F-102

[Hektor]

I took this in 1966

 

[SCraig]

Poor old dagger. Not a lot left of it, huh? Probably a whole lot less by now.

 

[Hektor]

I took that at Tan Son Nhut. They were parked in bunkers but I think this was destroyed in an accident. The 102s were withdrawn from Vietnam fairly early as there was no mission for them at the time.

 

[SCraig]

I didn't even realize that F-102's were ever in Vietnam. I guess I never really thought about it, but early in the war they probably just tried what they had available to see what worked. That one looks like it's been cannibalized for just about every part available, even parts of the skin.

I've never seen any of the Century Series fly, and I regret that. I've seen a bunch on the ground but never in the air. Some of them were amazing machines for their day.

 

[Hektor]

Good evening Scott,
These were taken out of Vietnam about 1968, I believe. They didn't have an internal gun and their range might have been too short. Too many years ago to remember. The Air National Guard flew them for several years after that. This particular base had RF-101s as well. I worked on C-130s there on a TDY tour from Mactan in the Philippines. I have several pictures from that era if anyone is interested in seeing them.

 

[Trever1t]

I landed at that airstrip August 2010 and it looks pretty much the same

I'd love to see more from your time there. When I flew into Da Nang the original US bunkers were still there and looked to still be in use.

 

[SCraig]

I'm interested I love aircraft, any kind, and place. Both my parents flew, as did I, so it's in my blood.

I never read much about the F-102 or F-106, but as I recall one of them had an absolutely absurd takeoff roll. I forget the exact numbers, but it seems like at sea level and gross weight it was in excess of 12,000'. At the time, early 60's, there were only a few USAF bases they could land at and most of them were bomber bases.

That lack of an internal gun was one of the Navy's great historical blunders. The F-4 was built with no internal gun because the Navy felt they weren't needed with all their new whizz-bang missiles. They found out real quick that it wasn't the case when the MiG-21's didn't play by the rules and stayed inside minimum missile engagement range and shot them up with guns.

The Hercules is an amazing airplane. Same age as I am but in a lot better condition Much like the DC-3 / C-47 they will live forever.

 

[Joel_W]

Neither the F102 or F106 are personal favorites for the intercepter role. Now the F104, my personal favorite was the class of that field.

F4's went through a operational life like few jets ever did. I believe the prevailing wisdom was that the days of dog fighting was over, and that the missle was the way future air combat would be done. How wrong they were. The F4 also proved that no matter how great a plane it would ever be, a multi operational concept can never equal a aircraft designed for a specific mission.

 

[Hektor]

The F102 and the later F106 were designed using WWII German designs for the Air Defense Command in the 1950s. Neither was supposed to be a "gunfighter," and we learned a hard lesson about that in Vietnam. The Vought F8 was the only true gunfighter early on there.

I will dig out some more pictures from then. I began my air force time working on B-47s and ended up working on old stuff like C121s and C124s, etc in transient maintenance. These were all reserve and ANG planes going through Travis.