Great Planes F 84 Thunderjet,F 84F Thunderstrak,RF 84 F Thunderflash

these aircraft operating with the Air National Guard in April 1971 the last of their type in US service eight months later the last FIV fours were decommissioned and delivered to the scrapyard most of the funded jets are long gone by then only this variant the reconnaissance plane known as the RF 84 Thunder had lingered on in any numbers due to their operational usefulness as specialists by 1971 the planes were showing their age many had been grounded due to structural fatigue and those that still flew required constant monitoring at a heavy maintenance schedule the last of the RF versions had rolled from the factory in 1957 and they had led very busy operational careers the thunder flash photographic planes were the most successful development of the f-84 family and embodied all the advances that had been made during the designs career which can be traced back to October 1944 at that point the design team and Republic had abandoned the idea of putting a jet engine into the redoubtable p-47 thunderbolt and had set to work on a clean sheet of paper to develop and the United States had found itself confronted by the arrival of new German and British jet aircraft in the next few years the US Army sponsored a feverish effort to catch up the Phil and Lockheed corporations developed the first two u.s. jet aircraft and the Lockheed p80 was ordered into production meanwhile the Republic team are devised a sleek and extremely clean design built around the new axial flow engine developed by General Electric the achievement was impressive and the army ordered commencement of work on 3 prototype planes as the XP 84 the first plane was completed in December 1945 and then was transported to the Muroc testing center for army evaluation there on the 28th of February 1946 a new plane took to the air for the first time becoming the first post-war American fighter the design was fairly conventional with straight wings employing the so called laminar flow profile the plane was of all-metal construction with the wings mounted low on the fuselage under the teardrop canopy the cockpit was pressurized and contained an ejector seat though not technologically adventurous it was an aircraft with classic lines incorporating most of the proven ideas of the day models were rapidly evolved in relatively small numbers until the e model appeared in 1949 while over 840 of the e model were built design work continued to refine the plane and many improvements were retrofitted to the early models for example this model has been refinished with many of the improvements developed for later variants from the start there were problems with the new plane in the main these were the same problems evident in other early Jets they reflected lack of knowledge about the needs and potential of the new power plants in its later career the plane evolved gradually until it looked radically different from the trim 1946 prototype the most obvious flaw in the design was the straight wing go ahead was given to develop a swept-wing version the other major floor was outside the designers control the gym was badly allegiance shared the problem of low power and required excessive runway to take off under full load it was safer to employ rocket-assisted take off rather than hope the plane would be able before it went out of run take off room hundreds of pilots around the world wrote off their foundations in that way the assistant type of he would still be needed on the latest rebels the engines was absorbed by their increased weight but development is slow was put into production this the G model was built in greater numbers than any other version 3025 being constructed the plane had originally been designed as an interceptor relying on six machine guns for in the nose and two in the wings the Thunder jet had superseded the Lockheed p80 which was designed two years earlier however with the speed limitations imposed by its wing and underpowered engine the f-84 was soon itself supplanted as interceptor by North Americans f-86 Sabre with this rapid succession for models the army found itself with a variety of planes to allocate specific tasks in the car pop of roles among the three the funded yet evolved as a fighter bomber and by the time of the G model had been given the ability to carry out nuclear attacks its conventional stores carrying was also developed it was in tactical support and air-to-ground strike operations the funded jet was to gain its fine combat reputation it's low mounted wing was an asset in this transformation allowing easy loading of arms with minimal equipment with the ability to carry up to 4,000 pounds of bombs the funda jet-packed a powerful attack with the takeoff assistance of rockets it was able to operate from short frontline strips in fairly rough conditions and rugged construction gave it the ability to absorb considerable small arms fire and stay in the air adding further to its power in ground-attack were the six machineguns which carried 300 rounds each there was provision to sling up to 32 5-inch rockets under its wings and fuselage reflecting world war experienced attacking tanks as a further variation in strike power the plane could deliver a deadly load of