forward fuselage, but none were built. In August 1954, a contract was signed for three prototypes along with a pre-production order for six additional airframes. Designation and names Extensive design changes resulted in its redesignation from F-100B to F-107A before the first prototype flew. The F-107 was never given an official name, but was sometimes informally called the "Super Super Sabre" referring to North American's earlier fighter design, the F-100 Super Sabre. The flight crews referred to it as the "man eater", in reference to the position of the air intake directly above the cockpit. The aircraft is also sometimes informally called the "Ultra Sabre". The designation "F-107A" was the only one assigned to the aircraft, though "YF-107A" is often used in publications. Operational history The first F-107A (serial number 55-5118) with North American's chief test pilot Bob Baker at the controls, made its initial flight on 10 September 1956, attaining Mach 1.03. Although successfully carrying out its flight, the brake chute did not deploy, which resulted in a "hot" landing with the nose gear strut breaking. The aircraft first achieved Mach 2 in tests on 3 November 1956. It was joined by the second F-107A (55-5119), which made its first flight on 28 November 1956. It was used for weapons testing with both conventional and atomic bombs. The last prototype, (55-5120) had its maiden flight on 10 December 1956. At the conclusion of the F-107A's successful test program, the Tactical Air Command decided to hold a fly-off competition between the F-107A and the Republic F-105 which was designed to same mission requirements and used the same engine. Although the competition was close, the F-105 was selected as the new standard TAC tactical fighter. The three F-107A prototypes were relegated to test flying and the pre-production order was cancelled. In late 1957, prototypes #1 (55-5118) and #3 (55-5120) were leased to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) for high-speed flight research. Aircraft #1 is now in the collection of the Pima Air & Space Museum. In September 1959, with Scott Crossfield at the controls, aircraft #3 was damaged during an aborted takeoff. The aircraft was not repaired and, ultimately, used for fire fighting training and was destroyed in the early 1960s. (55-5120 was also noted to be stored in poor condition in the Tallmantz collection at Orange County Airport California in September 1970.) Prototype #2 (55-5119) was not used