Century Series Wannabe(F-107A)

Air and Space Magazine ^ | 7/01/2010 | Stephan Wilkinson

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Depending on who’s talking, the North American F-107A was either the best fighter the Air Force didn’t have the sense to buy, or a politically flawed loser from the outset.

The F-107A will be remembered forever, if it is remembered at all, for being configured as no jet had been before or since: the sharp-edged maw of its air intake, feeding a prototype Pratt & Whitney YJ-75 engine, was just above and behind the cockpit, giving the otherwise sleek fighter the look of a fourth grader with an oversize backpack. In an era of dart-like Mirages and Delta Daggers, the F-107A was a single-engine-jet Winnebago.

The F-107As were built during the mid-1950s paroxysm of fighter/interceptor/fighter-bomber development that resulted in what came to be called the Century Series—all with -100 designations—which, except for the initial un-Area Ruled Convair F-102s, were the first reliably supersonic Air Force jets.

In the 1950s, every service but the Boy Scouts seemed to want nuclear-strike capability. And not only were the Air Force, Navy, and Army all competing to deliver The Bomb, within the Air Force, both Strategic and Tactical Air Commands wanted nuclear bombers, whether they were strategic goliaths or small tactical fighter-bombers. So rather than a bomb bay, the -107 had a kind of belly pouch that could half-cradle a hydrogen bomb to drop at Mach 2 from altitude or deliver from an under-the-radar approach.

That’s why the intake was piggyback. A conventional nose inlet would have required an internal air duct that would interfere with the centerline weapons station. Wing-root intakes that bracketed the bomb might have worked, but North American thought the dorsal tunnel straight back to the engine was a neater solution.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Ping

[coon2000]

glory days

[alfa6]

Limk to F-107 at the USAF Musueum

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=589

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[saundby]

I’ve spoken to two people who flew the 107 at Dryden in separate conversations. They both loved it. When I asked if it would have lived up to its combat role, one said “You bet!” the other laughed and shrugged.

[sphinx]

In the 1950s, every service but the Boy Scouts seemed to want nuclear-strike capability.

The Boy Scouts didn't, and don't, need nukes. They have twelve year olds with hatchets and knives.

[Steely Tom]

Did it have an ejection seat?

[ops33]

Yes. The seat ejected upwards directly in front of the top mounted engine air intake.

Saw it at the Pima Air Musuem, probably one of the top 3 or 4 air musuems in the World. We were traveling through Tucson a couple of years ago and I was able to get my wife to agree to stop and spend a couple of hours going through the musuem. I was in heaven, she was mighty bored. If you are ever in Tucson I would very much recommend a visit. It is probably the only place in the world where all the Century series of fighters, F-100 to F-106 are lined up in a row.

[magslinger]

Radioactive boy scout

[Steely Tom]

I would love to see that "someday."

[alfa6]

Sorry for the late reply, I missed your ping in a sudden flurry of pings!

As ops 33 mentioned it did have an upwards firing seat. Go to

http://www.aero-web.org/specs/northam/f-107a.htm

and in the 4th or 5th comment down there is a note from a gent who worked on the Rocket Sled test of the F-107s ejection seat.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}