Originally Posted by
gums
Salute!
Actchally my dear Royalists, I think you will find the colonist's F-106 was likely fastest fighter, and I do not count the YF-12 vehicles, as nothing has come close to them since 1967 b. ut they couldn't "fight".
Gums, my understanding (according to an Air Force guy I went to college with) was that the YF-12
was originally envisioned as an interceptor/fighter. However it quickly became apparent that - as an interceptor - it really wasn't practical since you need to get the bad guy on the first pass or it would take two states to turn around and make another go, buy which time they'd probably have already hit the target and were on their way home...