Republic’s Thunderchief Made the Most of 27 Memorable Years in Service.
On 25 February 1984, the Air Force Reserve’s 466th Tactical Fighter Squadron, a part of the 508th Tactical Fighter Wing, made the last operational fight of the Republic F-105D Thunderchief or Thud. The flight occurred 19 years nearly to the day after the F-105 saw its combat debut in Vietnam and a little bit less than 27 years after the F-105 was first accepted for service by the United States Air Force. Air Force Thuds sure packed a lot of service into those 27 years.
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Heavyweight Champion
Weighing in at a whopping 50,000 pounds (23,000 kilograms) when it entered service the Thunderchief was the largest single-seat single-engine combat aircraft in history. The F-105 could move at supersonic speeds at sea level and at Mach 2 speeds at altitude. The “Thud” was capable of regularly carrying 14,000 pounds of ordnance and was armed with a 20 millimeter Vulcan Gatling gun.
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What’s In a Name?
Without realizing just how effective a weapon the Air Force had in the F-105 yet, derisive nicknames such as “Lead Sled”, “Squat Bomber”, “Hyper Hog”, and “Ultra Hog” were hung on the F-105. It was even said that the Thud was a triple threat in that it could bomb you, it could strafe you, or it could fall on you. Sarcasm aside, the F-105’s strengths, such as its electronics suite and its capabilities, highly responsive controls, and its hair-raising performance, eventually made believers out of pilots who flew the big jet.
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Another Advanced Century-Series Design Waiting on a Suitable Engine
Initial F-105 prototypes did not perform as expected in part because of aerodynamic inefficiencies like trans-sonic drag in the fuselage design. This led to a redesign of the fuselage with an area ruled “coke bottle” profile similar to that found on the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and the later F-106 Delta Dart, both of which experienced similar performance improvements after initial models were found to have similar trans-sonic drag issues. The performance of the F-105B was also vastly improved due to the distinctive forward-swept variable-geometry air intakes which regulated airflow to the engine at supersonic speeds and, when eventually installed, the Pratt & Whitney J75 afterburning engine.
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Fast Out of the Gate But High-Maintenance Too
Entering service with Tactical Air Command’s 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron in August of 1958 and becoming fully operational in 1959, an F-105B set a world record of 1,216.48 miles per hour (1,958 kilometers per hour). While proven to be quick in the air, maintenance requirements slowed the F-105 to a crawl on the ground, requiring up to 150 hours of maintenance for each flying hour.
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Short Season With the Thunderbirds
For the 1964 show season, the United States Air Force Flight Demonstration Team, otherwise known as the Thunderbirds, modified F-105Bs with fuselage and wing reinforcements, added a smoke generation system. Tragically they flew only six performances with the F-105B before a fatal accident led the team to revert to the F-100 Super Sabre as their show aircraft.
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