F-106 vs F-4 | Bruce Gordon 

The F106 is an under rated airframe. Forgotten almost. I love hearing about it.

I love hearing his stories. He's still a young fighter pilot at heart.

I worked in NORAD Air Defense Radar Operations at Luke AFB, with the 26th Air Division/NORAD Region, from 1976 thru the first of 1980. It was a great aircraft. Uses at several bases on the west coast for air defense. I watched one on the SAGE radar scope, from Fresno Air Guard doing a full run after a periodic overhaul. It was at 30k feet doing 1425 miles and hour with full afterburner. The maximum engagement altitude of the F-106 was 80k feet, the F-4 was 65k feet. The F-4 also had the nick name "Lead Sled" as did several other fighter jets of those days. An F-106 vs. an F-4, the F-4 is going down!!!

I’m so thankful for Bruce spending time writing and getting his story out on the internet for future generations…

Bruce has great enthusiasm for the F-106. I find it very important to hear what the aircrew of other types of fighters had to say. Since the F-4 was so widespread, people got accustomed to only hear what their pilots had to say. For example, because of the F-4, the Hughes Falcon missile got a bad reputation. But as Bruce pointed out in one of the videos in his channel, that was a fault of the adaptation, not the missile per se, since it worked fine on the original platforms like the F-102 and F-106.

My Dad flew both. The 6 at Andrews and George AFB and the F-4 at DaNang. He LOVED the 106, it was his favorite of all he flew

Bruce loves the F-106 and he LOVES to tell about the time he blew the doors off the F-4s! 😂 It get's better evry time, Bruce, thanks!

Love listening to Bruce. Has a real spirit of attack .

I did FIE (Fighter Intercept Exercises) with both, Phantom and the Six, high and low altitude in the B-52D (Gunner), the E model Phantom with the nose gun, I was worried about more... Since the ECM and expendable counter measures worked quite well on missiles. It seemed harder shake a six, if they went missed attack they were back faster... Plus before Phantoms got newer engines later on, they could be detected very far away - REAL handy when were down in the weeds. Plus the six crews worked with a Weapons Controller on the ground as a matter of habit, TAC Fighter's not so much, which made the six more pesky down low; if you popped up and got painted even briefly, the WC gave them a vector at you. Always wondered why the AF didn't try the forward canard like the Viggen... They had a gun package for the six later on for some of them, which was a great move... At least if all the missiles lauched were countered, the pilot wasn't limited to a ram attack as the resort left to him. It's what we expected from Soviet Pilots.

I've been listening to Bruce for years, love his stories!

This Gentleman is one of my favorites of this channel, Thanks.

The 106 was a fantastic easy on the eye's aircraft!

I thought this tale of Bruce's rang a bell. I read this very story online a few months ago!!! Great to hear it up close and personal as it were.

I was with the F-106 at Selfrige AFB in 1963 and 1964 loved that aircraft

The sixes mighty P+W J75 was only rated at 24,500lbs thrust. Since the single engine speed record is still held by the six, I've always wondered what it could have done with the uprated J75 going into the super Crusader had it been built. That version was rated at 29,500lbs thrust. I think w/that engine and better missles the pickup truck F-4 would have had no chance against the six. I grew up about 25 miles from Westover AFB in the 70's. Sixes "boomed" the house on a few occations.....must have been "bears" patroling off the coast. Never will forget them....a pretty and powerful machine. Imagine w/that more powerful engine!!!!

In ICT, we never got to see F-106s, except a static one at the occasional air show. But one day, an F-106 gave Wichita an introduction to sonic booms. In the hangar working. Out of nowhere, a loud BANG! Rattled the whole building. WTF was that?? We thought something had crashed. Found out it was a F-106 on the 6pm news.

The 106 was a beautiful delta wing bird. Our ANG had them for years.

Great stuff. I love this anecdotal story about the F106 vs the F4.

I've been HOPING for this! Thanks for listening to the viewers!

You know two things. One he loved the aircraft. Two he loved his job. The part that gets me is the 106 was our last truly dedicated interceptor.

What a character. Great stories and another great interview.

Thanks Bruce.🇺🇸

Bruce states the truth in that a planes given top-speed is in a clean configuration lightly loaded, were as the F-106's top-speed was a combat load with external fuel tanks always. This fact is often over looked and makes a world of difference when arm chair pilots start arguing the plus and minuses of any given aircraft.

