Encyclopedia > F-100 Super Sabre

  Article Content

F-100 Super Sabre

The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a military jet fighter aircraft that served with the USAF from 1954-1971 and with the ANG[?] until 1979. It was the successor to the F-86 Sabre[?].

Development work began in 1949 for a supersonic interceptor and prototype construction started in 1951 when the company won a contract for 110 aircraft. The first YF-100 prototype flew on May 25, 1953 with a Pratt & Whitney J57 engine, it broke the sound-barrier on its first flight. The YF-100 set a world speed record in October 1953 at 754.99 mph. The first aircraft, the F-100A, were delivered in late 1953 and became operational from September 1954. Despite the testing, there were a number of operational crashes that grounded the aircraft from November 1954 until February 1955 when the problem (stability) was identified and solved (larger control surfaces).

The F-100A was followed by the F-100C (1954, 476 built) and the F-100D (1956, 1,274 built) fighter-bombers, with increased wing-area, fin and rudder size, six underwing hard-points and improved electronics. The F-100D was an unforgiving aircraft, over 500 were lost in accidents by USAF pilots. The final production variant was the F-100F tandem trainer (339 built), first flown in 1956 it was stretched by 3 m to accommodate the second crew.

The Super Sabre, especially the F-100D was widely used in the Vietnam War, but was replaced from 1966 on tougher missions by the F-4 and the F-105[?]. The aircraft served in Vietnam until 1971.

Specification (F-100D)

  • Wingspan: 11.81 m Area: 36 mē
  • Length: 14.38 m
  • Height: 4.95 m
  • Weight: 9,545 kg (empty) 15,833 kg (maximum)
  • Engine: Pratt & Whitney J57-P-21A (7,727 kg static thrust with afterburning)
  • Performance: 1,239 km/hr (sea level) 1,390 km/hr (at 10,668 m)
  • Ceiling: 14,325 m
  • Range: 859 km (internal) 3,210 km (maximum)
  • Crew: 1
  • Armament: Four 20 mm cannon; 7,000 lb on underwing hard-points, including "special stores"

External Links



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Westhampton Beach, New York

... -72.646009)1. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 7.7 km² (3.0 mi²). 7.5 km² (2.9 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 37.9 ms