Region went down until the backup could be brought up on line (About a 10 minute process) That ended the computer room tours.
Computer room tour. What numbnut allowed that? I worked on the -106 sim at Langley, and it was all tubes, also. Took me 30-45 minutes just to get it started in the morning, and warmed up for use. What a PITA to keep running, though, but when it did, it was sweet.
I tried to get in Davis Mothan once to see the wrecks. I was told I would need FBI clearance which would take a week. I have been in the blockhouse of Richards Gabauer and the sim room as well as sat in an A 10. The sim was busted of course.
He didn't mention the pinched waist low drag breakthru for the 106, maybe assuming most people knew. But I would have asked him how well he could see with the forward canopy crammed full of instruments. As a kid I was invited to an f102/6 squadron picnic, and burned with jealousy when they appeared to raffle off a taxiing ride in a tandem 102/106.
The pinched waist "coke bottle" "area rule" design was developed for the F-102. The F-106 and modern aircraft all use it. Our visibility was quite good -- we had better visibility than the MiG-21. Later, the F-106 was modified with a "bubble canopy" which bulged out on the sides so we could turn around and look behind us better.
Hi Bruce. I flew the F-100, F-102 and the F-106. I agree completely that the F-102 was a much better airplane than the F-100. However, I did enjoy flying the F-100.
Hi Jim ..... Were you ever in the 325th? Or stationed at Mcchord ? Wondering if you knew my grandpa?
@@donrussell1577 No, I was in the 526th at Ramstein AFB in Germany and knew a Russell then. Don't remember his first name.
The -121 was an EC-121, and there were 31 personnel on board, 30 Navy and 1 Marine.
The 'Area Rule' played into the development of the -106 versus the -102. Often called the 'Coke Bottle' fuselage, it allowed the -106 to reach that Mach 2+ speed which the -102 couldn't.
I'm really enjoying these videos.
The MA-1 system was pretty unique, and IMHO, ahead of its time. We're finally starting to realize what kind of capabilities that it was capable of today in our 'Connected' weapons systems, but this stuff like we have today, ICs, microcomputers and lightweight systems capable of being deployed in airborne systems like the E-3 Sentry, all had it's genesis in the SAGE/MA-1 system.
The -106 was never 'stealthy', but something like that today would still be an awesome fighter/interceptor with current weapons systems. Loved the Dart.
Mr. Gordon is BY FAR my favorite military aviation educator. May he live many, many more years!
Fantastic to hear about F-100, F-102 & F-106 operations, Cold War and Vietnam. Especially the stories of BEARS over Alaska, the use of SAGE ect.
Still in love with his career. God bless man
Thank you. The story about the encounter with Mig-21s was especially fascinating.
I bet Mr. Gordon would've loved getting his hands on one of the 106's retrofitted with the 20mm Vulcan cannon.
This is just great. As one of Mike’s patrons, and an owner of Bruce’s book on my kindle, I never predicted this day would come but it has and this aviation history nerd is real happy. Love you guys. Bruce, you are the man.
Thanks very much John! Your support as a Patron is much appreciated and a pleasure having you on board.
One down vote? Must be a former F-4 driver. 😉
Im so heart warmed to hear this beautiful story. Really touched my heart as an F106 Fan
Such a nice dude.
Wow! What a story teller. Fantastic video! The 'almost battle' with the MiGs is unforgettable.
Thanks!
What an awesome guy. I'll tell you though I wouldn't want to be his enemy because he gets a little too excited talking about the different weapons systems at his disposal hehe
Still true as ever today, "When your out of F-106's, your out of Interceptors". The thing is with modern upgrades the F-106 airframe is still as viable an Interceptor as it ever was back in the day.
Under a different account; I already subscribed and I've become a patron--as anonymously as I can make it; what you do here is praiseworthy. Holy! These interviews are gold. You deserve many more than 36k subscribers; I shall encourage my classmates to pass it on and also become patrons. I've a sense that you (and like-minded) are doing it for the sheer love of it; and preservation of history. Good.
I created this cryptic account because on RUclips one can say anything--and a kid was actually asking how he might become a fighter/combat pilot (and basically how to get into one of the US Service Academies) and he was getting BS answers made up by wannabes or gamers or even more nefarious others. At least in the West, it isn't easy.
So thank sir.
Thank you very much for the kind words and the support on Patreon is more than appreciated. I absolutely love doing it and I’m lucky I can do it full time but as you can imagine it’s not always easy. Thank you again.