Every thing ive read is that the f-106 was a pilot favorite. The pilots wanted to fly it vs other fighters of the day out of shear enjoyment

Use to watch the 106's with the 144th ANG out of Fresno, Ca. when I was a kid. Just impressive.

You are an amazing individual Bruce, thanks for these terrific descriptions.

That is so true I flew the 106 and the F4 the 106 was much faster and more maneuverable than the F4 but the F4 could carry more bombs the 106 was a fighter the f 4 was a truck

WOW.. I Love this guy!! The F-106 was soooo underrated.. I'm sure it was all about the MONEY.

Great stories. Both were excellent planes, although the Phantom was a bit more versatile. The F-106 sounded like a fun hot rod of an aircraft.

Fresno CA Air Guard was flying F-106's And the embarrassed the Navy by our dog fighting F-14's and F-18's

The Golden Years of aviation were the late 60s/early 70s IMO. Go to an Air Force Open house, and there was usually one of everything in the inventory. A-1s (yes Skyraiders, in their Vietnam Sandy paint) A-4s, RA-5s, A-6s, A-7s, F-100s, F-101s, F-111s........F-8s, F-14s and F-15s in the 70s. F-106s, KC-97s, C-124s, 130s, 141s, C-5s. Once in a while, a B-52. And a Tornado even (thanks to the German Air Force training unit in New Mexico). Too late to see a B-47 or B-58. Bummer Air shows now? Not so much. The thing about it was, with all of the different airplanes that were good at different things, the USAF and USN always seemed to have an airplane that seemed tailored for the mission.

I came looking for aircraft pictures and was close to 'clicking out'. I am so glad I listened to the video, once I 'engaged' it was almost like being there.

I love me some F106. The best interceptor the US made pre F15

Get one of the RAF or RAAF F-22 exchange pilots. There's at least 2 RAF and 3 RAAF pilots who flew the F-22 while on USAF exchange.

I feel as though the 106 design still had a ton of potential as an interceptor. Imagine a second-generation version (or 3rd if you want to count the 102) with '70s or '80s era engine, radar, and weapons tech. Say for example if it packed an APG-63 radar and a couple Phoenix missiles in that weapons bay, with 25% greater thrust and whatever airframe modifications it takes to make that happen. Now THAT is a machine to put the MiG-25 in its place. Of course, the idea of such an interceptor is a little narrow in scope compared to something as versatile as an F-15, but there would have been some sick stories coming out of Red Flag.

love this guy

Well described and spoken. The F 106 is a classic plane in my opinion

This is like apples to oranges in their respective missions.

I think the air force should more often mix together fighter types to see what they learn. I just remembered a hang gliding acquaintance claiming to have flown an f106 towed behind a c141 in 1997-8, maybe the last manned dart flights. I looked it up and by golly it was NASA project Eclipse to explore "dope on a rope" space launches. Now he flies those commercial space launches from a mother ship, maybe due to lessons learned from a towed delta. I have flown squirrely towed sailplanes, in fear of "cracking the whip".

It's not all about numbers on a page, is it? Great story.

T-shirts in the merch for Bruce Gordon please- "Vectors to Home Plate" *his pic* "At 50'000 Feet" with a Dart buzzing an F-4 canopy, or I unsub

Awesome for documenting this story

I guarded a whole squadron of F106s with my M16, a walking sentry, out in the open. Two other SPs were at the entry control shack with 38 special revolvers. The 106s had nukes in them. The US military under guards US military bases. Those 16 nuke laden on alert interceptors should have been guarded by 10 guys with M16s.

F-4 had one advantage. If they ever got lost they could their own smoke trail home

The late Chuck Myers, of the John Boyd LWF Mafia fame, set an unofficial worlds speed record in the F-106, just before Maj. Rogers of the USAF set the offical record.

Love mr. BRUCE!

When doing certification flight testing on the Cessna Citation X, they would occasionally fly coast to coast, typically cruising at .93 Mach/FL450, sometimes higher, depending on winds. Occasionally, they would be intercepted by USAF or USN fighters. Mainly because they wanted to find out WTF was flying that fast, for that long. Our pilots later heard that the X could be a real problem to intercept, especially if it ended up as a tail chase. To catch it, the fighters usually had to go to afterburner. Which burned off fuel rapidly. Cessna sold a 750 to a guy who was cruising at FL390, passing ICT, and a TCAS target overtook them, climbing faster than they were in cruise.

