--- title: "Republic F-105 Thunderchief: The Nuclear Fighter-Bomber Built to End the World" description: "## Introduction\n\nAt the height of the Cold War, nothing was more important than the question of nuclear war. If an all-out nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union was possible, then how could it be avoided? If it couldn't be avoided, how could it be won? And if it couldn't be won, in a final world war that would end with mutually assured destruction, then how could either side ensure that if it went down, then it was taking its sworn enemies down with it?\n\nIn the bitterest, and most difficult moments of the Cold War, from the Cuban Missile Crisis, to the creation of the Berlin Wall, to the outbreak of the Vietnam War, the United States of America had one single answer to all of those questions. That answer, the key to America's own security and to the destruction of the Soviet Union, was the aircraft known as the Thunderchief. Capable of flying at double the speed of sound, and designed with the sole purpose of delivering nuclear apocalypse upon the Soviets, the F-105 represented a historic breakthrough in Cold War engineering. But unreliable, dangerous to fly, and trusted with the riskiest missions America's Air Force carried out, it was an aircraft that left a difficult and complex legacy.\n\nThis is the story of the F-105 Thunderchief, the jet that was made to end the world.\n\n## Design and Development\n\nThe dawn of the global jet age was a time of rapid progress in military aviation. At the start of the 1940s, jet-powered aircraft were little more than a dream for any faction of World War II, but by the decade's end, the Soviets and the Americans were flying jets that regularly pushed against the sound barrier: the F-86 for Washington, and the MiG-15 for Moscow. By the mid-1950s, those jets had given way to even more powerful creations, aircraft that could shatter the sound barrier without issue: the MiG-17 and MiG-19 for the Soviets, and the Super Sabre, the Voodoo, the Delta Dagger, and the Fury for the Americans. It was a period in which all sides understood that innovation would proceed at a breakneck pace, that American and Soviet industry would churn out hundreds or even thousands of a given jet today, despite knowing full well that they'd be obsolete tomorrow. At a time when a slight miscalculation or an accidental encounter could lead to an all-out nuclear exchange, there was no price too high to ensure that each nation was ready for the worst-case scenario.\n\nAt this time in American military aviation, any given aircraft could be expected to perform one of a few critical tasks. This was still about a decade off from the introduction of the first true American multirole fighter, the F-4 Phantom, and as a result, any new aircraft in development could be expected to perform one of a few key functions. Interceptors were tasked with confronting an incoming attack, timing a rendezvous with Soviet strategic bombers and bringing them down before they could lay waste to their targets on American soil. Dedicated fighter aircraft were meant to meet the fighter jets of their adversaries in tactical engagements, winning air-to-air battles that were typically part of a wider war. Carrier-based jets were meant to project American air power as best they could, using the runway space and limited munitions available to them at sea. Strategic bombers, meanwhile, were precisely what they sounded like.\n\nBut the mission role that the Thunderchief would eventually fulfill, was that of a fighter-bomber: an aircraft with the required weapons, maneuverability, and other attributes to be able to bring down aerial adversaries, but an aircraft where the real objective was to deliver a bomb payload to a fixed target. Unlike strategic bombers, smaller fighter-bombers were expected to be able to deal with flying enemies themselves, thunder into contested airspace, and deliver precise attacks at low altitude. And in the case of the aircraft that America was looking for in the early 1950s, those precise attacks were to be of the nuclear variety.\n\nThe Thunderchief was created by the Republic Aviation Corporation, a company that was founded in 1931 and would eventually be bought by Fairchild, the creator of the A-10 Thunderbolt. By the early fifties, Republic was already known for a highly successful fighter-bomber, the Thunderstreak, with nearly 3,500 copies built and distributed to America, Taiwan, Israel, and many nations of the NATO alliance. But as impressive as the Thunderstreak was, it was already on the verge of being outdated by the time it entered service in 1954, and Republic knew it. By then, Republic was already three years into designing the jet that would take over for the Thunderstreak, delivering previously impossible capabilities in the process.\n\nAs the designers of this new aircraft saw it, the US Air Force was lacking a jet that was capable of performing high-speed, low-altitude nuclear bombing runs, deep into enemy territory. As such, they set out to design a jet that could do precisely that, trying to hit a precise balance between maximum speed, maximum flying range, and the required payload capacity to transport a nuclear warhead. The aircraft they designed would have to be survivable on long missions by itself, with minimal support from other aircraft and possibly no escorts of a different fighter type, with the structural stability to handle the aerodynamic challenges of low-altitude flight as it hugged the landscape. And when it came to self-defense, the fighter jet would have to be capable of one, out of two things. Either it would have to be able to dogfight, with the weapons capacity and maneuverability to face down the jets that would be coming to intercept it, or it would have to be able to outrun them, and ensure that a confrontation never happened at all. The Republic corporation chose the latter, and with that, the concept for the Thunderchief was born.