napalm the plank wing planes were limited in speed to mark as zero point eight two this effectively killed the plane for air-to-air combat above that speed it reacted violently enough to cause structural failure another major impediment to use as a fighter was that maneuverability was very limited however the lack of turning ability was an asset in ground attack as the plane tended to fly rock solidly and was a stable platform and the limitation on speed was no disadvantage in ground attack despite their persistently dubious takeoff habits they were to excel in the tactical role the original production version the B had been a very basic aircraft little advanced on 1945 piston engine fighters however as models and some models were developed the planes sophistication increased by the G version the planes had gained a radar assistance citing an autopilot and revised electrical fuel and hydraulic systems along with a host of other improvements the early jet engines were very fuel hungry and the thunder jet had limited internal storage the addition of wingtip tanks boosted capacity but the range of the early planes was limited to 1,200 miles or so by the time the G model was introduced its range had been increased to 2,000 miles but a very important addition was made to that model because it was employed by the Strategic Air Command as an escort fighter it received in-flight refueling provision curiously the receiver was installed in the left wing disrupting airflow over a considerable proportion of the wing surface the G model had only been developed because of delays in getting the swept-wing version sorted out however by 1952 the plane was ready for its first flight the new model had originally been given a new number as the f96 but this had later been changed back and the swept wing plane became the f-84f with the company named thunderstreak once again the performance of the aircraft in its intended fighter role was disappointing the increased power of the engine and potency of the shape was swallowed up by the increased weight of the plane and it shared the earlier models sluggishness especially in the dangerously unwilling takeoff in comparison to the G models 622 miles per hour the F model could attain 695 however in climb and ceiling the new model was worse than the straight which planes the F model followed its earlier brothers into use as a tactical fighter bomber the swept-wing model had been delayed repeatedly the overriding restriction on development was caused by budgetary constraints Congress was keeping the purse strings tightly closed and the Air Force simply had no money to allocate to the project the prototype flew on June the 3rd 1950 it was immediately obvious that a more powerful engine was needed but there the project storm and it was to take a massive stimulus to reinvigorate the development program only 22 days after the first flight of the swept wing model word of an invasion of South Korea by communist forces from the North reached the United States the floodgates were opened in a flow of Defense dollars that has continued with barely a hiccup ever since although many countries promptly disbanded their wartime army other countries continued to maintain forces so large that they posed a constant threat of aggression and this year the invasion of Korea has shown that there are some who resort to outright war contrary to the principles of the Charter if it suits therein when war in Korea broke out the United States Air Force was a mere shadow of the mighty machine of victory that had existed five years earlier the South Koreans simply did not have an Air Force I had 16 aircraft all trainers all liaison aircraft we've got a gun or bomb rack between them airfields were few and rudimentary initially to piston-engined aircraft to from Korea American Jets were forced to operate from Japan my Turek time available the force the US could deploy in the air was barely adequate for the task and if the North Koreans had had a decent Air Force the whole of the peninsula may have been quickly overrun in fact the North had 62 light attack planes and 70 outdated fighters this force was very properly destroyed but the Americans were able to first slow and then stop the northern events heavy bombers were employed in a combination of interdiction and strategic raids which helped to paralyze the northern effort in combination with Navy aircraft and the few types the Air Force could deploy usefully from the limited Korean air strips the u.s. gained air supremacy and was to maintain it for most of the following conflict given the initial weakness of the ground forces it's clear that victories in Korea in late 1950 were almost solely due to the American aircraft if 84s were not initially deployed to Korea Mustangs and P 80s were quite capable of doing the job but on the 9th of November 1950 a situation changed radically the North Koreans started to deploy jets within days the United States was forced to deploy more modern aircraft to the conflict the funda jets available was straight wing D and D models and they were never the equal of the needs however the f80 force they're not capable of downing the speedy Russian designs were just fast and maneuverable enough to usually avoid trouble less than a month after