My uncle had a picture of his flight of Spad's being intercepted by Florida Air National Guard Delta Daggers. The only reason I knew they were 102s was because I was building a model of one.

I worked on the engines on the F-106 and the F-4. I was TDY at Kadena where we did the major work on the engines in support of the planes which were at Osan in Korea which it sounds like Bruce is talking about in this video. The planes were flying cover for E123's that were snooping on North Korea. I would love to know which outfit he was with and when he was over there. I was with the planes from Dover but my home base was Malmstrom in Montana.

Now THAT was interesting!!!!!!

Both aircraft are excellent for what they were designed for but you cannot compare the two for the same job. Because one will not give you the same performance that the other does & vice versa.

As they say ,the F4 was a flying brick.

When we were on Alert we would load a GENIE rocket and 4 Falcon heat seeking missiles. The Genie had a nuclear warhead which would explode in a formation of Russian bombers hopefully destroying most of them. I was a weapons crew chief on F-4’s in Vietnam, I loved both jets. The Genie was a point an fire rocket, no guidance, like shooting an arrow at the range the 106 radar said to fire.

Seems as if the F-106 fell victim to the F-4 due to politics & industry pressures placed on the services (especially the “standardization” plans of defense secretary Bob McNamara) just like the US Navy did with the F-8 Crusader…

Bruce, is that white object behind you on the table a microphone? Ham radio operator? [edit to add] Happy Veterans' day!

Oh never thought about that an f4 in combat configuration couldn't fly 1600 mph; too much drag. I always think of that as top speed because as a kid I got to ask an F4 pilot how fast it was and that was his answer. He didn't answer mach 2.3 or whatever he spoke to me in language a 9yr old could hear.

Excellent

Love the channel, thanks

Yes Spirit of Attack!

I love to listen to Bruce talk about his time in the best interceptor of all time!

I was always told the f106 was never in vietnam i never believed that

Fantastic haha !

Got a bit confused there. He started talking F-102. He said 102 a couple of times. Good story though. I met a 106 pilot who told me he thought the 106 was a great dog fighter. He flew in Viet Nam but he didn't specifically say he fought against Migs. While he was telling me this I was thinking about the Israelis using the Mirage against Migs & like them better than F-16's. (Military History Channel). Sounded like delta wing was king.

Great video. And the age old truth. If you feel the need to put another engine on a fighter, scrap and redesign instead.

The F106 reminds me of a mini version of the Avro Arrow..

This is the kind of guy that you wish was your uncle.

The only thing holding the F-106 back was the Aim-4s.

The F4 was a brick with a wing.

love this guy USAF

I love this guy, he's hot shit!!!! I bet he knows my cousin Tom Balonski, WSO On an F-4 in VIETNAM FOR ONE OF THE ONLY 2 ACES IN THE WAR!!! Willie Driskel!!!🛩🌍

Oh, my poor F4's Are you winning son? NO

God.. I'd love to sit in an F-4 or ride in one....or fly one

F-106 vs F-110

F106 was a racing horse, the F4 was a workhorse.

That guy is a hoot! :-)

Five angry F-4 Phantom sticks gave this video a thumbs down

Nothing like a great who’s got the bigger dong story!

If we could have just 5 more men like Bruce, our country would be a whole different place.

F4 🇮🇷🇮🇷💪💪💪👍🏻👍🏻♥️♥️F4 اف چهار عشق من است خوشحالم که این جنگنده رو از آمریکا خریدیم 🇮🇷💪f4

:)

Should have put the English electric lightning in these tests

The fact remains that the F4 easily became a multi role military aircraft. The F106 was very limited in its role. 🤷‍♂

I never knew Yoda flew in Vietnam.

Air force never wanted that F-4 POS Squid transport. That and the F-111 was a McNamera fantasy. The F-4 was an embarrassment to flight. It couldn't fight, and could barely run away from a dog fight.

Great airframe, decent radar, totally useless AIM4G/F missiles. Mission was obsolete by 1960. Got a gun and a very good hot line gunsight late in life but any "combat capability" was purely theoretical because it never went to combat. The F-102 and the F-104 both have more combat missions than the 106.

Big Interceptor Energy.🫡

Bruce Gordon...what a life...

Enjoyed the Col's story about the race

Great story! F106 was an underrated airframe

I've learned to have greater respect for the f-102 and f-106. I understand better how a pile of external missiles and bombs can slow a plane down.

This would be like watching your parents fight.