F-102 Missile Configurations

[latormentabritanica]

Hello All,

 

I'm building the 1/48 Revell F-102 and I'd like to position the weapons bay doors and missile rails properly. However, I haven't been able to find out how exactly they operated.

 

Could you help me answer these questions?

- 1) Did all of the weapons bay doors have to open and close at the same time, or was the pilot able to select which doors to open and which to keep closed?

- 2) Did all of the missile rails extend into the slipstream at the same time? If not, how were the rails grouped? For example, did all of the front missiles extend at the same time while the rear missiles remained inside the bay?

- 3) Any idea if there was a standard weapons loadout for alert duties?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Spruemeister]

I think based on photos I've seen of a launch, that all bays open at once, and the front three rails extend, and the three missiles fire in sequence to give spacing.  Surely somebody knows for sure.

 

Rick L.

[Finn]

Here is a video showing the rail sequence:

 

 

 

Jari

[dan]

On 3/10/2024 at 6:51 AM, latormentabritanica said:

Hello All,

 

I'm building the 1/48 Revell F-102 and I'd like to position the weapons bay doors and missile rails properly. However, I haven't been able to find out how exactly they operated.

 

Could you help me answer these questions?

- 1) Did all of the weapons bay doors have to open and close at the same time, or was the pilot able to select which doors to open and which to keep closed?

- 2) Did all of the missile rails extend into the slipstream at the same time? If not, how were the rails grouped? For example, did all of the front missiles extend at the same time while the rear missiles remained inside the bay?

- 3) Any idea if there was a standard weapons loadout for alert duties?

 

Thanks in advance!

1, All doors opened and closed together. The compressed air system had enough stored air for only three cycles of the weapon bay doors.

 

2, The three font rails were a selectable group and three rear rails were a selectable group. These two groups could be fired separately or together. The pilot had the option of firing two lots of three Falcon missiles or all six at once. Selecting and firing a single missile only was not possible, the Falcon missiles were always fired in a group of three or six. Unguided Folding Fin Aerial Rockets were located in the weapon bay doors and were fired independently of the missiles.

 

Later on the aircraft were modified to carry a single Nuclear or conventional Advanced Falcon missile on the middle front rail. This missile could be fired independently of the other missiles. This modification also removed the FFARs from the weapon bay doors. 

 

3, Standard loadout was three radar guided Falcon missiles on the front rails and three IR guided Falcons loaded on the rear rails. If all the missiles were fired at once then the rear IR Falcons fired first. When the Advanced Falcon could be carried it was in place of the center front Radar guided Falcon.

Edited March 22 by dan

[latormentabritanica]

Thank you to everyone for your answers. This gave me everything I needed.

[Diamondback Six]

Tidbit from my college mentor who used to fly F-106s...

 

I had asked him, around the time of the 2004 elections, to walk me through what it would have meant to fly a Guard F-102 in 1972 had the balloon gone up For Real. He dusted off the old manuals and had the instrument panel diagrams blown up to fullsize on paper, had me sit own in one of the office chairs and place them around me as if I were in a cockpit... and I'm going to try to quote his description of how a Deuce nuke launch was basically a kamikaze as close to verbatim as I can.

 

"You have three shots because of the pneumatic doors. So first you lob your three IR Falcons at one bomber, hoping you get ONE hit to knock one down. Then you line up a second and hope the two radar Falcons do their job. Then you point the nuke into the middle of the bomber formation, launch, go to Zone 5, snap a hard diving 180 and pray... you're not gonna outrun the blast radius, but if you're lucky you MIGHT make it home with enough time to see your loved ones one last time and say goodbye before you die of radiation poisoning. Assuming, of course, the SAGE ground controllers don't decide to take remote control and ram you into a midair to score another bomber first..."

 

Twenty years later, I remember how "LTC N." explained that scenario and his description STILL sends a chill through my bones...