View From The Porch: Thunder, Thunder, Thunderstreak ho!

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Thunder, Thunder, Thunderstreak ho!

Not a lot of flat surfaces or sharp corners.

You can see the openings for the nose-mounted Browning .50s quite nicely.

It may border on blasphemy to say this, but I think the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak is much prettier than the North American F-86 Sabre.

26 comments:

SPEMack said...: Gasp! Heretic! Sinner! Banish the non believer!
That out of my system, I always thought the F-102 and F11F were what jet fighters should look like.; 6:13 PM, April 13, 2014
Joel said...: When I was a boy one of our regular routes took us past an old airbase that by then was just the fringe of a muni airport. And right up against the fence were a couple of mobile racks stacked with those fuselages, forlornly lying on their sides and (I suppose) waiting for somebody to remember them long enough to send them to a scrapyard.

To this day that mental image is strong in my memory, and the subject of complicated feelings. What it must have been like to fly one of those things! How sad they're dead.; 6:14 PM, April 13, 2014
Cincinnatus said...: Prettier ... maybe. But inferior in performance.; 6:18 PM, April 13, 2014
juvat said...: There used to be a saying that the Air Force could build the longest runway in the world, and Republic would build a fighter that used every foot of it to take off.; 6:32 PM, April 13, 2014
fast richard said...: Stranger to the ground

Richard Bach was my favorite writer until he let his goofball new agey side take over.; 6:43 PM, April 13, 2014
Kristophr said...: Have you read Richard Bach's book Stranger to the Ground?

A good read if you want a driver's procedural on the F-84.; 7:27 PM, April 13, 2014
Tatzelwurm said...: Sabre.
North American put good DNA in that. That little bulge in the upper intake lip for the AN/APG30 radar in the A,E, and F models gave it an organic look, like a living being. Like the Spitfires of WW2, it just "looks" right.; 7:54 PM, April 13, 2014
Tatzelwurm said...: And as far as making ugly fly, nobody ever came close to what the British have done (Buccaneer comes to mind).; 7:57 PM, April 13, 2014
SPEMack said...: The British used all of thier pretty aeroplane points up with the Spitfire and Hurricane; 8:30 PM, April 13, 2014
Tam said...: "The British used all of thier pretty aeroplane points up with the Spitfire and Hurricane"

Hawker Hunter. (Prettiest jet fighter ever, IMO.)

English Electric Canberra.

Hawker Sea Fury.; 8:37 PM, April 13, 2014
SPEMack said...: The Hunter? I will have to be your pardon and disagree ma'am.; 8:45 PM, April 13, 2014
Noah D said...: " (Prettiest jet fighter ever, IMO.)"

Eh...wait, who am I kidding? I think the Phantom II is one of the most beautiful* things made by human hands, so I'm hardly one to judge these things.

*That's not the right word, but I don't know what is. I look at the Phantom II, and it just works.; 9:12 PM, April 13, 2014
Cincinnatus said...: The song of the Canberra pilots was "All I Want for Christmas is My Wings Swept Back".

The Vampire and the Venom were elegant airframes in my opinion.; 9:42 PM, April 13, 2014
Joseph said...: Canberra? Seriously, those look like something a 5-yo drew up.

F-16 is beautiful to me with all the sweepy, curvy bits and yet totally built for function.

My personal fave is the McDonnel F101B Voodoo. It was like you were dating the Voodoo and the phantom was what it looked like after you got married. ;); 10:12 PM, April 13, 2014
Joe in PNG said...: I'm more partial to the A-4 in that 'lean, mean, flying maching' kind of way.; 10:22 PM, April 13, 2014
rbmcmjr said...: F-111 Aardvark

Accept no substitutes.; 11:17 PM, April 13, 2014
strker 1 said...: the canadians had a saying about the 101A, when you opened the throttle you were either going to go up or blow up
luv the f86, nothing like it
striker 1; 2:03 AM, April 14, 2014
Drang said...: I'll deal with your heretical remarks as soon as I'm done dealing with that paint job on a bird from that era.

And as a grunt, I don't give a squat what anyone -- especially Air Farce brass -- says, the most beautiful jet ever is the A10.; 12:17 PM, April 14, 2014
Ed Skinner said...: Anything left of Freeman air field in south central Indiana where this film was made? https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1723870789084; 12:21 PM, April 14, 2014
Boat Guy said...: I'll see your F-84 and raise you an F-100...
North American all the way...; 1:37 PM, April 14, 2014
Anonymous said...: B-58 Hustler gets my vote.
It looks fast park in a hanger.

Gerry; 3:04 PM, April 14, 2014
Anonymous said...: I have to vote for the Hawker Hunter as the prettiest subsonic fighter and the later Griffon-engined Spitfire as the prettiest piston engined one, the longer fuselage and shrink-wrapped cowl make it look fast whilst parked. The DeHav Mosquito has to be in the top 5 pretty warplanes, too.

Al_in_Ottawa; 5:03 PM, April 14, 2014
Anonymous said...: If you want to talk, "My God! It just LOOKS fast!" go no further than the F-104.; 6:31 PM, April 14, 2014
Will said...: It would seem that there was a price to be paid for that swoopy, not much straight lines look. Apparently, Republic couldn't draw a straight line when it NEEDED to. The kink in the tailpipe cost 10% of the engine's output, making it an also-ran. Shame.; 1:44 AM, April 15, 2014
Ancient Woodsman said...: Curious if you've ever looked in to the FICON project combining the F84 and B36. One set involved a trapeze with an F84 like an overgrown XF85 Goblin inside, and another involved a pair of F84s, mated to the wing tips of the giant bomber.

Those were some crazy times back then. Not everything nostalgic is good.; 6:49 AM, April 15, 2014
Stuart the Viking said...: I have to agree with Drang about the A-10. Ugly as sin, but BEAUTIFUL in function.

I have always said that the Marine Corps missed the boat with not having the A-10 modified to work aboard ship to use in a close air support role.

Sure as shooting, someone is going to say "the A-10 is a tank killer and not what the Marines need" but I find that argument to lack imagination. Just think about how effective an A-10 could be at close air support.

Ok, I shut up now...

s; 1:54 PM, April 15, 2014