New Aircaft Quiz-#3 , not Tricky but Difficult.

[Doug Robertson]

Name the US jet fighter that had an entirely different nomenclature in it's prototype forms from its first in-service nomenclature and that had two singular distinctions-one regarding supersonic flight ability and the other a strange very first for a jet fighter.

This is a three answer quiz-get all three answers right to win, making it perhaps hard for me to score. I might have to reply "Keep trying" even though you get part right, and would not know it. So, bear with me on this.

As is my usual, full aircraft details will follow the right answers.

[Peter Nicholson]

Doug:

Time has passed without an answer, so here is my submission:
F-110 Spectre initially the F4H-1 which became the F-4 Phantom II;
air-to-air combat was below supersonic flight
missile armament only in early production models.

Peter

[Ztex]

I'm thinking Peter may be right as to the Aircraft.
I'm wondering about the strange first. The gun may be it...

I think the F-4 was the first US aircraft to be shot down by a SAM and may have been the first US aircraft to be shot down by an A2A missile.

Dunno about the supersonic flight thing....unless you're talking about the movable fences on the engine inlets.

[Doug Robertson]

Peter and Zane,

Thanks for your responses, although missing the mark. This one is tough.

Wrong aircraft, but close in time frame. Hint: It lacked air-to air radar, a large limitation. Please keep trying.

[Ztex]

Well...the F-5 was originally the N156F and then the T-38 and it had no radar to begin with...A and B model I think.

Hmmm Supersonic on it's first flight...

[Doug Robertson]

Thank you, Zane for the wrong airplane answer. Keep trying.

[Timothy Aanerud]

The Lockheed YF-12 started out as a fighter, but ended up as the A-12. It certainly could go fast. Mach 3. And you had to wear a space suit to go flying in it.

[Doug Robertson]

Thank you, Timothy for the wrong airplane answer. Keep trying.

[BIKE PILOT]

F 107 started life as the F 100BI and B re-designated F 107 don't think it had radar, did have a Variable Area Intake Duct VAID on the engine mounted on the top of the fuselage also had an all moving vertical fin and automated flight control system which enabled the aircraft to role at supersonic speed.

Neil

[Doug Robertson]

Thank you, Neil for the wrong airplane answer. Keep trying.

[moxy]

I will have to plump for the AV-8 Harrier.

Prototype was the Hawker Siddeley P1127, not supersonic but VTOL.
Did not have air to air radar.

The supersonic version, the P1154 was cancelled 2/2/1965 by the incumbent government. Nothing unusual there. Every government we have had since the war has done everything possible to destroy, not just our aircraft industry but any other manufacturing industry we have had.

Bob

[Doug Robertson]

Thank you Bob, for the wrong airplane answer. Keep trying.

[Ztex]

OK, I'll give this one more shot.

The F-102...started life as the "1954 Interceptor" and then the "Project MX-1554"...then upon another redesign became the F-106...

I think it was designed without RADAR as it was to operate as part of a greater fire control system that would guide the pilot and then fire the semi active missiles at the target.

The supersonic stuff could refer to the design's lack of supersonic performance before a major re-design incorporating the "area rule", Coke bottle shape to the airframe.

[Doug Robertson]

Zane,
You are close, but no cigar. Think FIRST production aircraft designed from the OUTSET to the late Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb's "Area Rule" of NACA for lessening drag and enhancing transition to supersonic flight.

Convair's F-102 DELTA DAGGER was already in production and management originally didn't want to modify the F-102 to have an "area-ruled" fuselage. The "First" for the F-102 was it's delta or triangular-shaped wing in a supersonic jet fighter, not the use of Whitcomb's "Area Rule". The F-102 had development problems and was never reliable. The F-106 DELTA DART was a different Convair aircraft design as you state, about twice as fast as the F-102, and served much longer.

The correct answer will have to state the unique strangeness of the quiz aircraft, also. Keep trying!

[Ztex]

Well...why didin't you say so...

Let's try the F11F? Started life as the XF9f-8 or XF9F-9 then changed to F11F then to F-11.

Funky downward folding wings, flying tail, spoilers for ailerons, leading edge slats trailing edge flaps...etc.

Talking strange stuff, it was the first jet airplane to shoot itself down...