As soon as LtCol Steve Canyon lands and opens the canopy of his F-102 Delta Dagger, he dons his flight cap. A long-standing Air Force policy forbids the wear of caps or hats on the flightline, because of their potential for Foreign Object Damage (FOD) if they get blown or sucked into an aircraft engine intake.
When the general is demonstrates his towing concept on a glass board in a briefing room, the "mother" (towing) aircraft is a jet-engined KC-135. When the actual experiment takes place, the "mother" ship is a KB-50, the propeller-driven tanker version of the B-50 bomber.
This is the original pilot film for the series, which was shot in late January/early February of 1958. This was the first episode aired (after cutting out several minutes of footage and changing the beginning and end credits).
A version of this episode exists with an introduction shot for a preview with Milton Caniff at a drawing board, apparently directly addressing USAF pilots for a special screening. It also could possibly have been seen on Armed Forces Television. After the ending credits, the bristol board or tablet he was using is now silently seen resting upright on the desk with a sign drawn on it, reminding us to tune into NBC on the thirteenth of September, when this (Just seen) program will be shown.