Editing Convair F-102 Delta Dagger (section)

===Selection===
Ultimately, Convair's design emerged as the front runner for the requirement, which was officially designated ''XF-102''. Lockheed had chosen to drop out to concentrate on other opportunities while Republic's design had been judged to involve too much technical risk to meet the 1954 deadline for service entry, thus was disqualified, making Convair the de facto winner.<ref name="Donald p.69"/><ref name="Becker p.6970">Becker 2012, pp. 69-70.</ref> The development of three different designs has been considered to be too expensive to proceed with, thus only Convair was permitted to do so in November 1951.<ref name = "Becker p.72">Becker 2012, p. 72.</ref> From an early stage, USAF officials had decided to use the Cook-Craigie Plan for the aircraft's manufacturing; under this concept, production tooling and facilities would be created while a small pre-production batch of aircraft would be completed, the aim being to eliminate the need for a lengthy prototype program, instead incorporating any changes required into the production line. However, if substantial modifications were necessary, re-tooling would then become necessary as well.<ref name = "Becker p.71">Becker 2012, p. 71.</ref> In December 1951, in order to accelerate the aircraft's development, it was proposed to equip the prototypes and pre-production aircraft with the less-powerful [[Westinghouse J40]] [[turbojet]].<ref name = "Becker p.70">Becker 2012, p. 70.</ref>

During early 1953, by which point construction of the first aircraft had reached an advanced stage, it had become clear that there were serious design challenges present, including [[wind tunnel]] testing that revealed early performance projections to have been overly optimistic.<ref name = "Becker p.7172">Becker 2012, pp. 71-72.</ref> Furthermore, there had been sustained delays to both the [[Curtiss-Wright J67]] engine, a licensed derivative of the [[Rolls-Royce Olympus|Bristol-Siddeley Olympus]] which was still in development,<ref name="Knaack p159-160">Knaack 1978, pp. 159–160.</ref> and the MA-1 (formerly ''MX-1179'') FCS;<ref name="Wegg p200">Wegg 2000, p. 200.</ref> to address the latter, decision makers opted to order an interim aircraft with the J40 and a simpler FCS (initially referred to as ''E-9'') into production as the ''F-102A''.<ref name = "Becker p.7071"/> The failure of the J40 led to the [[Pratt & Whitney J57]] turbojet with afterburner, rated with {{Convert|10000|lbf|kN}} of thrust,<ref name="Donald p.70">Donald 2003, p. 70.</ref> being substituted for the prototypes and F-102As.<ref name="Wegg p200-1">Wegg 2000, pp. 200–201.</ref><ref name="Knaack p160-1">Knaack 1978, pp. 160–161.</ref> This aircraft was intended to be temporary, pending the development of the more advanced F-102B, which would employ the more advanced J67. The F-102B would later evolve to become the F-106A, dubbed the "Ultimate Interceptor".<ref name="Donald p.70"/><ref name="Becker p.7071">Becker 2012, pp. 70-71.</ref>

On 23 October 1953, the ''YF-102'' prototype conducted its first flight from [[Edwards Air Force Base]], piloted by Convair's chief test pilot Richard L. Johnson.<ref name = "Becker p.7273">Becker 2012, pp. 72-73.</ref> Its flying career was very brief as it was lost in an accident only nine days later during a failed attempt to reach Mach 1. The accident, which was caused by severe buffeting, seriously injured Johnson.<ref name = "Becker p.73">Becker 2012, p. 73.</ref> The second aircraft flew on 11 January 1954, confirming a dismal performance. [[Transonic]] [[Drag (aerodynamics)#Drag in aerodynamics|drag]] was much higher than expected, and the aircraft was limited to Mach&nbsp;0.98 (i.e. subsonic), with a ceiling of 48,000&nbsp;ft (14,630&nbsp;m), far below the requirements.<ref name="Knaack p163-4">Knaack 1978, pp. 163–164.</ref>