The "Cornfield Bomber" is the nickname given to a

Convair F-106 Delta Dart The Convair F-106 Delta Dart is an all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Convair. The F-106 was designed in response to the 1954 interceptor program. Envisioned as an imagined "Ultimate I ...

of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

's 71st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron which made an unpiloted landing in a farmer's field in

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

in 1970. Suffering only minor damage after the pilot had ejected from the aircraft during a training mission gone awry, the aircraft was recovered, repaired, and returned to service. It is currently on display at the

National Museum of the United States Air Force The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is ...

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...

near

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

History

The aircraft was manufactured by

Convair Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, was an American aircraft-manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee ...

in 1958 and given the tail number ''58-0787''. It served with the 71st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron based at Malmstrom Air Force Base adjacent to

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the List of cities and towns in Montana, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...

. During a routine training flight conducting aerial combat maneuvers on February 2, 1970, the aircraft entered a flat spin. The pilot, First Lieutenant Gary Foust, deployed the aircraft's

drag chute A drogue parachute, also called drag chute, is a parachute designed for deployment from a rapidly moving object. It can be used for various purposes, such as to decrease speed, to provide control and stability, as a pilot parachute to deploy ...

as a last resort while attempting to recover. When it failed, Foust ejected at an altitude of . The reduction in weight and change in

center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For ...

caused by the removal of the pilot, coupled with the blast force of the ejection seat pushing the nose of the aircraft down, which had been

trimmed ''Trimmed'' is a 1922 American silent Western film directed by Harry A. Pollard and featuring Hoot Gibson. It is not known whether the film currently survives, and it may be a lost film. Plot Cast * Hoot Gibson as Dale Garland * Patsy Ru ...

by Foust for takeoff and idle throttle, caused the aircraft to recover from the spin. The previously set trim then helped stabilize the attitude of the plane after the initial nose down. One of the other pilots on the mission was reported to have radioed Foust during his descent by parachute, saying that "you'd better get back in it!" From his parachute, Foust watched incredulously as the now-pilotless aircraft descended and skidded to a halt in a farmer's field near Big Sandy, Montana. Foust drifted into the nearby mountains, and was later rescued by local residents on snowmobiles. Shortly thereafter, the local sheriff and local residents arrived at the scene of the crash. The thrust from the still-idling jet engine allowed the aircraft to slowly drift on its belly across the field after it landed. The sheriff, having contacted the air base, was informed that he should wait for the jet to run out of fuel, which occurred one hour and 45 minutes later without further incident. A recovery crew from

McClellan Air Force Base McClellan Air Force Base (1935–2001) is a former United States Air Force base in California, located in the North Highlands, California, North Highlands area of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County, northeast of Sacramento, Califo ...

arrived on the scene and began to dismantle the aircraft, removing its wings for transport aboard a railroad flat car. The damage to the aircraft was minimal; indeed, one officer on the recovery crew is reported to have stated that if there had been any less damage, he could have flown the aircraft out of the field.

Preservation

Following its misadventure, the "Cornfield Bomber" was repaired and returned to service, operating with the 49th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, the final Air Force unit to operate the F-106. Foust flew the aircraft again in 1979 while training at

Tyndall Air Force Base Tyndall Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located east of Panama City, Florida. The base was named in honor of World War I pilot 1st Lt. Frank Benjamin Tyndall. The base operating unit and host wing is the 325th Fighter Wing (3 ...

. Upon its retirement, it was presented to the

in August 1986, where it remains on display.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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External links