the appearance of the meek 15 on December the 6th the first f-84 combat missions were flown Blankenship to Japan the damage from salt corrosion was relative and along with f-86 sabres were committed to the battle outclassed as a fighter by the two swept-wing jets the f80 force settled into a life of tactical air-to-ground missions most of the time they required Sabres as mission escort if there was a likelihood of running up against the MiG's the Russian planes were simply too fast for the Thunder Jets to cope with in their tactical role the f80 force would have proved invaluable by the end of the war they'd flown eighty six thousand four hundred and eight sorties in that time they have dropped five thousand five hundred and sixty tons of napalm and fifty thousand four hundred and twenty seven tons of bombs they had fired twenty-two thousand one hundred fifty four rockets and a huge number of rounds from their machine guns the infantry were in a mixture of war and gratitude to dub them the champ of the fighter bombers nine MiG's were officially credited as shot down by thunderjets and another 96 were listed as probably shot down or certainly damaged against this the MiG's shot down 18 thunderjets and damaged many more anti-aircraft fire was to claim a greater tally of the f80 fors 135 were shot down by ground forces though some missions were flown from Japan relying on in-flight refueling the funda Jets were tough enough and had sufficient ground clearance to be operated from the rough-and-ready facilities in Korea this often required that they use assisted takeoffs with the rocket packs being jettisoned for retrieval and reuse this was less than ideal as in squadron formation the rocket smoke was so dense that only the leaders could see and the following planes had to take off on instruments the routines of briefing preparation takeoff and attack became familiar the f80 fors took on a great load not only in ground support at the front line but in interdicting supplies attacking reinforcements and destroying bridges railways and power stations in the last of these tasks they actually operated as a strategic force a reflection of the way in which they'd established themselves as trustworthy rugged and deadly they had proved themselves as a primary weapon in the air force's arsenal the greatest virtues possessed by the Thunder Jets were all underlined in Korea they were especially in comparison to other early Jets easy to maintain they were also stable and effective attack platforms capable of withstanding considerable damage their performance was simply workmen like especially if compared to their republic relatives the p-47 of the Second World War and the great f-105s which played such an important role in Vietnam however despite their limitations they were the most effective jet attack plane in the airforce during the Korean conflict the Thunder jet starts to emerge from the cloak of its failings and be revealed as a very important and successful aircraft its greatness has to be seen in the context of the era many early Jets were far less effective and successful than the f80 for their contribution in Korea might best be described as worthy but the reason the tedious difficult repetitive and dangerous tasks of the conflict fell to the Thunder Jets is simple they were capable when all around them other types failed the test of combat the funda jets had their vices and their limitations but they earn some of the most unflattering nicknames ever bestowed by us pilots on their aircraft these nicknames included groundhog in reference to their unwilling and sluggish takeoff during career the crews amended their attitude to include a greater respect for the plane's virtues and the name was shortened to Hogg still perhaps unflattering but far more affectionate many lessons of the Second World War had been considered redundant after the development of the atom bomb some strategists proclaimed that conventional warfare would never be fought on a large scale again too soon the Russians also had the bomb and the usefulness of atomic weapons came into question there seemed little point in nuclear devastation when there was a danger of retaliation the germ of mutually assured destruction was served and a new concept limited war was post-dated to cover the Korean conflict in that limited war for thunderjets were one of the most effective weapons available by the end of the Korean War in 1953 a series of confrontations and negotiations had completely rearranged world politics this process was formally culminated in Paris on October the 23rd 1954 with the ending of the occupation of West Germany from that date onwards English American and French troops remained in Germany as friends to help its defense the Germans many of whom were still deeply shocked and ashamed by the revelation of what their government had done in their name found themselves welcomed back into the family of Nations on the 13th of November 1956 another step in this process occurred with the handing over to the German Luftwaffe of their first combat planes since the end of the Second World War the planes were f-84f thunderstreak s-- eventually the Germans would deploy five full wings of thunder streaks making them the largest user of the planes outside