f106b

The aircraft the Mercury Seven are standing in front of (Convair F-106B Delta Dart, AF 59-0158) escaped being blown out of the sky as a target drone and was recently restored. It now sits on display in Century Circle at Edwards Air Force Base. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x70VvAeQ5X0 www.edwards.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123066163 Links to the original photo: grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001286.html grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/MEDIUM/GPN-2000-001286.jpg

Great photo, they were some guys.

This is the first Convair F-106B-31-CO / NF-106B / JF-106B Delta Dart 57-2507 (0-72507) "family model". Civilian registration was N607NA. She was used as a chase support and ejection seat test aircraft. Also used in final qualification tests for Gemini spacesuit and spacecraft escape systems as well as solar cell calibration tests and air sample collections. Later transferred to NASA as "NASA 607" @ Langley AFB in May 1981 and cut in half lengthwise for wind tunnel tests. Finally sold for scrap on 24 Feb 84.

Caption should be corrected to reflect that this is a Convair F-106B Delta Dart (USAF Ser. No. 57-2516, c/n 39). This particular aircraft would go on to have an active flight test career for NASA (as N616NA, and later, N816NA), including being purposefully flown into thunderstorms and struck by lightning hundreds of times. Today, it is on exhibit at the Virginia Air & Space Center (VASC) in Hampton, Virginia. See: www.f-106deltadart.com/lineage/572516Page.html