The Convair F-106 Delta Dart was a hot rod of the highest order when it came to interceptor aircraft. Mach 2.0 was just starting to reach the upper limits of the airspeed indicator (Mach 2.3 was officially the fastest it’d go), it had the pure 1950s delta-wing design going on, and it had one major downside of a delta-winged supersonic jet: when induced into a flat spin (where the wings are horizontal), the chances of recovery are minimal and require major man-handling of the aircraft’s weight forward and down for a successful recovery. What does it look like when that doesn’t happen? You know that scene in Top Gun where Maverick and Goose fly through Iceman’s jet wash? That happens.
For the then-Captain Gary Faust, a flat spin in a “Six” was the last possible place he ever wanted to be in. During aerial combat maneuver training over Montana on February 2, 1970, the F-106 went into a flat spin and at with 15,000 feet between the jet and the ground, Faust punched out and ejected. The force of the ejection, coupled with the weight shift of suddenly losing the weight of the pilot, pitched the Dart’s nose downward…and the aircraft recovered and flew off, pilotless, to the amazment of all of the pilots…and, most likely, the absolute annoyance of Captain Faust, who ended up landing near some mountains no worse for the wear. He was recovered by snowmobilers and brought to rescuers. The Delta Dart, on the other hand, was predicted to end up as a fireball, but instead glided into a snow-filled alfalfa field near Big Sandy, Montana, making a nearly-perfect belly landing, missing a stone wall by turning as if it had been piloted, and coming to rest in the snow, still running, the radar still sweeping.
What happened next was almost comedy: first, the local sheriff got a call from the farmer that an Air Force jet had landed in his field, was unoccupied and running, and could they please advise what to do. The sheriff drove out, found that the farmer hadn’t been warming himself up with whiskey, and got in touch with Malmstrom Air Force Base for instructions on how to shut down an F-106. At one point, the sheriff even climbed up onto the wing and was checking out the cockpit when the jet lurched forward…the snow would melt enough to allow the Delta Dart to shift a couple feet forward, and that was enough for the officer to abandon the plan. Instead, the Convair was allowed to exhaust it’s fuel before it was disassembled on-site and shipped back to Malmstrom AFB for repairs. Other than some torn outer skin, the F-106 was in pretty decent condition and was returned to service, flying until retirement in 1986. The aircraft, 58-0787, is now at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
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