Takeaways from visit to Yanks Air Museum in July 2016, part 2: Starfighter Hangar

In the first part of my discussion of my July 2016 visit to the Yanks Air Museum, I talked about the planes on display in the Legends Hangar of the museum that were built in Southern California before and during World War II, with huge emphasis on displayed aircraft built by North American Aviation. Considering that Douglas, North American Aviation, and Convair led the way in warplane production in Southern California after World War Two, I found it plausible that the Starfighter Hangar of the Museum might contain jet aircraft from the Cold War era, including the A-4 Skyhawk and F-86 Sabre. As luck would have it, this section of the museum contained a number of familiar Cold War planes built in Southern California, including the F-86 Sabre and F-5 Tiger II.

Left: North American FJ-1 Fury BuAer No. 120349; Right: North American F-86E Sabre (built by Canadair as CL-13) RCAF 23682 (painted in USAF livery)

One of the most familiar sights inside the Starfighter Hangar was the presence of two virtually similar jet fighters built by North American Aviation of Inglewood, California, the straight-wing FJ-1 Fury and backswept wing F-86 Sabre. Just as the Mustang was North American's most famous product of World War II, the F-86 Sabre itself was destined to make its mark on the Korean War, striking fear into the hearts of MiG-15 pilots. When noting similarities in the fuselage and tail empennage of the FJ-1 Fury and F-86 Sabre, it is noteworthy that the F-86 design was originally a straight-wing combat jet design like the US Navy's FJ-1 (33 built), itself one of the earliest US Navy jet fighters. However, when learning of captured wartime German aeronautical research indicating that swept wings were crucial for supersonic flight in order to delay the buildup of air in front of a plane's wings in near-supersonic conditions, North American had the original Sabre design revised to incorporate backswept wings, and the F-86 flew on October 1, 1947. During the Korean War, F-86 Sabres were credited with shooting down 792 MiGs for a victory ratio of 10:1. In the meantime, the Navy procured Sabre jets under the designations FJ-2, FJ-3, and FJ-4, even though these aircraft differed from the original Fury in the sweptback wing. Odd as it may seem, the F-86 I saw in the Starfighter Hangar was never actually built for the US Air Force, despite being painted in Air Force livery. Instead, it was license-built in Canada by Canadair and delivered to the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s bearing the RCAF serial 23682, before being later given to the South African Air Force, with which it served until 1979.

Left: Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF) Northrop F-5 Tiger II at Yanks Air Museum Starfighter Hangar

Right: RoCAF F-5 Tiger II on takeoff.

Another interesting sight at the Starfighter Hangar that I glanced upon was a Northrop F-5 Tiger II in the markings of the Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF). The Northrop F-5 was designed and built by Northrop in the late 1950s because the United States was concerned about the ability of its Cold War allies in Europe and Asia to defend itself from communist aggression with existing combat jets. The first flight of the F-5 occurred on July 30, 1959, and more than 2,100 aircraft were built for the US and its allies in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The F-5 at the Yanks Air Museum is of the F-5E Tiger II variant, and was delivered to Taiwan in January 1974, serving with the RoCAF for 24 years until July 1998, when it was retired. The F-5E/Fs in use with Taiwan were locally manufactured by the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), and 308 Tiger IIs were built in Taiwan. The F-5 is still in use with a small number of countries like Brazil and Iran, even though it no longer serves many longstanding US allies.

Convair F-106B Delta Dart serial number 57-2513 at Yanks Air Museum

One last important exhibit at the Starfighter Hangar that is worth discussing is the Convair F-106 Delta Dart. An improved version of the F-102 Delta Dagger, the first delta-wing jet aircraft built for the US Air Force, the F-106 Delta Dart differed from the Delta Dagger in having a Pratt & Whitney J75 turbojet, a vertical stabilizer with a squared-off upper edge, a slightly bigger wing, and more powerful interception radar. It first flew on December 26, 1956 and it gradually supplanted the F-102 Delta Dart as the primary American long-range interceptor, and like the F-102, was tasked with protecting US skies from armadas of Soviet strategic bombers like the Tupolev Tu-95 'Bear', Tupolev Tu-16 'Badger', and Myasishchev M-4 'Bison'. Unlike the Delta Dagger, however, the F-106 was not as mass produced, with only 342 built. The F-106 on display at the Yanks Air Museum is of the two-seat B variant, which was slightly less heavy and had a better area ruled fuselage. F-106 Delta Darts would serve with the USAF until 1988, when they were replaced by F-15 Eagles. Several F-106s were converted to drones under the designation QF-106, and NASA used six in its Eclipse Project of 1997-1998, which aimed to test the feasibility of an Aerotow-launch vehicle.