the USAF thousands of f-84 both straight winged and swept-wing models were deployed by NATO countries in addition to the Germans they flew with the French Belgian portuguese turkish dutch greek danish norwegian and italian air forces they were the front line in europe at a time when it came very close to open warfare and performed sterling service the last of these operational with the turkish air force were phased out of use only in 1982 the Republic planes despite their limitations but one of the most effective and important aircraft available they were phased out when better plans were developed but until then they were the best that could be found one other version of the f-84 was to be made in significant numbers this was the rf-84f thunderflash Korea pointed up the need for a high-speed photographic reconnaissance aircraft capable of doing the job and avoiding interception by the MiG's a new photo plane would need a longer range and much higher speed than the aircraft then being used for the job the second swept wing prototype had already been constructed with a closed pointed nose and wing intakes though these developments were never incorporated into the fighter version it was on the basis of this airframe that the Republic designers started work on the reconnaissance aircraft in the end it was the most successful production aircraft of the whole f-84 family the prototype RF 84 cook its first flight in February 1952 and by then the design had been changed considerably the wing intakes and wing surface had both been increased and the neat pointed nose had been replaced with a blunt air fare which could house six cameras after successful testing the plane was put into production and 718 of the mob were constructed production was delayed until 1955 by difficulties with the engine for the new version but eventually they started to flow into operational use the USAF deployed 11 squadrons of thunder flashes and they served with the Air Force and National Guard for 17 years the US military assistance programs also supplied 327 of them to a number of Allied countries they had been intended as a stopgap and were replaced in the u.s. front line by McDonnell our f-101 voodoo x' after only three years use however their long subsequent career with the National Guard underlines how effectively the Republic team had addressed the photo reconnaissance task and how valuable this version was as with all the f-84 family maintenance and ground operation access was simplified this was not only an important virtue of the type but was an influence on later designs even the first thunderjets had over 180 access panels the entire tale after the wing could be removed to simplify servicing the engine it was part of the detailed work of the design team that was largely irrelevant to the aircraft in flight but very important in the operational viability of the plane among the milestones posted by the thunderjets was their time in use with the USAF Thunderbirds the display team it's uncertain whether the team took its name from a Publix plane but what can be said with certainty is that the first aircraft employed by the team on its formation in 1953 were f-84 these were the straight wing f-84 G's that the team flew with them for two years for the 1955 season the Thunderbirds took delivery of new aircraft once again these were FA T fours a swept wing F mop with their wings only five feet apart the planes look as though they're touching this type of formation flying with a plane as unbelievable as the early Jets is extremely dangerous the Thunderbirds flute 91 shirts with the f-84f ending with the Armed Forces Day show at bowling Field on the 19th of May 1956 they've been transferred to the North American f-100 Super Sabre and gained supersonic capability however the shows in their new planes would be flown in much the same speed bracket as with the f80 force one of the factors that made the F 84 such an important aircraft in the post-war years was the amount of experimentation testing and evaluation that went on with the type and with variations developed from it the ficon story is one of these important footnotes in aviation history written around the F 84 the name ficon is derived from the term fighter conveyor and the project was a response to the need for aerial surveillance large reconnaissance aircraft have become too vulnerable for operations over hostile territory yet much of the territory which had to be over flown was well outside the range of a fighter let alone the endurance of its pilot the scheme was simple in conception but was far more complex to carry out in effect a b-36 bomber acting as a mothership would carry the photo reconnaissance fighter for all but the dangerous part of the mission launching and retrieving it in flight a series of attachments both for the bomber and the fighter were developed before a reliable system was reached it was difficult and highly dangerous the project testing began with a modified f-84 II in 1952 during these tests changes were made to the gear in a series of steps as problems arose first with the stability of the cradle on the mothership and then with the trustworthiness of the fighters hydraulic Grammer the intended effect was achieved with all the apparatus trial