\n\nWhen they were shown the idea a year later, the US Air Force were very happy to learn that such an aircraft had been designed, especially because of the lessons American pilots had learned from the Korean War. The Air Force promptly told Republic to stop any further work on the Thunderstreak, its previous fighter-bomber, and go full-bore on getting this new aircraft ready for service. It ultimately wouldn't be ready in time to help bring about a victory in Korea, but by 1954, the Air Force was ready to place its first order. By then, the new plane had been paired with a powerful engine that hadn't been available any earlier, and it had been given a designation, the F-105. It was the fifth aircraft produced as part of America's Century Series, and it would enter service alongside another fighter that had just taken to the skies for the first time, an interceptor known as the F-104 Starfighter.\n\nThe process of actually building the F-105, would turn out to be a messy one. The first prototype would get off the ground for the first time in October of 1955, but it would quickly endure so much damage during testing that it was nearly unflyable. The second prototype had to be built with an inferior engine, as a copy of the new engine couldn't yet be spared. Both aircraft bore design elements that Republic already knew wouldn't carry over to the final product, and as a result, the prototypes were underwhelming, compared to what Republic had promised. But as one element after another was reworked, the Air Force was convinced that it could place its trust in the new aircraft anyway. Production orders started rolling in, the first few planes were handed over, and in the summer of 1957, the F-105 was designated the Thunderchief, the fourth fighter plane made by Republic to bear reference to thunder in its name. In 1959, the first squadron of Thunderchief aircraft finally went operational, out of a total 833 that would ultimately serve the United States.\n\n## Specs and Capabilities\n\nThe F-105 was modified into about a dozen variants over the course of its service life, some of which would be built, and others of which would be abandoned on the drawing board. The first major production run of the jets would produce the F-105B, in seventy-one copies that were phased out of frontline service by 1964. But the vast majority of Thunderchief aircraft were of the F-105D variant, and it's the capabilities of those aircraft that we'll focus on, when we dig into what the Thunderchief could do.\n\nThe F-105 was a single-seat aircraft, and like so many aircraft of its day, it came with some strange physical proportions. Measuring at a length, tip to tail, of about sixty-four feet or nineteen and a half meters, the F-105's wingspan measured just thirty-five feet, or ten and a half meters. The aircraft utilized back-swept wings, angled at forty-five degrees, with a relatively large surface area for purposes of maneuverability. It flew with the aid of a single Pratt & Whitney J75 turbojet engine, complete with afterburners, capable of producing 26,500 pound-thrust of force when firing at maximum power. That engine was fed by a pair of air intakes, one at the leading edge of each wing, with fuel stored in three separate tanks inside the fuselage, plus the option to add up to four specialized tanks if extra range was required. Sitting empty, the F-105 weighed in at just shy of twenty-seven thousand pounds; that's a bit over twelve metric tons. But when fully loaded up, it could take off at nearly double that weight, maxing out at about twenty-four metric tons or fifty-three thousand pounds.\n\nWhen flying at altitude, the Thunderchief could hit top speeds of over twice the speed of sound, capping out a bit shy of 1,400 miles per hour, or 2,250 kilometers per hour. It could fly at altitudes of nearly fifteen kilometers or 49,000 feet, with an impressive combat range for its time, nearly eight hundred miles or well over twelve hundred kilometers. On one-way trips, including nuclear bombing runs where the pilot of a Thunderchief was realistically unlikely to escape detonation alive, the aircraft could travel some 2,200 miles without external fuel stores, or 3,500 kilometers. It could climb to altitudes of thirty-five thousand feet, or eleven kilometers, in under two minutes, although it was said to be capable of even faster climbs than that. It could receive air-to-air refueling through a side-fuselage boom, the only combat aircraft in US history to come with that particular feature.\n\nIn terms of its armament, the Thunderchief could pack a fairly serious punch for its time, leveraging five external hardpoints in total, including four under the wings and one on the aircraft centerline. On those hardpoints, the F-105 could carry up to four rocket pods, launching seven rockets each, or several kinds of conventional bombs. When they became available, the aircraft could also mount missiles on the outer two pylons, including the air-to-air Sidewinder and the air-to-surface Bullpup. It also featured an internal weapons bay, where the F-105's ultimate payload was meant to be stored. Within the bomb bay, the aircraft could carry a single nuclear warhead, loaded up into one of a few kinds of bomb deliverables that were compatible with the aircraft's design. For close-range dogfighting and ground strafing, the aircraft was equipped with a six-barreled Gatling gun, with about a thousand rounds of ammunition carried onboard. In all, the maximum weapons payload of the F-105 was up to three times greater than that of the four-engine B-17 bomber of World War II, and considerably greater than that of the larger and much-improved bombers of the later war.