Century Series in Color (F-100 Super Sabre; F-101 Voodoo; F-102 Delta Dagger; F-104 Starfighter; F-105 Thunderchief; F-106 Delta Dart)

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Century Series in Color (F-100 Super Sabre; F-101 Voodoo; F-102 Delta Dagger; F-104 Starfighter; F-105 Thunderchief; F-106 Delta Dart) (Fighting Colors series 6039)

By Lou Drendel

Publisher: Squadron/Signal Publications 1980 96 Pages

ISBN: 0897470974

PDF 55 MB

When Chuck Yeager blasted through the sound barrier in Glamorous Glennis, the Bell X-1, on October 14, 1947, it was the beginning of a technological revolution. Until Yeager proved that the sound barrier was no barrier at all, it was a widely held belief that the speed of sound ended in a solid wall, an impenetrable obstruction that would mash anything that attempted to traverse its forbidden corridors. Crossing that threshold opened new vistas for aircraft designers and tacticians alike. They were quick to explore those vistas. Within ten years a whole new family of American military air­craft were routinely flying supersonic missions. This is a pictorial survey of one branch of that family, the so-called "Century Series" of USAF fighters, which is popularly acknowledged to include the F-100 through the F-106, and perhaps to a purist or two, even the F-107 and F-110.

The Century Series is more than just a collection of airplanes to those of us who lived through that time. It is an embodiment of American military and, perhaps even public, thinking during the fifties.

The 'fifties were a golden decade for American military aviation. The cold war was on and, even if you didn't think it would turn hot anytime soon, you didn't question the necessity to be ready...just in case. (Pearl Harbor was fresh enough in everyone's mind and just about every American who had attained the age of reason could remember the result of too much isolationism.) Korea had proven that there were still dragons to be slain. It had also proven that the Russians were more than just a bunch of ignorant Cossacks when it came to designing jet fighters. They couldn't begin to compete when it came to flying fighters, but the MiG 15 proved they knew how to build them. Curtis LeMay was spared the fate of Billy Mitchell. The

public believed, and Congress funded. The USAF became the mightiest military organization the world had ever seen.

The Century Series reflected diverse design philosphies and tac­tical requirements. It was a showcase for American design genius, which might well be characterized as one of our "great leaps forward". The Century Series continues to soldier on into the 'eighties, but they were born in the 'fifties. In my mind they will always recall those days when American Airpower was unchallenged qualitatively and quantitatively.