increasing effectiveness follow as refinements were made the fighter was near two-story the low end of its speed range is at wallow beneath the large play buffeted by the slipstream the process called for a high degree of ability part of both clients the aircraft intended for operational deployment in the job was the rf-84f fine redesignated the RF 84k tests with this version commenced in 1953 and on the 30th of March the prototype made its first successful docking by this time the mechanisms have been resolved modifications to the f-84 included drastic remodeling with the horizontal tail to allow the plant to be retracted into the b-36 Bombay in addition to the three hydraulic legends testing of ficon continued until 1955 and production aircraft were been deployed the 91st strategic reconnaissance squadron based at Larsen Air Force Base received 25 of the specialized RF 84 KS that were teamed with a squadron of modified be thirty Six's experiments and in squadron training continued until 1956 when they were abandoned by coincidence this was about the same time the u2 became available for use one of the nightmares that beset planners after the Russians had developed their own atomic weapons and delivery systems was that airfields could now be totally destroyed along with all their aircraft in one hit this and several other factors including the apparently insatiable appetite of jets for long straight concrete runways variations stranger manifestations this was the system known as zero length launch or zel this scheme aimed to shoot NAND a nuclear-armed aircraft off the back of trucks or out of concrete bunkers it was intended that hundreds of aircraft could be dispersed throughout forests and in other hiding places around the Soviet bloc's borders these planes could be ready fully armed to respond immediately to any Soviet attack another scheme would have placed interceptors on similar apparatus in hardened concrete bunkers to respond to any incursion by Soviet strategic bombers in tests conducted by the Martin company with equipment that had been developed for the Matador missile program the system was trial with unmanned in 84 G aircraft and apparently worked well the first launch took place on December the 15th 1953 and the F 84 was rapidly accelerated from the truck and then allowed to find its own way back to earth another unmanned trial followed the system relied on the use of very powerful solid fuel rocket boosters attached directly to the aircraft once the fuel in the rocket was expended the booster had to be immediately discarded as it went from being a powerful source of thrust to a dangerously heavy drag on the aircraft the tests demonstrated that by the time the rocket fuel had burned out the aircraft had been accelerated to 175 miles per hour this was well above stall speed and the plane should then be able to rely on the power of its normal jet engine to continue its flight the two unmanned trials proceeded with so little deviation from the expected results but the project moved on to the next phase the acid test for the system came with the third when the plane was partly this took place on the 5th of January 1954 the recorded acceleration loads were 3.5 G only slightly greater than a standard Navy catapult launch the pilot had no difficulty taking control and the test was considered a success the project continued to 1959 with a series of later tests using North American Super Sabres orders were actually placed for 148 suitably modified F 100's interestingly the Russians were involved in a series of similar experiments using mid 90s around the same time the idea was finally abandoned with the development of more reliable and accurate missile systems experimentation with the f-84 continued to throw up a fascinating variety of variants one of the more outlandish was the f80 4-h model designed to be a supersonic propeller driven aircraft this was truly a very different plane and originally was designated the f-106 it had very little in common with the rest of the series but was redesignated as the f80 4-h before its first flight two prototypes were ordered with the aim of developing them for Navy carrier deployment the aircraft employed a turboprop and a series of propellers were studied for the design its first flight took place on the 22nd of July 1955 and passed with no kitchens however the plane failed to live up to expectations and did not actually pass mark one it managed to reach 670 miles per hour which made it the world's fastest propeller driven aircraft but was useless for the Navy's purposes a major limitation on propeller driven aircraft had already been recognized at speeds nearing Marquand and their passing through it different parts of the propeller would be simultaneously traveling at speeds above and below the speed of sound the stresses involved a massive and the whole area of propeller design and construction needed revolutionary changes to cope with the various loads that would be encountered as a test vehicle for the assessment of this technology the plane was very valuable experiments with the f80 4-h proved the ruggedness of the three bladed propeller and the soundness of the engineering of the powerplant and aircraft however with the introduction of steam catapults angle