F-100F Super Sabre …..  Fast Facts  

 

• The F-100 Super Sabre, built by North American Aviation Corporation, was the first US Air Force fighter capable of supersonic speed in level flight. It was the first of the Century Series of USAF jet fighters and the first plane to incorporate heat resistant titanium alloys.

• F-100s served with the Air Force from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard until 1979. 

• Although it was designed as an air superiority fighter, the Super Sabre’s primary role in combat was as a fighter-bomber in the Vietnam War.

• It flew strike missions over North Vietnam until it was supplanted by the Mach-two

F-105 Thunderchief. The F-100 flew extensively over South Vietnam as the Air Force's primary close air support jet until being replaced late in the war by the more efficient subsonic LTV A-7D Corsair II.

• From 16 April 1961 until their redeployment in 1971, the F-100s were the longest serving US jet fighter-bomber to fight in Vietnam. In the war, a total of 198 F-100s were lost in combat; another 45 were lost to other causes.

• The two seat F-100F variant was designed as a supersonic trainer. It was essentially an

F-100D stretched for 2 crewmembers. The other major difference is the reduction of 4 cannon to 2. The F-100F, which first flew in March 1957, retained the air-superiority and fighter-bomber capabilities of the F-100D.

• Some F-100Fs were specially converted to attack surface to air missile (SAM) sites. These aircraft were called Wild Weasels, a name that became a general label for aircraft designed to attack SAM sites.

• The two seat F-100F also performed well on search and rescue (SAR) missions and as a forward air controller (FAC) in North Vietnam and Laos, spotting targets for other fighter-bomber aircraft.

• The F-100 also served in other NATO air forces and with other US allies. In its later life, it was often referred to as the “Hun”, a shortened version of one hundred.

• On August 7, 1959 two F-100Fs became the first ever fighters to fly over the North Pole.

• 2294 F-100s of all variations were built by North American Aviation Corporation between 1953 and 1959. Of these, 339 were F-100Fs.

• The museum’s 2 F-100Fs (Serial No. 56-3905) flew in from Holloman AFB, NM in 1994, , 58-3899 remains as it was in 1994.  58-3905 was repainted and the tail number belonging to a F-100D was applied.