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Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
No it was Interceptors not Fighters. There was a diffrence back then...  |
The difference was that both sides in the Cold War were developing (or trying to develop) supersonic bombers. A fighter was considered to be gun-armed and used for air-to-air combat. The new interceptor concept was missile-armed (no guns) and meant to be able to, well, intercept incoming bombers. They didn't have to actually catch them, just getting to the general area was good enough. That said, as far as difficulty of piloting them there is no difference. The F-102 was a dangerous plane to be in and Bush risked his life plenty.
Side-note: the legendary F-4 Phantom II was developed as an interceptor. The F4E was the first version to carry guns. The navy never had that version, and the top-scoring American ace of the VietNam war, Randy 'Duke' Cunningham (yep, the same guy who admitted to doing bad things as a congressman) got all five of his kills with missiles alone, including besting their best, Colonel Toon.