I responded more directly. But this RUclips machine insisted on public. But for the "public"--such as what that means now--someone (historian that maybe he does not realize) worth supporting...
The Plan is that he can fully support himself in this enterprise. Like $$$
@@yhwequ117 thank you :)
gorgeous aircraft!
Wow. What a great interview. Thank you for this!
Cheers!
I was stationed at McChord AFB, (Tacoma,WA) with the 317th when we got out of the F-86D and got the new F-102A. After about 7 or 8 months with the 102's the 317th FIS was assigned to Elmendorf AFB , on 07/15/57, where I spent 24 months. I was an Aircraft Weapons Mechanic. Spent 7 tours remote duty (14 months total) at King Salmon and Galina. I was then sent to the 95th FIS at Andrews AFB, Camp Springs, MD. and took my discharge 02/07/60. I noted that you speak of the missiles on the F-102's and F-106's but never mention the (24) FFAAR rockets that were also on both aircraft.
Great to see this, I was a member of the Red Bulls 87th FIS in the early 80's.
So interesting to listen to the pilot, great story and love the way he talk. It is like watching a movie. So tense and dramaric. Thank for listening to this pilot. ❤ Even I am sitting at night watching it and tired... I feel imidite rush to launch my DCS and do as he did 😊
I just love this fella Tape on the glasses and all!
Nice talking with Bruce! I've heard some particular details about his experience with MiG-21! I'm reading his book now! I may recomend it as very much needed to read!
Wow Bruce is such a wonderful guy. Very passionate and energetic even after all these years. Thank you Aircrew Interview for uploading all these lovely videos even through COVID. I shall try and become a patreon once i get an income stream again. Keep up the good work
Thank you and that is much appreciated.
Informative interview. I enjoyed learning about the performance and design details of the F102 & F106. Thanks guys!😀
What a legend
Beyond words ! Terrific !
Well done Mike,superb interview with Mark.
Cheers Simon!
This guy is Awesome!
Great interview!
Cheers!
The SAAB Draken is remarkably similar to the F102/F106 it used the same missiles and had a datalink for interception.
It was a Doubble delta and used the same engine as a previous Swedish jet
A Draken is a tiny aircraft irl , as far as a high altitude interceptor i cant see it a match for american designs of the time , none of the swedish jets ever saw combat action either
F-102s were deployed to S. Vietnam early in the war, to counter possible N. Vietnamese airstrikes, which of course never happened.
One reason for F-106 deployment to Korea during the '69 crisis was that the only F-4s in RoK were exclusively for a strike role, and no other Phantom units were available, because the Tactical Air Command was stretched to the limit with the Vietnam War.
Nice shot of a pair of F-102's belonging to the 498th fis (Geiger Tigers) at 4:28, back before they upgraded to F-106's. That was back when my dad was with the 498th fis.... I think we still have an original copy of the 16mm film called the Geiger Tigers..... it was shot at one of the first William Tell competitions if my memory is still working.. lol
What a pleasure. I want to hear the Romanian story.
Larry Minton continued...it is to see Mr. Gordon after 52 years.
P.S. After that RC-121 was shot down with the loss of 31 US military I was part of the K-9 unit that manned M60 machine guns from 6 PM to 6 AM for the next three nights.
Are you related to Richard
SAW THESE IN ALASKA IN 68
There used to be a pristine one come to KC every year for the air show. Montana NG I believe. It was a waxed up glamor queen.
I used to babysit that F106 tail number 90094, it has the 87 FIS tail markings. KI Sawyer AFB.
Don't know if Bruce is still with us but they need to stick him in an F 35 trainer and let him report. P 38s to 106s. What an arc.
He must know who my father is… Captain Jon Romnes, fighter pilot / test pilot / instructor out of Nellis AFB in Nevada back in the late 1950’s into the 1960’s.
Who built his models ? Where is the rest of his collection, this guy is awesome
Some of those may be Hobby Master 1/72 diecasts. They are actually extremely nice models. I have 4.
But they tend to get pricey if you can find them.
ImpairedWraith I build and yes it can be pricey
I'd love to hear if he had any opportunity to do any mock dogfights in the F-102 or F-100 vs its J-57 powered Navy cousin the F8 Crusader, one of my other favorite aircraft.
I'm really surprised to hear Bruce praise the F-102 over the F-100. Wikipedia states the F-100 to be 100 mph faster than the F-102 even though the F-102 had a more powerful version of the same J57 engine. It's stated the F-102 had so many design issues they basically had to redesign the entire aircraft into the F-106.
