Lineage History F-106A 580798

Manufacturer:

Convair

Model:

F-106A

USAF S/N:

580798

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Production Year:

1958

Production C/N No.:

161

No. Built

340 (277 A, 63 B)

Production Date:

1959-11-01

Delivery Date:

1959-12-28

Ended Service:

1966-06-13

Airframe Hours:

unknown

Units Assigned:

27th,94th

History Lineage:

Nov 1960 - 161st F-106 produced by Convair at San Diego CA
03 Dec 59 - To 27th FIS Loring AFB ME
22 Jun 60 - To 94th FIS, 1st FG, Selfridge AFB MI
13 Jun 66 - Crashed 25 miles N-NE of the base into Lake Huron, MI. Pilot Maj William J. Vinopal, 37 of Mauston, Wisconsin flying with the co-located 71st FIS at Selfridge AFB MI in 1966, was killed during ejection. The aircraft wreckage and Maj Vinopal’s remains were never recovered. However, around Memorial Day 2017 a group called "Lake Huron Exploration" with a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LakeHuronExploration/ began to search for the aircraft and the majors remains.

On the day of the crash 13 Jun 1966, a young George Beebe who was working on the roof of a hospital saw the powerless F-106 gliding low over Lake Huron with a faint trail of smoke following. As it disappears out of his sight, Beebe scrambled to alert the nearby Coast Guard station about a potential downed aircraft.

Now, over 50 years later, a group of veterans – including George Beebe, now 85, and his nephew, John are on a mission to locate the wreckage and recover Vinopal’s remains. Along with his uncle George, John Beebe, 56, a retired Michigan Air National Guard technical sergeant, brought together the Lake Huron Exploration group of Air Force and Navy veterans.

September 29, 2021, Lake Huron Exploration (https://www.facebook.com/LakeHuronExploration/): We found it! It is resting upside down in 125' feet of water, between Lexington Michigan and Kettle Point, Ontario, Canada. We also believe we found his ejection seat a little North of the aircraft. We had a high-interest sonar hit during one of our last sonar runs of the season, Jeff noticed the sonar return noted in the left image. We have not been able to get back to the site to conduct more runs in different directions of approach. Once boats are back in the water in May and system(s) checks are completed, we will head to the area and conduct the needed runs, anchor, over the target and deploy the ROV. At this time we believe the plane is upside down because of what appears to be one of the external fuel pods, this is because of the return from the sonar at this angle. This is noted in the image to the right, showing the fuel pod from under the plane of this type. From a look angle from above, only a small portion of the pod would be visible.

AMARC Storage PCN ID No.:

QF Drone Conversion:

QF Drone ID No.:

QF Drone Shotdown:

Shotdown By:

QF Drone Lost on Nullo No.:

Deployed to Osan AB Korea:

B-1B Chase Plane:

Crash

Accident Location:

46-32' N. 87-24' W. Lake Huron, MI

Crew Ejected:

Crew Survived:

Crew Killed:

Pilot Front / Pilot Rear:

Maj William J. Vinopal

Pilot Rear:

Accident Report No:

660613002

Destroyed:

Written-Off:

Survivor:

Static Display Painted As:

Instruments - TAC Conventional:

TAC Conventional: Models produced with Tactical 'Round Eye' instruments.

Instruments - Conventional:

Conventional: Models were originally committed as TEST or BAILMENT aircraft..

Instruments - TEST-to-TACTICAL:

TEST-to-TACTICAL: Models returned to Convair and upgraded from TAC Conventional to Vertical
instruments in 1961. Fuselage cut in half at station 412 (Aft bulkhead missile bay) and a new fuselage, cockpit section,
and nose section was installed with the latest production avionics, the same as the last F-106A 590148 and F-106B 590165.
A total of 35 aircraft (28 "A" models and 7 "B" models) were converted and reassigned to various ADC units..

Instruments - Vertical, 1st Produced:

Vertical, 1st Produced: First 'A' and 'B' models produced with vertical instruments.
Tactical Vertical: Models factory produced w/Tactical Vertical instruments: late 1957 and all 1958, 1959..

F-106 Specifications

Role/Function	Fighter-Interceptor
Manufacturer	Convair Division of General Dynamics
Country	United States
Crew	'A' Model 1, 'B' Model 2
Power plant	Pratt & Whitney J-75-P-17 Turbojet
Thrust	24,500 lbs. in Afterburner
Max Speed	1,525 mph (Mach 2.31) @ 40,000 ft
Service Ceiling	53,000 ft
Wing Span	38 ft. 3½ in.
Length	70 ft 8.78in
Height	20 ft 3.3in
Weight	23,646 lb. empty, 41,831 lb max
Cost USD	$3,305,435 Initial, $4.7M after MODS
Range	2,700 mi. max fuel w/ext tanks
No. Built	340 (277 'A', 63 'B')
Armament	AIR-2A (1) AIM-4 (4) M61A1 (1)
Fire Control System	Hughes MA-1 / IBM Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) System
Ejection Seats
1st Seat	Weber Aircraft Corporation Interim seat, not Zero-Zero, inadequate for supersonic speed ejections.
2nd Seat	Convair/ICESC (Industry Crew Escape System Committee) Supersonic Rotational B-seat, called the supersonic 'Bobsled'.
3rd Seat Final	Weber Aircraft Corporation Zero-Zero ROCAT (Rocket Catapult), Zero-Zero, High-altitude supersonic ejections, retro-fitted to all aircraft.
Mfr. Model #	MK No. 8-24

Instruments - Tactical Vertical:

Last Update:

19-11-2021

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F-106 DELTA DART

Lineage History F-106A 580798