Two North American F-107A airplanes were flown at NACA/NASA High-Speed Flight Station starting November 1957 and continuing until September 1959. The F-107A possessed some interesting features that NACA wished to examine in detail. NACA acquired the first and third F-107As built.
Originally called the F-100B, the tactical flighter bomber was so extensively redesigned that the designation was changed before the first F-107A (Serial #55-5118) flew in 1956. It featured a large inlet located above the fuselage for a Pratt & Whitney YJ75-P-11 engine with afterburner, a very sophisticated stability augmentation system, and a movable vertical fin. In July 1959 the F-107A (Serial #55-5118) airplane designated NACA #207 was donated to NASA High-Speed Flight Station. The first aircraft proved mechanically unreliable and only made 4 flights before NASA grounded it.
The third aircraft built, F-107A (Serial #55-5120) made its first NACA flight on July 25, 1958. It would complete 39 more flights during 1958 and 1959 before being damaged in a takeoff accident on September 1, 1959, fortunately without injury to the pilot…Learn more
F-107A #55-5118 is now on display at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.