posted 12-28-2014 04:10 PM               

The AFTO Form 781 is described as the Aircraft Flight Report and Maintenance Record, and is completed by a military crew chief, military inspection and aircraft maintenance personnel. This aircraft flight report is special because it is also signed by U.S. Navy pilot Wally M. Schirra, Jr. after completion of his 2 hour F-106A training flight, January 2, 1962, at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.

A second Aircraft Flight Report and Maintenance Record is shown for the completion of an F-106A training flight by U.S. Air Force pilot Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom, January 9, 1962, and signed after his training flight at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. Both Gus Grissom and Alan Shepard had successfully flown suborbital spaceflights at this point in time. The next Project Mercury spaceflight would be an orbital spaceflight by U.S. Marine Corps pilot John Glenn, now only 6 weeks away!

Space Cover #297 – Happy New Year!

This week, I tried very hard to find a significant space cover of the week with a January 1 New Year's date for our SCOTW readers and contributors. This one became a real stumper!

The best I could do was to find a January 2, 1962, date on an AFTO Form 781, Aircraft Flight Report and Maintenance Record, signed by Project Mercury astronaut and U.S. Navy pilot Wally M. Schirra, Jr., on a test flight made at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, where pilot training for the Project Mercury program to maintain astronaut and pilot expertise was being conducted by the 7 Project Mercury astronauts using a state of the art U.S. Air Force Delta Dart F-106A training aircraft.

Fortunately, I was also able to find a companion Aircraft Flight Report and Maintenance Record, signed by fellow Project Mercury astronaut and U.S. Air Force Pilot, Gus Grissom, for his training flight a week later, January 9, 1962. Grissom's flight was also an F-106A training flight, at Langley Air Force Base. Neither of these two signed training flight reports have a January 1st test date, but they are the best I could do to find dates that approximate this difficult to find test date.

First, though, it's necessary to provide the background on why the U.S. Air Force was providing F-106A aircraft to Project Mercury astronauts at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. The first prototype F-106 Delta Dart, an all-weather fighter-interceptor, was used as an aerodynamic test bed, and made its maiden flight December 26, 1956 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. A second aircraft test flight, fitted with a fuller set of equipment, was made February 26, 1957. Initial test flights at the end of 1956 and at the beginning of 1957 were disappointing, with aircraft performance proving to be less than expected with the aircraft's engine and avionics also proving to be unreliable.

These problems and the delays associated with them led to a near abandonment of the program. The Air Force ordered 350 F-106s, a much smaller number than the 1,000 airplanes that had originally been planned. With minor aircraft redesign, the new modified aircraft was designated as the F-106A, and was delivered to 15 U.S. Air Force fighter interceptor squadrons along with an F-106B two-seat combat-capable trainer variant, in October 1959.

An early highlight of the successful performance capability of the new aircraft was made December 15, 1959, as test pilot Major Joseph W. Rogers set a world speed record of 1,525.96 mph /2,455.79 kmph (Mach 2.3) in a Delta Dart at 40,500 feet /12,300 meter altitude. Rogers' speed record for a single engine turbojet aircraft stands to this date.

The F-106 was envisaged as a specialized all-weather missile-armed interceptor to shoot down bombers. It was complemented by other Century Series fighters for other roles such as daylight air superiority or fighter bombing. To support its role, the F-106 was equipped with the Hughes MA-1 integrated fire control system, which could be linked to the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) network for ground control interception (GCI) missions, allowing the aircraft to be positioned by controllers.

The MA-1 proved extremely problematic and was eventually upgraded after 60 troublesome events. Similar to the F-102, the F-106A was designed without a gun, or a provision for carrying bombs, and could carry its missiles in an internal weapons bay for clean supersonic flight. It was armed with four Hughes AIM-4 Falcon air to air missiles, along with a single GAR-11 AIM-26, a Falcon nuclear capable, semi-active radar (SAR) homing missile capable of detecting reflected radar signals, or a 1.5 kiloton warhead AIR-2 (MB-2) Genie air-to-air rocket intended to confront enemy aircraft bomber formations.

So, Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom had successfully made the first two manned Project Mercury suborbital spaceflights but orbital spaceflight was possible and in view. The remaining Project Mercury astronauts were raring to go. And in the meantime, the U. S. Air Force Delta Dart was capable of supersonic speed and could fulfill the intermediate training aircraft speed requirement of up to speeds of Mach 2.3. It was a perfect match.

The postcard above is from the author's postcard collection and shows the 7 Project Mercury astronauts as follows: U.S. Navy pilot Scott Carpenter, U.S. Air Force pilot Gordon Cooper, U.S. Marine Corps pilot John Glenn, U.S. Air Force pilot Gus Grissom, U.S. Navy pilot Wally Schirra, U.S. Navy pilot Alan Shepard, and U.S. Air Force pilot Deke Slayton.

Wishing all of our Space Cover of the Week readers and contributors a bright and very Happy New Year!