<p>The Convair XF-92A (46-682), which made its first flight on 8 June 1948, was not the aircraft originally assigned the F-92 designation but a hybrid, hastily-built machine designed solely to test the delta-wing planform.
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<p>The US Air Force had obtained wartime German data on the delta wing from its leading proponent, Dr Alexander Lippisch. The XF-92 designation originally went to a Convair design with delta wing and V-shaped butterfly tail powered by no fewer than six 2,000-lb (8.89-kN) thrust liquid-fuel rocket engines plus a 1,560 lb (6.93-kN) thrust Westinghouse J30-WE-1 turbojet as backup. This would have been a very fast point-defense interceptor with exceedingly limited range and duration. To flight-test its wing planform, Convair built its model 7002, hastily assembled partly from components of other aircraft. This was a remarkably simple airplane with latticed canopy cover, nose air inlet, and through-flow arrangement for its 5,200-lb (23.12-kN) thrust Allison J33-A-23 turbojet. Its delta wing was swept 60 degrees. When the fully-fledged rocket-powered XF-92 design was cancelled because of its obviously limited military application, the model 7002 was redesignated XF-92A. Since it had been intended only as a flying mock-up for the cancelled machine, the XF-92A was never a candidate for a production order, although it performed valuable, if unintended, service as a testbed for the company's F-102 interceptor.
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<p>The XF-92A originally flew without afterburning. During continuing tests at Edwards AFB (as the Muroc Dry Lake base was renamed) it was re-engined and its fuselage lengthened to provide reheat for the new 7,500-lb (33.36-kN) afterburning thrust Allison J33-A-29. At the same time, the natural-metal XF-92A was painted gloss white.
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<p>Always a research aircraft rather than a fighter, the XF-92A was turned over to NACA for tests before its flight career ended in 1953. By that time, work was well advanced on the operational delta-wing craft to follow, the F-102.
<item><hi format=bold>Performance:</hi> maximum speed 590 mph (950 km/h) at sea level; initial climb rate 5,000 ft (1,524 m) per minute; service ceiling 46,000 ft (14,021 m); range 360 miles (579 km)
<item><hi format=bold>Weights:</hi> empty 8,500 lb (3,855.6 kg); maximum take-off 15,000 lb (6,804 kg)
<item><hi format=bold>Dimensions:</hi> span 31 ft 3 in (9.53 m); length 42 ft 5 in (12.93 m); height 17 ft 8 in (5.38 m); wing area 230 sq ft (21.37 m<su>2</su>)
