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Subject: North American F-100 Super Sabre
Date: 18 Feb 2018 06:41:42 -0800
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_F-100_Super_Sabre
The North American F-100 Super Sabre was an American supersonic jet fighter
aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1954 to 1971
and with the Air National Guard (ANG) until 1979. The first of the Century
Series of USAF jet fighters, it was the first USAF fighter capable of supersonic
speed in level flight. The F-100 was designed by North American Aviation as a
higher performance follow-on to the F-86 Sabre air superiority fighter.
Adapted as a fighter-bomber, the F-100 was supplanted by the Mach two-class
F-105 Thunderchief for strike missions over North Vietnam. The F-100 flew
extensively over South Vietnam as the air force's primary close air support jet
until being replaced by the more efficient subsonic LTV A-7 Corsair II. The
F-100 also served in other NATO air forces and with other U.S. allies. In its
later life, it was often referred to as the Hun, a shortened version of "one
hundred".
In January 1951, North American Aviation delivered an unsolicited proposal for a
supersonic day fighter to the United States Air Force. Named Sabre 45 because of
was inspected on 7 July 1951, and after over a hundred modifications, the new
aircraft was accepted as the F-100 on 30 November 1951. Extensive use of
titanium throughout the aircraft was notable. On 3 January 1952, the USAF
ordered two prototypes followed by 23 F-100As in February and an additional 250
F-100As in August.
Particularly troubling was the yaw instability in certain regimes of flight
which produced inertia coupling. The aircraft could develop a sudden yaw and
roll which would happen too fast for the pilot to correct and would quickly
over-stress the aircraft structure to disintegration. It was under these
conditions that North American's chief test pilot, George Welch, was killed
while dive testing an early-production F-100A (s/n 52-5764) on 12 October 1954.
Another control problem stemmed from handling characteristics of the swept wing
at high angles of attack. As the aircraft approached stall speeds, loss of lift
on the tips of the wings caused a violent pitch-up. This particular phenomenon
(which could easily be fatal at low altitude where there was insufficient time
to recover) became known as the "Sabre dance".
Nevertheless, delays in the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak program pushed the
Tactical Air Command to order the raw F-100A into service. Tactical Air Command
also requested that future F-100s be fighter-bombers, with the capability of
delivering nuclear bombs.
Role
Fighter/fighter-bomber
Manufacturer
North American Aviation
First flight
25 May 1953
Introduction
27 September 1954
Retired
1979, United States Air National Guard; 1988, Republic of China Air Force
Status
Retired
Primary users
United States Air Force
Turkish Air Force
Republic of China Air Force
French Air Force
Produced
Number built
2,294
Unit cost
US$697,029 (1954) (F-100D) ($5.08 million in 2016 dollars)
Developed from
North American F-86 Sabre
Developed into
North American F-107
The Vietnam War was not known for utilizing activated Army National Guard, Air
National Guard or other U.S. Reserve units; but rather, had a reputation for
conscription during the course of the war. During a confirmation hearing before
Congress in 1973, USAF general, George S. Brown, who had commanded the 7th Air
Force during the war, stated that five of the best Super Sabre squadrons in
Vietnam were from the ANG. This included the 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron
(120 TFS) of the Colorado Air National Guard, the 136 TFS of the New York Air
National Guard TFS, the 174 TFS of the Iowa Air National Guard and the 188 TFS
of the New Mexico Air National Guard. The fifth unit was a regular AF squadron
manned by mostly air national guardsmen.
By the war's end, 242 F-100 Super Sabres had been lost in Vietnam, as the F-100
was progressively replaced by the F-4 Phantom II and the F-105 Thunderchief. The
Hun had logged 360,283 combat sorties during the war and its wartime operations
came to end on 31 July 1971. The four fighter wings with F-100s flew more combat
sorties in Vietnam than over 15,000 P-51 Mustangs flew during World War II.
After 1965, they did not fly into North Vietnam and mainly performed close air
support missions. Despite the April 1965 dogfight, the air force classified the
engagement as resulting in a "probable" kill, and no F-100 was ever officially
credited with any aerial victories. No F-100 in Vietnam was lost to enemy
fighters, but 186 were shot down by anti-aircraft fire, seven were destroyed
from Vietcong attacks on airbases, and 45 crashed in operational incidents.
Specifications (F-100D)
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 50 ft (15.2 m)
Wingspan: 38 ft 9 in (11.81 m)
Empty weight: 21,000 lb (9,500 kg)
Loaded weight: 28,847 lb (13,085 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 34,832 lb (15,800 kg)
*Zero-lift drag coefficient: 0.0130
Aspect ratio: 3.76
kN)
Thrust with afterburner: 16,000 lbf (71 kN)
Performance
Maximum speed: 750 kn (864 mph, 1,390 km/h, Mach 1.3)
Range: 1,733 NM (1,995 mi, 3,210 km)
Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,000 m)
Rate of climb: 22,400 ft/min (114 m/s)
Thrust/weight: 0.55
Lift-to-drag ratio: 13.9
Armament
Bombs: 7,040 lb (3,190 kg) of weapons, including Conventional bombs or
Special stores: Mark 7 nuclear bomb or
Mk 28 nuclear bomb or
Mk 38 nuclear bomb or
Mk 43 nuclear bomb
*
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