Word: interceptor
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...step toward this goal is the "semiautomatic interceptor" such as the Lockheed Starfire (F-94C) and the North American F-86D, which airmen call the "Dog." Both are in limited production (the Starfire was announced this week), but neither is in tactical operation...
...completely automatic interceptor may not be far away. In the near future, whole formations of specially equipped standard fighters may take off, maneuver together high in the air, and land untouched by human hands. Special planes for this kind of operation are well advanced...
Such a plane will be a serious rival to the ground-to-air guided missile. With no pilot (and therefore no pressurizing, cooling, ejection seats, visual instruments, etc.), it will be smaller and probably cheaper than a piloted interceptor and it should climb faster and fly farther...
North American's Dog is a single-seater, but the Starfire carries both a pilot and a radar operator. Some Air Force authorities think that, even with a troop of electronic assistants, there is too much concentrated work on a fast interceptor for one man to handle...
...Force's Brigadier General Albert Boyd of the Wright Air Development Center, Dayton, Ohio, and Major "Chuck" Yeager took turns flying the Mystere over Marignane, France, checking its airspeed system by flying it alongside F-86 Sabres. "An excellent interceptor," they concluded, and recommended that the French put it into production. The Mystère will begin coming off assembly lines next month at Bordeaux's Dassault Aircraft plant. Target: a plane a day by the end of the year...