Convair Aircraft Books - History, Types and Construction

Convair

After the merger of Consolidated and Vultee in 1943, Convair became the fourth largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States. The company soon gained a strong reputation for designing and building some of the largest and most powerful aircraft of its time.
From the XA-41 ground-attack aircraft of 1944 to the CV-880 and CV-990 jet airliners of the early 1960s, Convair consistently explored new technical limits. While some projects were more successful than others, all left a clear mark on aviation history.

Distinctive aircraft such as the turboprop-powered Tradewind flying boat, the F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart fighters, and the powerful and advanced B-58 Hustler bomber became defining Convair designs.

This book by aviation writer Martyn Chorlton presents the history of these aircraft and many others, supported by extensive photographs and clear explanations.

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Convair Deltas: From Seadart to Hustler

Tells the compelling story of America's aerospace industry in its heyday, when manufacturers boldly took the initiative to explore futuristic new designs by actually building and test flying airplanes to determine how well they would work, if at all.

Convair led the way in this area with America's only complete family of delta-wing aircraft that included America's first delta-wing jet, the one-of-a-kind XF-92 experimental prototype, the XF2Y-1 jet-powered seaplane, the XFY-1 Pogo turboprop vertical takeoff and landing fighter, the F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart supersonic missile-firing interceptors, and the revolutionary record-breaking four-engine B-58 Hustler - the world's first Mach 2 strategic bomber.

Noted aviation author Bill Yenne thoroughly documents Convair's quest to conquer the aerodynamic mysteries of the delta wing with stories of the dramatic struggles and technological breakthroughs that gave the world some of its greatest fighter and bomber aircraft.

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Convair F-102 Delta Dagger

With vivid detail and many exclusive photographs, Wayne Mutza chronicles the Convair's F-102 Delta Dagger's unsteady course through history, from its inception to present-day survivors.
Presented for the first time are the fascinating details surrounding the F-102 in the air defense role, special projects, its unconventional use during the war in Southeast Asia, service with foreign air arms, the Air National Guard and its extensive involvement with the drone program.

Special features include a detailed listing of each aircraft's assignment history and many of the insignia associated with the F-102. Through in-depth research, the author has produced a most informative and interesting volume on a classic aircraft.

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F-102 Delta Dagger Units (Osprey)

World War II saw the development of the heavy bomber as a decisive weapon which, in sufficient numbers, could overcome defensive fighters and guns and lay waste to strategic targets. The addition of nuclear weapons to the bomber's armament made it even more formidable, and by the late 1940s, US planners saw the growth of a Soviet nuclear-armed bomber fleet as a terrifying threat to North American security.
Conventional subsonic fighters with guns and free-flight air-to-air rockets would be incapable of reaching these incoming bombers in time to prevent even one from delivering a devastating nuclear attack.

As a result, supersonic speed, long-range guided missiles and precise radar-based control of an interception became prerequisites for a new breed of fighters, beginning with the F-102. A massive research and development effort produced the Convair F-102A '1954 Fighter', the J57 afterburning turbojet, its Hughes MX-1554 fire control system and, in due course, the Semi-Active Ground Environment (SAGE) radar and communications network that covered North America to guide its airborne defences.

In service, F-102As also provided air defence in Europe with USAFE, in the Far East and in Southeast Asia, where they protected US airbases in South Vietnam and Thailand from air attack by North Vietnamese fighters and bombers and escorted B-52s and fighter-bombers on their attack sorties.
This illustrated study from leading expert Peter E. Davis details the design, development, and deployment of the futuristic F-102, including its complex research program and role in Vietnam.

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