\n\nJust as important was the F-105's avionics suite, as one of the first jet aircraft to integrate the types of onboard systems that would later become synonymous with modern fighter planes. In the case of the Thunderchief, those systems included a specialized ranging radar, allowing the aircraft to track itself and its surroundings mid-flight, as well as a proper fire control system. The radar was designed for terrain mapping and avoidance, still a very new feature to have on a combat jet, while the cockpit was designed for far better pilot utility than had been a feature of prior fighters. Meanwhile, the fire control system would do the hard work of figuring out precisely when to release the nuclear bomb that the Thunderchief was carrying, after the pilot identified the target via radar, and basically gave the plane approval to release a warhead at a position that the plane's onboard computers tracked thereafter. That meant that the Thunderchief could engage in a practice called toss-bombing, where the plane would pull up and release the onboard warhead in hopes that it would fly far enough, before detonation, that the pilot stood a chance at surviving. It also meant that if the pilot was under pressure from any number of possible external factors, the plane could be maneuvered and still release the onboard warhead at the right moment.\n\nWhen it was used in combat, the F-105 was meant to fly low and fast, skimming the landscape and hugging the ground as close as possible. Unlike nap-of-the-earth flight tactics that became popular later in the decade, when flying close to the ground was a good way to avoid enemy radar installations, the F-105's low-altitude flight was meant to exploit the limitations of enemy aircraft. At sea level, the Soviet Union's MiG-17 could only hit speeds of about 1,100 kilometers or 680 miles per hour, well below the sound barrier, while the MiG-19 and the MiG-21 could get past Mach 1, but not by much. In the thicker air at or near sea level, the Thunderchief was built to thrive, traveling a good deal faster than any of the Soviet planes that would have tried to stop it. So long as it had enough fuel to keep flying, the F-105 would have been all but impossible to intercept as it approached the targets for a nuclear bombing run, unless the aircraft that would try and interdict it, happened to be placed just perfectly. Even then, there were no guarantees that they'd survive an encounter with the F-105 once they got close.\n\n## Operations and Legacy\n\nWhen the F-105 began its service life in the late 1950s, it entered a relatively peaceful phase of the Cold War. Korea had been split and ceded to each of the world's dueling superpowers, and although things were already ramping up in Vietnam, it would be half a decade before the large-scale bombing campaigns of the Johnson era. As such, America and its fighter pilots had ample time to get to know the F-105, but unfortunately for the Air Force and the Republic corporation, the result was not the warm reception that they had hoped.\n\nWhile the aircraft was undeniably powerful and well-suited to its role in theory, it proved to be difficult for its pilots to handle—in part, because it took off and landed at very high speeds, where the slightest error could lead to fireballs on the runway. Although the aircraft was aerodynamically suited to its role as a low-flying, fast aircraft, it was unwieldy when sitting in the cockpit, while its initial lack of an ejection seat didn't exactly inspire confidence. For the F-105D variant, the reception was hardly any better; it would be referred to, by its pilots and maintenance crews, as the Thud—widely understood to mean the noise the aircraft made when crashing into the ground. It would alternatively be called the Lead Sled, while its pilots used to helpfully explain that it could kill America's enemies in precisely three ways: Bombing them, strafing them, or crashing onto their heads. The plane was difficult to maintain, and was grounded repeatedly, while its reputation for in-flight disasters was well-known among those unfortunate enough to pilot it. Nor were those issues easily fixed; problems with the plane would persist well into the era when the D-variant had taken over combat operations.\n\nBut after the F-105's pilots had a chance to really get comfortable with their aircraft, opinions on the Thunderchief slowly grew more favorable over time. The aircraft was fast as hell, it could drop explosive ordnance in amounts that would have been impossible on a jet of that size just a few years ago, and when pilots mastered its handling, it excelled at its low-and-fast mission as long as all of its parts remained attached. Not only that, but it improved steadily with time, as pointed pilot feedback led to the addition of better armor, better gun sights, electronic countermeasures, and more. It was hardened against water, which had been responsible for many early crashes as it found its way into the plane's internal systems, and it was standardized to fix many of the problems that made regular maintenance so difficult. As such, the Thunderchief and its pilots were poised to take a leading role in the Vietnam War when it first broke out, with the F-105 rapidly becoming the US Air Force's favored plane to carry out airstrikes. Between its large payload, its long range, and its optimization for ground-hugging attacks that offered greater precision in heavily forested areas, the Thunderchief was an ideal platform for the role.