Founded in 1998 to commemorate my memories as an F-106 crew chief with the 87 FIS Red Bulls and 318 FIS Green Dragons, the Convair F-106DeltaDart.com website has evolved into an organization dedicated to preserving the complete history, lineage, and memory of everything related to the "Six", The Ultimate Interceptor. Here, on our Forums and in the Facebook group we share experiences and recollections of this historical World Speed Record holding aircraft as a vast Six community of pilots, maintainers, support staff, and aviation fans. We are constantly searching for additional content of anything F-106 related. Contact Us if you have something to share.
-- Patrick J. McGee, USAF (Ret)
* Add: Career events, photos, experiences, historical events or more
* History & Lineage: From manufacturing to demise, or survivor
Brought to you and sponsored by the F-106 Reunion Committee
* Add: Photos, your experiences, history and more
* Then & Now: Includes airframes moved or removed from locations
* Col Joe Rogers: December 15, 1959 in F-106A Serial Number 56-0467
* Available on the eStore: This coin, along with other F-106 memorabilia
* Hardcover, Paperback, ebooks: Search Amazon yourself to find more
The Century Series fighters are a group of 6 US full production fighter jets that were numbered F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105 and F-106.
Although these were considered "2nd Generation" fighters, sharing common technology, the basis for this club was actually the "10x" numbering of full production aircraft. Of note, 2nd generation aircraft were not limited only these 6 Century Series fighters.
The 2nd Generation generally spans an era from the mid-1950's to the mid-1960's when military fighter jets made leaps in technical advancements including engine design, aerodynamics, metallurgy, electronics and weapons systems. 2nd generation aircraft generally could maintain speeds over Mach 1 in level flight. Swept wings became the norm and delta wings came into play with their Area Rule 'coke bottle' shaped fuselages reducing drag. Traditional guns became uncommon and were replaced by air-to-air missiles, some with nuclear tips.
There were other "hundreds" numbered aircraft under development during this Century Series timeframe to include the F-103, F-107, F-108 and F-109, however none of them were ever produced, some never even built. And the F-110 and number higher were not part of the 10x series numbering sequence. Below is a graphic depicting the differences.
In the years immediately following World War 2, many USAAF/USAF aircraft used markings that would make it possible to identify low-flying aircraft from the ground. This was intended to discourage the unsafe practice of pilots of high-performance aircraft making low passes (colloquially known as "buzzing") over ground points. Consequently, these numbers came to be known as buzz numbers.
The system used two letters and three numbers, painted as large as practically feasible on each side of the fuselage and on the underside of the left wing. The two letter code identified the type and model of the aircraft, and the three digits consisted of the last three numbers of the serial number. For example, all fighters were identified by the letter P (later changed to F), and the second letter identified the fighter type. For example, the buzz number code for the F-102 Delta Dagger was FC and the F-106 was FE. On occasion, two planes of the same type and model would have the same last three digits in their serial numbers. When this happened, the two aircraft were distinguished by adding the suffix letter A to the buzz number of the later aircraft, preceded by a dash.