(Image: US Air Force, public domain)
This F-106 Delta Dart interceptor must be the only fighter plane to have been abandoned by its pilot at 8,000 ft after entering a seemingly unrecoverable spin, and still ending up on display – intact – at a US aviation museum. Such was the fate of F-106 serial number 58-0787, which, on February 2, 1970 in the hands of Maj Gary Foust, became famously known as the Cornfield Bomber.
That day, Maj Foust (US Air Force, Ret.) took off on a training sortie with a formation of two other Delta Darts. The mission was a two-versus-one air defence sortie, in which Foust and his wingman would attempt to intercept the lone aggressor.
(Image: US Air Force, public domain)
Coming in at 40,000 ft with his opponent slightly below him, Foust and the aggressor got into a vertical scissors manoeuver before his aircraft began to gyrate violently during a high speed rudder roll. From that point the F-106 entered a flat spin which, just like that encountered by Maverick and Goose in Top Gun, seemed unrecoverable.
Tumbling out of the sky, the pilot battled hard to save the aircraft but was forced to eject as it passed through 8,000 ft. That’s when things took an unexpected turn.
Interviewed for this documentary (see the full video below), Foust said: “After I ejected, the aircraft immediately went nose down, recovered from the spin and flew off a number of miles away and landed by itself in a little town by the name of Big Sandy [Montana]. There was about six inches of snow on the ground. It was in a wheatfield, probably skidded some couple of hundred yards or more and came to rest. It ran in idle until it basically ran out of gas.”
He added: “This wasn’t the first time that the pilot ejected and the aircraft recovered from the spin, but of course I was surprised that that was the case. I assumed it crashed. But the fact that it landed by itself was obviously a shock to everyone.”
The Delta Dart, which had made an almost-perfect wheels-up landing, was recovered and returned to McClellan Air Force Base in California for repairs. Incredibly, it had sustained only minor damage and was soon returned to service.
Almost a decade later, Maj Gary Foust once again piloted the Cornfield Bomber while serving at Tyndall AFB in Florida. Thankfully he wasn’t forced to eject from the interceptor a second time and the jet – which Foust joked should really have been named the Wheatfield Fighter – is now preserved for the nation.
Arguably the most famous of all F-106 Delta Darts, airframe 58-0787 is on public display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Watch the full interview with Maj Foust above.
The post ‘Cornfield Bomber': The Amazing True Story of an F-106 Delta Dart that Landed Itself After Pilot Ejected appeared first on Urban Ghosts.