“Don’t give me a One-Double-Oh./The bastard is ready to blow./The AB is there, but you’re saying a prayer,/Don’t give me a One-Double-Oh.” That is only one of the seemingly infinite verses from the humorous U.S. Air Force ditty “Give Me Operations,” popularized by folks singers from Oscar Brand to completed fighter pilot Lt. Col. (USAF, Ret.) Dick Jonas, and the explicit verse quoted herein is referring to the F-100 Super Sabre. Now, thoughts you, the authentic Sabre jet, i.e. the F-86, was a reasonably “super” fighter airplane in her personal proper, although looking back her legendary kill ratio in opposition to the MiG-15 throughout the Korean War could have admittedly been extremely exaggerated. Be that as it could, it in flip begs the query as as to if the so-called Super Sabre lived as much as her personal lofty moniker. Let’s have a look.
Starting up the Super Sabre
The F-100 Super Sabre made her maiden flight on May 25, 1953 — simply two months earlier than the Korean Armistice Agreement that halted the battle during which the authentic Sabre had confirmed her mettle — and entered into official operational service with the U.S. Air Force on September 27 of the following yr. The airplane was constructed by North American Aviation (NAA), who, even earlier than constructing the F-86, had already made historical past in WWII through the B-25 Mitchell and the P-51D Mustang. As is likely to be guessed from the moniker, the F-100 was supposed to enhance upon the primary F-86 Sabre design.
In the course of, the NAA R&D workforce got here up with a warbird that actually made historical past in her personal proper, and in additional methods than one. Affectionately nicknamed “The Hun” (primarily as a shortened type of “hundred,” although there could have additionally been a minimum of a unconscious channeling of Attila the Hun and/or Kaiser Bill’s WWI Imperial German Army afoot), this warbird turned out to be the world’s first operational supersonic fighter, boasting a max airspeed of Mach 1.16 (864 mph/ 1,437 kph). Little shock, then, that the Thunderbirds — the USAF’s famed aerial demonstration unit — made the F-100 their airplane of selection from 1956 to 1968. Another vital peacetime achievement for the Super Sabre occurred on August 7, 1959, when two F-100Fs grew to become the first-ever jet fighters to fly over the North Pole.
In addition to being quicker than the authentic Sabre, the Super Sabre additionally featured an improve in armament, from the six .50 caliber machine weapons of the former to the 4 M39 20mm cannon of the latter.
Striking with the Super Sabre
As spectacular as these peacetime feats have been, these nonetheless left unanswered as to how properly the Super Sabre would dwell as much as her namesake in precise fight. The Vietnam War would supply the solutions to these questions.
On April 16, 1961, F-100s grew to become the first USAF fight jets to enter the Vietnam War, deploying from Clark Air Base in the Philippines to Don Muang Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand. Just below 4 years later, on April 4, 1965, the Hun would have interaction in USAF’s first air-to-air jet fight duel in the Vietnam War, during which an F-100D piloted by Capt. Donald W. Kilgus of the 416th Fighter Squadron was credited with a possible kill in opposition to a North Vietnamese MiG-17 “Fresco.”
Alas, no Hun driver was ever formally credited with confirmed air-to-air kills, so in that regard, the Super Sabre didn’t attain the legendary aerial warrior standing that her predecessor did. But if it’s any comfort to the males who flew the warbird, no F-100s have been ever misplaced to enemy fighters over Vietnam both. And the Hun positively made greater than her fair proportion of contributions to the Vietnam War effort in the air-to-ground function, flying a whopping 360,283 fight sorties in the lethal skies over Southeast Asia — greater than all different USAF fighters mixed — with 242 losses. In the phrases of former Hun driver Dave Barnett, “Yes, the F-100 was a great fighter jet which I thoroughly enjoyed flying. It did not have many of the ‘bells and whistles’ that current aircraft have, but it was very reliable and effective in delivering weapons ‘on target.’”
Of explicit significance — and thus reaching one other navy aviation milestone in the course of — the F-100 grew to become the first USAF fighter devoted to Electronic Warfare (EW) and Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) in the “Wild Weasel” program, which used extremely modified F-100F plane to hunt and destroy enemy AAA and SAM websites.
F-100 Su
F-100 Super Sabre
Where Are They Now?
A whole of two,259 F-100s have been constructed between 1953 and 1959. The active-duty USAF and the U.S. Air National Guard (ANG) retired the plane in 1971 and 1979 respectively however they remained in service with the Royal Danish Air Force and Turkish Air Force as late as 1982. Over thirty of the warbirds survive in the present day, with 4 of them being airworthy, together with “Misty 1” — painted in honor of Col. Bud Day, the solely particular person ever to be awarded each the Medal of Honor and the Air Force Cross — owned by the Collings Foundation as a part of their Vietnam Memorial Flight Collection and Programs at Ellington Field, Houston, Texas.
Christian D. Orr is a former Air Force officer, Federal regulation enforcement officer, and personal navy contractor (with assignments labored in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (focus in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has additionally been printed in The Daily Torch and The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security. Last however not least, he’s a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). In his spare time, he enjoys taking pictures, eating out, cigars, Irish and British pubs, journey, USC Trojans faculty soccer, and Washington DC skilled sports activities.