Legend!
The 100 had that caricaturist scorched rear fuselage skinning. Also was prone to Sabre dancing if landing approach to slow.
The 102 had to have intake mods to correct a buzzing condition at certain flight regime. Also a retro fit big tail for better vertical stabilizer control. The Dagger had development delays that made its introduction much later than planned.
The area rule fuselage was not understood at the time and transonic drag was to great to allow for supersonic performance. The Dart was a much refined design of the Dagger. Much work was done on ejection seat performance on both aircraft. These were times when the B-36 was still operational of course transitional to B-47 / B-52 time frame. In flight refueling was in development stages.
Both 102 and 106 development on internal bomb stores was used on Republic 105 Thunder Chief which was intended as nuclear weapons delivery system. It was used in Vietnam in a role that was not its forte. Blowing holes in jungle thickets not industrial complex infrastructure.
The North Vietnam Air Force was predicting Thud flights and raising havoc on them. Commander Robin Olds disguised his flight of F 4 Phantoms to radar as 105s and surprised quite a number of Migs. Russian pilots were highly involved in those operations.
The gatling gun equipped 106 would would have made a good dog fighter
The problem was not the F-106 was not its performance, though the back seater in the F-4 gave a second set of eyes for close combat., it was the armament. The AIM-4, AIM-26 and AIR-2 missiles and rockets were optimized for attacking Soviet bombers, large, less maneuverable targets. The use of impact warheads were considered necessary to destroy the large bombers. It would have been interesting to see what an F-106 w/Sparrow and Sidewinders, could have done but the USAF had a NIH problem until a number of F-4s were in service (initially the USAF was replacing the AIM-9 Sidewinders with AIM-4 Falcons)
My dad was in an F 86 squadron in Korea. Wonder if he could of crossed paths with Bruce.
Missiles in the bay. That`s what in the 22s and 35s!
Could the 2's IRST be slewed backwards for protection ?
Okay, the F-102 couldn’t “catch” the Bear, but the missiles could, no?
With the Soviet Air Force having aircraft that far into Alaska, I can’t believe missiles weren’t fired.
One U-2 over the USSR, & they fired a SAM.
These F-102s had missiles….
Our B 36s mapped Russia entirely. A crew member has stated they would nap over Russia. No fear of Mig 15s.
Our B 36s mapped Russia entirely. A crew member has stated they would nap over Russia. No fear of Mig 15s.
Question: did the F-106s carry Genie nuclear rockets in Korea, 1969?
RE: Air-to-Air was great but most of your targets are on the ground. Reminds me of the old line that the army used to throw at the pilots. Doesn't matter if you can clear the sky of enemy fighters if you return to your base and the Russian Troops are waiting for you there.
Major kool vid !! 🍻
Compelling video.
Check out Bruce's channel; Good compliment to Aircrew Interview! ruclips.net/video/p8NSSzT9_KY/видео.html
I disagree with him about the wings being the same, they were not. If you read the book about the Convair aircraft and the modifications done to the -106 wing, you’d understand how they were similar but very different. It’s an interesting read.
As I recall it was going to be an improved 102 but so many changes were made it became a new aircraft. They bought lots of 102s but not so many 106s. It pains me to think of them being used as target hacks.
@@rogersmith7396 The problem with the -102 was the fuselage, no area rule waisting and very high drag. The F-102 was using the J-57 engine, the F-106 was using the beastly J-75. Big difference in wet and dry thrusts. The -106 was one of the most beautiful aircraft I ever saw fly!
@@j.muckafignotti4226 Well I have always been somewhat suspicious about "The Area Rule. After these two planes you never hear of it again. F 4, F 14, F 15? I don't see any waisting. F 111? X 15? Maybe a little on F 16. The main thing is as you point out high power engines were not available in the late 40s, early 50s. Can't remember if the US had to import one from England. The 102 was supposed to perform like the 106 but disappointed every one. Many more 102s were bought. The 106 finally got a high powered engine. I don't think the 102 was any faster than the 100. In a similar time frame the 104 came out.
@@rogersmith7396 Take a top view of the F-4 and you’ll see the waisting of the inlets back about mid-wing, it’s there.
Jet “ lag” .....sounds like my beloved B3000 lol
👍🏼🤠🇨🇦
What is the thing next to the printer?
That's an eye test machine. I'm 85 years old and test my eyesight every day. Maybe you'll have one when you reach my age!
