Breaking Up With the Six Was Hard to Do
The Convair F-106 Delta Dart served the Air Defense Command (ADC) and later the Air National Guard (ANG) as a primary interceptor for nearly 30 years. F-106s first achieved operational status in October of 1959. One of the last units to fly The Six was the 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) of the 177th Fighter Interceptor Group (FIG), New Jersey ANG, known as the Jersey Devils. In this video the last of the Jersey Devil Sixes, a pair of F-106As and a single F-106B, man up and depart for their destination- the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB) near Tucson in Airzona. Thanks to YouTuber Peter Hecht for uploading this final look at Jersey Devil F-106s.
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Fate of the Devil Darts
The Jersey Devils began flying General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons after the last of their Delta Darts left Atlantic City National Guard Base (NGB). That didn’t mean these jets were done yet. F-106A 590043 went into storage for a while but was resurrected for use as QF-106 drone AD227. The aircraft survived duty as a drone at Tyndall AFB and was stored again in 1998. Today the aircraft is on display at the Dakota Territory Air Museum posing as 590005. F-106A 590046 didn’t meet quite the same fortunate fate. The jet was shot down as QF-106 drone AD224 by a FIM-92 Stinger missile on October 10th 1996.
Record-Setter Went Out a Target
The F-106B in the video, 590149, set a speed record just barely under Mach 1 over a closed course between Dayton in Ohio (Wright Patterson AFB) and Kitty Hawk in North Carolina during December of 1983. The mission was flown to commemorate both the 200th Anniversary of man’s first ascension in a hot air balloon by the Montgolfier Brothers of France and first flight of the Wright Brothers nearly 80 years prior to the mission in Kitty Hawk. But 149 didn’t benefit from the record for long. Assigned as a chase plane for the B-1B program after leaving the Jersey Devils and later converted to QF-106 drone AD261, the jet was shot down by an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM) on November 6th 1997.
Bonus Video
Ride along on a New Jersey ANG mission as recorded in this video also uploaded to YouTube by Peter Hecht. Enjoy!
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Aircraft F-106A 9-0043 served with Feb 1960 Built; 9 Mar 60 27th FIS Loring AFB ME; 25 Jun 65 Internal Fuel Tank Damaged; 21 Jul 65 Sacramento Air Material Area (SMAMA) McClellan AFB CA; 21 Dec 65 27th FIS Loring AFB ME; 18 May 66 Sacramento Air Material Area (SMAMA) McClellan AFB CA For fuel tank repair; 15 Sep 66 27th FIS Loring AFB ME; 1 Jul 71 83rd FIS Loring AFB ME; 3May71 95th FIS Dover AFB DE; 24 Jan 73 119th FIS 177th FIG NJ ANG Atlantic City NJ; 1 Aug 88 Put into storage at AMARC as FN194; 16 Dec 92 Sent to AEL Inc East Alton IL for Drone conversion; 12 Mar 93 Sent to Tyndall AFB FL as Drone (AD227); 4 Apr 98 Put back into storage at AMARC as FN0207; 22 Dec 2008 Still on AMARC inventory; 2014 Left AMARC for display at Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot AFB ND. Falsely painted as 9-0005.
Aircraft F-106A 9-0046 served with Feb 1960 Built; 9 Mar 60 27th FIS Loring AFB ME; 1 Feb 69 Air Defense Weapons Center (ADWC) Tyndall AFB FL; 4 Mar 69 27th FIs Loring AFB ME; 1 Jul 71 83rd FIS Loring AFB ME; 30 Jun 72 95th FIS Dover AFB DE; 18 Jan 73 119th FIS 177th FIG NJ ANG Atlantic City NJ; 1 Aug 88 Put into storage at AMARC as FN193; 3 Dec 92 Sent to A