Century Series The Century Series is a popular name for a group of US fighter aircraft representing models designated between F - 100 and F - 106 which went into full production . They included the initial successful supersonic designs in the United States Air Force ' s service and would continue in active service manned aircraft well into the 1970s and 1980s with the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard . Three later variants , the QF - 100 , QF - 102 and QF - 106 would also continue in drone service , primarily as aerial targets , until the late 1990s . Century Series aircraft . The name " Century Series " stems from the fighter ( F - ) designation number being in the 100 - 109 range . The term became popular to refer to a group of generally similar designs of the 1950s and early 1960s . As it evolved , the attribution of the Century Series moniker reflects models designated between F - 100 and F - 106 which went into full production : The term " Century Fighters " does not include less successful models between the F - 100 and F - 109 that did not go past design or prototype stage : the Republic XF - 103 Thunderwarrior interceptor concept , the North American YF - 107 and XF - 108 Rapier prototypes , and F - 109 originally assigned to the F - 101B Voodoo and later requested but not granted for the Bell XF - 109 VTOL concept . The F - series number sequence used in USAF was a continuance of the pre - USAF pursuit aircraft ( P - series ) numbering , stretching back as far as to the 1920s . The numbering would continue sequentially up to the F - 111 , and after this number the 1962 United States Tri - Service aircraft designation system restarted the numbering back from 1 . Notably , the fighter - bomber briefly known as the F - 110 Spectre was renamed F - 4 Phantom II . The only exception is the F - 117 Nighthawk stealth fighter , this aircraft was developed in secret during the late 70 ' s and 80 ' s . Characteristics . The Century Series aircraft represented a mix of fighter - bomber s ( F - 100 , F - 101A , F - 105 ) and interceptors ( F - 101B , F - 102 , F - 104 , F - 106 ) . The unifying characteristic of the Century Series aircraft was advanced performance and avionics when they were introduced . The F - 100 was the first aircraft in the USAF capable of exceeding the speed of sound in level flight . The F - 101 was the first aircraft in the USAF capable of exceeding 1 , 000 mph ( 1 , 600 km / h ) . The F - 102 was the first aircraft in the world to utilize area rule in its design . Three of the Century Series aircraft — F - 101 , F - 102 , and F - 106 — were armed with nuclear air - to - air missiles . These weapons , designed to destroy incoming nuclear - armed Soviet bombers even when not scoring a clear hit ( due to the nuclear explosion radius , shock wave and radiation burst ) , were the only nuclear weapons in USAF arsenal at the time to be under sole control of their pilots ( during a mission ) . Similar advancements were made in this period by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps with the F4D Skyray , F8U Crusader and F4H Phantom II carrier - based aircraft , but Naval Aviation lacked a similar naming group .