America’s first supersonic interceptor, the Convair F-102, struggled with drag and systems woes, never fully achieving its ...

On this day, 71 years ago, in 1953, the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger took its first flight and became an inseparable part of ...

Entering service in 1956, problems arose immediately. The F-102, designed to be a high-speed aircraft, failed to reach Mach 1 – the fuselage had to be redesigned to cope with transonic wave drag.