Convair Deltas: From Seadart to Hustler

Convair Deltas: From SeaDart to Hustler tells the compelling story of America's aerospace industry in its heyday. It was a time when manufacturers boldly took the initiative to explore futuristic designs by actually building and flying airplanes to determine how well they worked, if at all. Convair led the way with a complete family of aircraft that included America's first delta-wing jet, the revolutionary XF-92A, and the world's first jet-powered seaplane, the XF2Y-1 SeaDart. Added to that list were the XFY-1 Pogo turboprop vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) fighter and the F-102A Delta Dagger and F-106A Delta Dart supersonic missile-firing interceptors. As a fitting finale, Convair also produced the record-breaking four-engine B-58 Hustler--the world's first Mach 2 strategic bomber.

Noted aviation author Bill Yenne thoroughly documents Convair's quest to conquer the aerodynamic mysteries of the delta wing. His stories explain the dramatic struggles and technological triumphs that gave the world some of its greatest fighter and bomber aircraft. While a number of these individual aircraft have been covered in other books over the years, there has never been a major work featuring the detailed developmental history of all six together. Plus, this book shows them in the proper historical context of U.S. aircraft designed for frontline operation during the Cold War.