Another fine book from the folks at Specialty Press and this time it concentrates on what is probably the only major aircraft manufacturer in the US to concentrate on building delta winged aircraft; Convair. The delta wing offers many advantages, one of them being relative stability at high speed, making it the perfect choice for interceptors. It does, however, require a rather high landing speed and it quickly bleeds off speed in a turn, making its dog-fighting capabilities somewhat less than sterling without a lot of engine power.

Gleaned from WWII German research into the design by Alexander Lippisch, the Convair design team developed the XP-92 pure delta fighter, an aircraft that looked very much like Lippisch's DM-1 glider. This aircraft (later designated XF-92), provided a wealth of information on delta wing planforms and was instrumental in the design of later aircraft by Convair. This led to several rather bold designs which included the XF2Y-1 Sea Dart amphibious fighter and the XFY-1 vertical take off and landing turboprop fighter. Both were quite innovative and both were too advanced for the technology of the time. Still, they were a way to see what worked and what didn't. Now days, we'd probably never see such aircraft in the skies as their viability would be determined by software.

Though not successful in obtaining a Navy contract, that cannot be said for the Air Force. The F-102 was the nation's first full production delta wing interceptor and served for decades. Same can be said for the greatly improved F-106, the Air Forces first fully integrated weapons sytstem and its problematic MA-1 control system. Convair's final delta design was the impressive B-58 Hustler, a supersonic bomber whose operating cost eventually caused the aircraft to have a relatively short operational life.

Author Bill Yenne takes us through the background history of Consolidated and its merger with Vultee to create Convair. Some of its WWII and post war work on non-delta aircraft is also covered. When it comes to each of the delta aircraft, each type's development and operational history is fully covered.  All of this is enhanced by a super selection of photos and illustrations from a variety of sources, making it another outstanding Specialty Press presentation. It is a book that I can easily recommend to you and I know that once you start to read it, you will agree.

August 2015

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