The MiG-19 could go supersonic, the MiG-19S (which i think had slightly higher thrust engines than the P variant which if I remember correctly was the most numerous) had a top speed of Mach 1.35
Edit: However, going that fast did use a ton of fuel, and would almost never be done in anything but test runs, so it would pretty much never be seen going that fast.
The top speed of an aircraft is almost NEVER reached in combat. For example, the F-100 is rated at Mach 1.4, but I had it supersonic ONLY ONCE, in a training test. The MiG-19 was in the same category -- seldom went supersonic. The F-106 was truly supersonic, and I had it up to Mach 1.5 often and up to Mach 1.8 on an exercise attack, but never to Mach 2+ except on maintenance test flights. My job was to see that the F-106 could reach Mach 2.0, and all of them did -- but I never reached those speeds when attacking a target. Bottom line: the top speed is not reached in combat.
@@spiritofattack I fully understand that the top speed of an aircraft is never reached in combat. (I know its not the same, but ive flown the F-14 quite a bit in various simulators and never gotten it anywhere close to its top speed of Mach 2.34) But what you said in the video was that the MiG-19 was not supersonic, not that in combat it would never go supersonic.
My intention was not to go "Ha, i know better than this pilot guy" like some people on the internet will do. All i was trying to do was mention this so that people who have seen info saying that the MiG-19 was supersonic wouldn't be confused.
I will edit the comment to get what i intended off better.
@@MCF2233 I did not say the MiG-19 would NEVER go supersonic. I said it would SELDOM go supersonic. Of course I didn't fly them, but the MiG-17s and MiG-19s were out to get our incoming fighter bombers, loaded with bombs, at about 5,000 to 12,000 feet altitude. At that low altitude going supersonic is hard under the best of conditions, especially as they were turning into a fight. HAVE DRILL program showed they had controllability problems at high indicated airspeeds. I still think they would seldom be supersonic.
@@spiritofattack I didnt say that you said it would never go supersonic either, I said that based off of some research i did a while back while trying to find sources to do bug reports for the MiG-19S's performance in war thunder. I edited it again since it was a bit too strong of a statement, and that saying it would never be done would be false based off of just the testing of the MiG-19 to get its max speed number.
You didnt say that it would seldomly go supersonic in the video either. In the video you said was "They had a lot of MiG-17s and 19s, they were not supersonic", which is why i made my comment in the first place.
I do agree with you that i think they would seldomly go supersonic as well, its just not practical for the aircraft in a combat situation.
@@MCF2233 My experience in the F-100 and F-102 was that they, while rated mid-supersonic, seldom went supersonic. In anything more than a gentle turn they would go subsonic. The MiG-17 and MiG-19 were in the same class and probably also seldom went supersonic. Seldom, but not never. Aircraft have both a Mach limit and a calibrated airspeed (CAS) limit. They can reach their Mach limit at high altitude, but at low altitudes (below 15,000 feet) they would reach their CAS limit before reaching the speed of sound. So, these planes were all subsonic fighters below 15,000 feet. Most of the air battles in Vietnam were fought below 15,000 feet because our fighter-bombers, loaded with bombs, were usually between 12,000 and 5,000 feet. Those battles would almost certainly be subsonic. The Have Doughnut and Have Drill tests of the MiG-17 and MiG-21 showed that they had CAS limits well below the US fighters. We could go faster at low altitudes than they could - if we weren't carrying bombs. For example, the F-100 had a CAS limitation of 700 CAS, while the MiG-21 was shown to be uncontrollable above 450 CAS. At high altitude, the MiG-21 was much faster than the F-100. In one battle in Vietnam, an F-100 was chased by a MiG-21 in a high speed dive. The F-100 pulled out of the dive, but apparently the MiG-21 was unable to pull out of the dive and crashed. Set up your battles carefully!
You do , that voodoo , that you do 😘
The '21 definitely had radar, that's what was in that big nosecone
I cant think of a Russian pure deta aircraft, fighter or bomber....
The Mig 21 is the closest I can think, BUT NOT PURE...
Went to school (elementary 3rd grade !) with son of delta dart pilot out of Rome Air Force base , in Utica ny who brought an 30 mil shell to class out of an A10 ! , done today it would be a snowflake blizzard on CNN lol
That’s no bullshit!
Rome was the city. Griffiss AFB was in Rome NY. Born and raised in Rome NY.
Someone re-edit these videos without the interviewer voice, thanks
Thanks for watching :)
reverse thrust Cheer mates 👍
Why????