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F-102 Delta Dagger in Detail & Scale

By

Volume 6 in the Digital Detail & Scale Series

Published: In Detail & Scale
Book for iPad, iBook, Kindle and Mac
Authors: Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak
Mac/i-Pad download reviewed here – price $9.99USD (price may vary slightly from country to country)

Review by Geoff Coughlin (April 2017)

Our sincere thanks to Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak at Detail & Scale for supplying our download – you can see a lot more at their website and buy the downloads at the Detail & Scale website.

Here’s what’s in this book – info from Detail & Scale:

F-102 Delta Dagger in Detail & Scale continues the established and well known tradition of the Detail & Scale Series of publications with the most detailed look at the U. S. Air Force’s first delta-wing, supersonic interceptor ever published. The F-102 was an historically significant aircraft and was produced in greater numbers than either of its two supersonic interceptor counterparts, the F-101B Voodoo and the F-106 Delta Dart. While serving with the U. S. Air Force and the Air National Guard, it flew with some of the most colorful unit markings applied to any of the famous Century Series of fighters.

Book Features:
Features of Detail & Scale’s latest digital publication, F-102 Delta Dagger in Detail & Scale include:

  • A developmental history of the F-102, from Convair’s early work on delta-winged aircraft, the XF-92, through the prolonged prototype process, which began with the YF-102, an aircraft that could not meet the supersonic flight requirement, and was followed by the YF-102A, which could; to the “interim interceptor” which successfully served in the active and Guard inventories for twenty years
  • A chapter on how the Deuce was armed, with 2.75-inch rockets and AIM-4 and AIM-26 Falcon guided missiles
  • A chapter covering the variants of the F-102, with sections on the prototypes, the single-seat F-102A, and the two-seat TF-102A
  • A Flying the Deuce chapter with pilot reminiscences of what the F-102 was like to fly, written by six pilots who flew the aircraft stateside, and with the Alaskan Air Command, USAFE, and PACAF
  • A chapter that looks at the history of the F-102 in Southeast Asia, beginning with its early alert commitment in Thailand to the expanded alert commitment in Vietnam, where the aircraft’s mission also expanded to the ground attack role for a period of time
  • A Delta Dagger Details chapter with more than 145 photos, the vast majority of which are in color, covering every aspect of the aircraft, including the cockpit, radar and electronics, windscreen & canopy, fuselage, weapons bays, wings, landing gear, and tail
  • A Pave Deuce Drone Program chapter that looks at how the aircraft evolved into the first supersonic drone aircraft in the U. S. inventory
  • A color photo gallery that gives a sampling of the paint schemes and markings worn by the F-102 in Air Force and Air National Guard service, where it evolved from one of the most colorful of the Century Series fighters to the SEA camouflaged fighter-interceptor that flew in Vietnam and later with some Air National Guard units
  • Detail & Scale’s usual comprehensive Modelers Section which covers all of the scale model kits of the F-102 issued over the past 60 years—from the crude kits of the 1950s to the 2017 Revell F-102A release, and which includes an eleven-page listing of the aftermarket items that have been available to modelers over that period.

OK, so what do we think?

Exceptional! That’s what we think – in every respect.

This is the latest in a number of e-books we have reviewed from Detail & Scale and like the others, such as the F-14 Part 1, F-9F Cougar and F-3, they are exceptional for the following reasons:

  • Coverage – all aspects of the type are covered making them a one-stop-shop for modelling reference
  • Quality of production – excellent quality throughout – full colour and sharp images – many of which are unique
  • Profiles, drawings, reference for the real aircraft covering the angles and areas of most interest to scale modellers
  • Accessible to more people and page count – you would have to pay so much more for a hard copy book covering the same content and the cost would be prohibitive for most people. So it doesn’t matter if you don’t have to much to spend on reference, you can get so much more from one outlay – exceptional value for money
  • Subject choice – with models of the famous F-102 Delta Dagger available now (the MENG and Revell 1:72 kits are excellent) or in the past, many modellers will have one or more in their stash, making this a great choice
  • Readily available when you want it, wherever you want it – a bit like SMN really in this and some other respects. Whatever device you want to download it onto it will be there whenever and wherever you need to see it
  • Great modelling coverage with plenty of help and advice about the F-102 kits that have been and are currently available.

I simply love this series and I just hope that it continues to grow – take a look at the Detail & Scale website where you can sample this and all the other titles from this publisher.

Highly recommended

Geoff C.