The North American XF-108 Rapier was a proposed long-range, high-speed interceptor aircraft designed by North American Aviation intended to defend the United States from supersonic Soviet strategic bombers.
source.image: Found And Explained
The aircraft would have cruised at speeds around Mach 3 3,200 km/h with an unrefueled combat radius over 1,000 nautical miles, and was equipped with radar and missiles offering engagement ranges up to 100 miles (160 km) against bomber-sized targets.
The initial F-108 configuration featured a very large “cranked” delta wing. There were fixed ventral stabilizers on the wings, mounted at mid-span, and a tall all-moving vertical tailfin, supplemented by two ventral stabilizers that extended when the landing gear retracted.
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Although some earlier versions of the design had separate tailplanes or forward canards, both were abandoned in the final design. The large fuselage and wing had two and five fuel tanks, respectively, giving an estimated combat radius of some 1,100 nautical miles. The aircraft was powered by two General Electric J93 turbojet engines, also used in North American’s XB-70 Valkyrie bomber, in the fuselage.
