Wright-Patterson Museum visit, Pt. 5.

OK, since I was asked for this one, here's the Convair B-58 Hustler, a delta-winged supersonic nuclear bomber.
And here's a McDonnell-Douglas F-101 Voodoo.

This is Convair's F-102A Delta Dagger, the Air Force's first delta-winged fighter. It was an all-weather interceptor, tasked with heading off and destroying Soviet bombers coming in from the north. This one was stationed in Iceland and actually came face-to-face with Russian bombers several times.
And here's the Convair F-106A Delta Dart, another interceptor. If it looks a lot like the F-102, it's because it's really just a massive upgrade of that aircraft.
This F-106 has a unique history. When flying over Montana, it went into a flat spin and the pilot, unable to recover, ejected. Once he was gone, probably due to the change in weight and balance caused by the canopy coming off and the pilot leaving, the aircraft straightened itself out and flew off, finally gliding in to a perfect wheels-up landing in a field, causing only minor damage to the plane. It was repaired and flew again before finally winding up here.

Full story here.


And naturally, the museum has McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom jets. This one is an RF-4C, used for photo-reconnaissance.was delivered to the USAF on Sept. 9, 1965. It served in Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Europe, Cuba and the Middle East. During Desert Shield/Desert Storm, this aircraft flew a total of 172 missions, more than any other F-4 aircraft. When flown to the museum in May 1994, it had more than 7,300 hours of flying time.

And then there's this Phantom, another F-4C. But this one has history, too. This was SCAT XXVII, the actual aircraft that then-Colonel Robin Olds was flying when he and weapons system officer Lt. Stephen Croker, destroyed two MiG-17s in a single day on May 20, 1967. Colonel Olds officially destroyed four Migs over Vietnam, and the story of his Air Force career as told in the gripping book "Fighter Pilot" is a fascinating one. If you like good books, I cannot recommend this one enough.

Fittingly, the museum has a small exhibit on Brigadier General Olds.But I still recommend the book.

The museum has Republic F-105s, two. They have a two-seat G model and this single-seat D model below. Sadly, this was the best picture that I could get of either of them. Big sigh. These birds were high-speed, low-level fighter bombers originally designed to deliver nuclear weapons but they wound up being used to deliver large quantities of conventional bombs to every corner of North Vietnam, except, of course, the targets that Lyndon Johnson wouldn't let our pilots hit for political reasons.That's the nose of a Lockheed EC-121D Constellation in the background.

This museum has everything. Planes, weapons...even hats. It seems that someone left his hat behind.

There were also displays set up all through the museum to commemorate warriors who never made it back, like this one recognizing Lt. Karl Richter.He was from Holly, Michigan.