By Kris Osborn, Warrior
The F-22 and F-15 can travel at speeds up to and beyond Mach 2.25 and the F-35 can hit speeds of Mach 1.6, yet the first supersonic fighter aircraft emerged as far back as the 1950s with the North American F-100 Super Sabre.
The F-100 emerged in a number of variants throughout its decades of service and fought in Vietnam among other key conflicts before being phased out of service in the early 70s for a number of reasons; while the jets were heralded for unprecedented speed, they became known as “accident prone” and unable to “recover from a spin.”
What seems significant about the life and service of this F-100 aircraft is its likely contribution to air war modernization. Following the F-100-era, which appears to have been filled with mishaps, accidents and aerodynamic complications, a new era of air-to-air came into existence.
According to the US Air Force’s official “accident table,” 889 F-100s were destroyed in accidents, resulting in the deaths of as many as 324 pilots.
One catastrophe as recounted in the Aviation Geek Club, cites a pilot recalling when his F-100 Super Sabre exploded during the bomb burst after the wings came off due to fatigue damage in the wing center box.
F-100 Inspires Future Air War
It is likely not surprising that the highly maneuverable, high-speed F-15 emerged from the troubled era of the F-100. The failures and challenges of the F-100 seem to have influenced if not opened the door for a new generation of air-war breakthroughs in the realm of high-speed maneuvering, dogfighting and overall air attack. Lessons learned from F-100 failures inspired the emergence of the F-15 and ultimately the F-22. The F-15 is famous for its perfect combat record, and both the F-15 and the F-22 represent what many consider to be the most superior airwar platforms the world has ever seen.
Extending this reasoning, it would make sense that the performance parameters and success of US Air Force high-end 4th and 5th-generation fighters were born out of the rigors, challenges and failures of the F-100. Learning to vector at supersonic speeds and maintain stability are not likely things that can be easily learned and applied, so the road to the F-15 and F-22 was paved with the difficulties experienced by the F-100. It is perhaps only from failures that a new technological level of air war engineering could come to life, given the complex aerodynamics involved in ensuring flight stability and maneuverability at supersonic speeds.
Mission history
Despite its many difficulties, the first supersonic fighter performed successfully over the course of several decades in various circumstances. Although ultimately succeeded by the far more capable Phantom F-4 fighter jet, the F-100 did serve in the Lebanon Crisis in the late 1950s and also deployed in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961.
The F-100s largest combat experience came during its many flights over South Vietnam, yet this experience was also marked by combat losses, accidents and tragedies. Overall, 242 F-100s were lost during the Vietnam war
Interestingly, the departure of the F-100 from active service did not end its contribution to the future of air warfare, as the planes were used as USAF Full Scale Aerial Targets to test a wide range of anti-aircraft weapons. The F-100s were targets for ground-based anti-aircraft guns and also shot at and destroyed by air-launched weapons in air-to-air warfare testing.
The F-100s were also significant in the realm of EW, as some were converted into EW-capable reconnaissance planes.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University