After WWII, people at the Pentagon thought seriously about fighting and winning a nuclear war. Neither nuclear submarines nor ICBMs had yet been invented, so the primary way of delivering the ...

The experiment did not go well for the F-105. Encountering a MiG-21, the F-105 crew should try to flee, the testers advised. If the F-105 was behind the MiG-21 and the MiG flier didn’t know it, the ...

The Remarkable Exploits of Three Thunderchief Pilots Are a Must-Read on Memorial Day. It’s Memorial Day in the United States, part of a long three-day weekend where people in the U.S. reflect on the ...

Take a virtual sightseeing of the Polish Aviation Museum in Cracow. The Polish Aviation Museum in Cracow, Poland, features several interesting exhibits and nearly all versions of the MiG-21 Fishbed, ...

On an overcast afternoon in 1967, 1st Lt. David Waldrop was in the cockpit of an F-105D—call sign “Crossbow 3”—as part of a mixed force of 36 F-105s and F-4 Phantoms aiming to strike Yen Vien, the ...

Click to open image viewer. The F-105 was designed as a supersonic, single-seat, fighter-bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons or heavy bomb loads at supersonic speeds. The F-105D variant was an ...

The Republic F-105 Thunderchief, known to its crews as the Thud, was a cornerstone of US Air Force strike capability during the early Cold War and Vietnam War. Designed in the 1950s as a supersonic ...

Before the Thunderchief ever flew, researchers had already discovered that many early jet aircraft slowed near the speed of sound. The engines were strong enough, but the air resisted them, and drag ...

I’ve got my rock band’s name picked out; now, I just need the band. My as-yet-unformed band will be named for what, in my opinion, is the most satisfyingly designated aircraft in the US Air Force’s ...

Click to open image viewer. The F-105 was designed as a supersonic, single-seat, fighter-bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons or heavy bomb loads at supersonic speeds. The F-105D variant was an ...