This is the history of fighter aircraft that transitioned the United
States Air Force into the supersonic era. By 1952, fighter designations that
started with the Curtiss P-1 in 1923, reached the century mark with the North
American F-100 - thus the term Century Series. This occurred at the very point
where operational fighters could exceed the speed of sound. The useful lives of
the six century series aircraft that saw operational service were long and
varied - one performing its military role almost fifty years after its prototype
first took to the air. Even today, current production fighters barely surpass
the speeds and altitudes at which these aircraft flew. The Century Series story
is also one that moves past their initial operational period and into the war in
Vietnam. This book includes
first-hand accounts by the men who flew intercept missions in the F-102 and
F-106. See what it was like to fly reconnaissance in the F-101, Wild Weasel
F-100 sorties, and bombing runs in Southeast
Asia in an F-105. Experience the tension of a night refuelling in an
F-100 or the exhilaration of strapping on an F-104 for a flight beyond Mach 2.
This is their story; a chronicle of the men, machines and ideas that set the
standard for a half-century of fighter development - a must read for aviation
enthusiasts.