decks and in air refueling the Navy was able to abandon the project and employ true jet aircraft this left the US Air Force to pursue the project as a matter of basic research and development for its own purposes in addition to being the world's fastest propeller-driven plane the f-84 h holds another claim to fame it's generally acknowledged as the noisiest aircraft ever built the engine was a large Amazon unit developing nearly 6,000 horsepower but this was only a minor factor in the din of the aircraft what really made the racket was the propeller at high revolutions even in ground maneuvers the propeller tips went supersonic this meant that the plane emitted around 900 sonic booms per minute and these combined to make an astonishing round the noise was such that ground crew involved in the test series suffered malaise and nausea if they were anywhere near the aircraft during taxi run up or take off this was true even if they wore here plans the effect our carriers death of a squadron of such aircraft preparing for takeoff have been bad for operational efficiency the plane and supersonic propellers were quite sensibly abandoned perhaps the most outstanding derivative of the F 84 was the XF 91 Thunder scepter this 1946 design it stands as one of the most amazing experimental aircraft of its era it was fitted with four rocket chambers in addition to a powerful jet engine it was the first u.s. combat plane to break the speed of sound in level flight the aircraft wings pivoted to give a variable angle of attack together with full-length slats this gave the plane a very low stall speed for the time and allowed in flight maneuvers that remain unique the wings themselves were another radical feature tapering in from the tip to the fuselage this reversed the effect of wingtip stall turning dangerous pitch up into easily controllable pitched down if it had been fitted with the intended power plants it was expected to fly - mark - but even with the limited power of the available engines it was capable of mark 1.2 though clearly the most advanced design of its era it was not preceded with on the basis of cost Republic was a very ambitious company committed to advanced design and another of their projects again not put into production was the mark 3 xf 103 a delta wing which used both a turbojet and ramjets this plane had no canopy as such the pilot being totally enclosed and if 84 was employed to test periscope systems for the xf 103 pilot and this strange mutant thunderjet established but the system could be made to work in Air National Guard hands the f-84 persisted for a long and uneventful career still plagued by its groundhog takeoff but trusted and respected by its pilots while they spent most of their time with the USAF as a second division aircraft for many nations they were frontline of any of these Air Forces the f-84 was persistent with not only because of budgetary constraints for the purchase of replacements but because they worked well enough to deserve their attention the f-84 slipped into history virtually unlamented their reputation was tarnished by development difficulties and the fact that they were always under power however to dismiss them is to overlook their achievements particularly in Korea they deserve a reassessment and recognition of just how significant an aircraft they were nerds like the rest of the first generation of jet fighters the f-84 was effectively a transition between the piston engine planes and the more effective aircraft known as the century series a second generation Jets the century fighters were more successful simply because they could draw on a wealth of knowledge gained in the careers of the initial series of post-war aircraft within the first generation the republic planes were outclassed by only the f-86 which itself was a later design the crew on the knowledge gained in the m-84s career greenery the f-84 can be seen in hindsight to have had many virtues in an era when aircraft design had run into areas of great uncertainty the problems of developing jet engines to deliver power and reliability were forced to one side by military considerations the availability of even very limited jets had made propellers totally redundant propeller driven aircraft were well understood and very reliable but need compelled the transition to a far less advanced and trustworthy technology as Korea demonstrated the f-84 for all its faults was the most dependable and rugged of its contemporaries the f-86 is remembered as the plane that bested the big 15 but the f-84 was the plane that operated from the worst strips under abominable conditions and helped to stem the tide of Chinese intervention with a hail of accurately employed tactical firepower in addition during its career it was host to a large number of experiments and developments that changed the face of aviation have had effects that can still be seen in aviation science today in a very distinguished family the f-84 sits between two of the most successful tactical fighters of all time the p-47 Thunderbolt of the f-105 thunderchief and given their era they survived a comparison very well

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Length: 45min 58sec (2758 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 26 2015