Century Series

Century Series was the moniker given to US military fighter and fighter bomber aircraft in the 1950's and early 1960's. The official designations on the century series fighters went from F-100 through F-110.

After the 1962 Tri-service agreement on unifying the designation schemes for the US Navy, US Army and US Air Force, new fighter aircraft designs were numbered F-1 and upwards. Hence, the last new design of the Century Series was the ill-fated F-107.

Aircraft in the Century Series:

• North American F-100 Super Sabre
• McDonnell F-101 Voodoo
• Convair F-102 Delta Dagger
• Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
• Republic F-105 Thunderchief
• Convair F-106 Delta Dart
• North American F-107

Other, lesser known planes in the century series:

• Republic XP-103. Cancelled in August 1957 and thus never built. Would have been F-103 in production. Proposed as a delta winged titanium construction, dual engine (ramjet and conventional) mach 3+ flying machine. The name "Excalibur" pops up here and there in connection with the XP-103, but is not official.
• North American F-108 Rapier. Delta winged, two crew, Mach 3+ long range interceptor. Cancelled in September 1959. None built.
• McDonnell F-109. A designation originally used on the F-101 Voodoo 'B' variant, a two-seat interceptor, but later dropped. Other explanations for this designation includes a cancelled Mach 2.3 VTOL fighter project by Bell Aircraft.
• McDonnell F-110 Spectre. Unknown to most people on the face of the earth, this was the official designation for the F-4 Phantom II after the 1962 tri-service designation changes. Rarely used, to say the least.

The only aircraft from the century series operational today is the F-104 Starfighter. It is scheduled to end service with the Italian Air Force some time in 2004.

The F-111 Aardvark and the F-117 Nighthawk are not considered to be in the century series, however odd that may seem.