The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard (ANG) until 1979. As the first of the Century Series collection of USAF jet fighters, it was the first of a series of US fighters capable of supersonic speed in level flight and made extensive use of titanium throughout the aircraft.

The F-100 was designed originally as a higher performance follow-on to the F-86 air superiority fighter. Adapted as a fighter bomber, the F-100 would be supplanted by the Mach 2 class F-105 Thunderchief for strike missions over North Vietnam. The F-100 flew extensively over South Vietnam as the Air Force's primary close air support jet until replaced by the more efficient subsonic A-7 Corsair II The F-100 also served in several 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."

In January 1951, North American Aviation delivered an unsolicited proposal for a supersonic day fighter to the United States Air Force. Named Sabre 45 because of its 45 degree wing sweep, it represented an evolution of the F-86 Sabre. The mockup was inspected on July 7th, 1951 and after over a hundred modifications, the new aircraft was accepted as the F-100 on November 30th, 1951. On January 3rd, 1952, the USAF ordered two prototypes followed by 23 F-100As in February and an additional 250 F-100As in August.

The YF-100A first flew on May 25th, 1953, seven months ahead of schedule. It reached Mach 1.05 in spite of being fitted with a de-rated XJ57-P-7 engine. The second prototype flew on October 14th, 1953, followed by the first production F-100A on October 9th, 1953. The USAF operational evaluation from November 1953 to December 1955 found the new fighter to have superior performance but declared it not ready for widescale deployment due to various deficiencies in the design. These findings were subsequently confirmed during Project Hot Rod operational suitability tests. Particularly troubling was the yaw instability in certain regimes of flight which produced inertia coupling. The aircraft could develop a sudden yaw and roll which would happen too fast for the pilot to correct and would quickly overstress the aircraft structure to disintegration. It was under these conditions that North American's chief test pilot, George Welch, was killed while dive testing an early-production F-100A on October 12th, 1954. A related control problem stemmed from handling characteristics of the swept wing at high angles of attack. As the aircraft approached stall speeds, loss of lift on the tips of the wings caused a violent pitch-up.

Nevertheless, delays in the F-84F Thunderstreak program pushed the Tactical Air Command to order the raw F-100A into service. TAC also requested that future F-100s should be fighter-bombers with nuclear bomb capability.

The F-107 was a follow-on Mach 2 development of the F-100 with the air intake moved above and behind the cockpit. It was not developed in favor of the F-105 Thunderchief, which would become noted for its weaknesses in close in air combat.

Shown here is a 1:72 scale replica of a USAF North American F-100D Super Sabre fighter that was piloted by 1st Lt. Joe H. Engle, who was attached to the 474th Day Fighter Squadron, 31st Tactical Fighter Wing, then deployed to George AFB, during August 1958. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 6-1/2-inches
Length: 7-3/4-inches

Release Date: September 2015

Historical Account: "Operation Fox Peter One" - The wing pioneered the development of in flight refueling tactics. On July 6th, 1952, the wing executed Operation Fox Peter One, the mass movement of the entire wing from Turner Field to Misawa Air Base, Japan using aerial refueling to fly non-stop from Turner to Travis Air Force Base, California, and from Travis to Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. The unit then island-hopped across the rest of the Pacific with stops at Midway and Wake Islands, Eniwetok Atoll, Guam, Iwo Jima and Yokota Air Base, Japan.

The sheer magnitude of this accomplishment was sufficient to name the 31st Fighter Escort Wing as the recipient of the first-ever Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. The wing commander, Colonel David C. Schilling, won the Air Force Association Trophy, which was later named after him. This movement included the longest over-water flight attempted to that date and was the first trans-Pacific mass flight of jet aircraft. As an encore, on August 20th, 1953, Col Schilling led a flight of eight F-84s on a 10.5-hour non-stop flight from Turner Field to Nouasseur Air Base, French Morocco. This successful flight culminated in the 40th Air Division of the Strategic Air Command receiving the Mackay Trophy in 1953.

During 1953, the wing, then known as the 31st Strategic Fighter Wing, deployed to Japan and Alaska to provide air defense in the northern Pacific.

On March 15th, 1959, the wing moved without people or equipment to George Air Force Base, California During the wing's time in California, it deployed units for four-month alert rotations to Moron Air Base, Spain and Aviano Air Base, Italy.