\n\nYet unfortunately for both the F-105 and its pilots, the aircraft was only so potent as long as enemy MiGs didn't show up. Heavy, laden with ordnance, and limited in mobility, the F-105 was often a sitting duck when more nimble enemy aircraft showed up, especially considering that it could only carry a very small number of air-to-air missiles. Although F-105s often traveled with a fighter escort, MiG pilots who could hide until the last possible moment would quite frequently manage an attack of opportunity. They'd strike the Thunderchiefs while they flew in formation, before turning around and putting distance between themselves and the aircraft acting as escort. Not only that, but if America's adversaries could figure out in advance that Thunderchiefs were on the way, then anti-aircraft guns would reliably have a brief, but perfect window of opportunity to pelt massive, low-flying, bomb-laden aircraft with a hail of bullets face-first. When its hydraulic systems were hit, the F-105 tended to pitch downward almost immediately, and with the aircraft usually flying very low and very fast, that was a recipe for a rapid and unpreventable crash. Meanwhile, its fuel tanks were positioned too close to the hot engines, so that even minor shrapnel damage could cause fuel to leak and then ignite. Losses of the aircraft were common, although they did manage to get some of their own air-to-air kills in the process, primarily with their cannons in a time when air-to-air missiles were notoriously unreliable.\n\nBut standard bombing runs weren't the only sort of attack that the F-105 could deliver. In the early days of America's involvement with Vietnam, pilots of the F-100 Super Sabre and the Navy's F-4 Skyhawk had started work on a new series of missions, known as the Wild Weasel. By all accounts, the Wild Weasel is one of those tactics that's best described as, \"so crazy it just might work\", although a pilot tasked with the mission would also be well within their right to describe them as, \"absolutely insane\". Around this time, North Vietnam had come into possession of surface-to-air missiles, used in air defense systems that were quite sophisticated for their time. Those missiles relied on ground-based radar to identify incoming aircraft, with missiles subsequently being launched to bring them down.\n\nThe United States had a way to take out enemy radar: specifically, anti-radiation missiles that picked up on a source of radar emissions, and then treated that source as a target. The tough part, however, was that America was less interested in the standalone radar that tracked incoming aircraft, than they were in the radar that identified targets on behalf of the anti-air battery itself—and was, as a result, very near to where the missiles in question were located. But in order to stay hidden, those radar systems only activated when aircraft were inbound…and America's pilots could make that happen, by being the inbound aircraft in question. Basically, their job was to fly directly into known or suspected enemy air defenses, allow those air defenses to get a lock, and then destroy the source of radar emissions before they, themselves, were shot down. That job was precisely as dangerous as it sounded, and neither the F-100 nor the A-4 were suited to the task…but the F-105 was a far more potent tool.\n\nBefore long, F-105 pilots were regularly running Wild Weasel attacks, relying on two-seater aircraft with a backseat electronic warfare officer who was in charge of pinpointing enemy air defenses, and warning the pilots about the locations of incoming missiles. Working in groups of four, the F-105s would bait North Vietnamese air defense systems, then swoop in with heavy weapons as quickly as possible. As such, it was the job of one lucky F-105 pilot to make themselves as obvious and as tasty as possible for North Vietnamese SAM crews. If all went well, that pilot would be able to dodge incoming missiles or otherwise avoid them, but to say that the mission was dangerous, would be an incredible understatement. Pilots in this role would be deployed to fly for either a year, or a hundred missions, whichever came first, and about seventy-five percent of pilots ultimately made it to the finish line. Quite a few would fall victim to so-called \"ninety-ninth mission syndrome\", where a combination of fatigue, eagerness to get home, and more dangerous missions for more experienced pilots, led them to be shot down just before they would have gone home.\n\nDespite their success in Wild Weasel operations, the F-105 proved to be relatively ineffective in most other roles during the Vietnam War. While their in-flight attributes made them a potent weapon in the right circumstances, Vietnam simply wasn't the right circumstances, and with more capable aircraft like the F-4 Phantom able to take on most of the airstrike role of the F-105, it was largely phased out by the midpoint of the war. Some of the aircraft, particularly the ones purpose-built for Wild Weasel missions, would continue through to the war's end, but they were a rare sight in the later years of the conflict. Once America's involvement in Vietnam concluded, and the Air Force had an excuse to get the Thunderchief off the front lines permanently, they did exactly that.\n\nBy the time that the F-105 left service, nearly half of the 833 copies produced had been lost in Vietnam, including three hundred and thirty-four that were brought down by the forces of North Vietnam directly. To this day, it is the only American warplane ever to be taken out of service early, because of the sheer number of aircraft that were lost. That wasn't all; by the time that the aircraft left service completely, over six hundred had been lost for some reason or another, nearly three-fourths of the entire production line. Although those loss rates were partly attributable to bad luck, in that the F-105 had ended up fighting in a conflict that was very different than the one it was designed for, luck didn't account for all of it…or anything close. The aircraft had been built with such a narrow mission focus that it lacked any real operational versatility, in a way that made it unsuitable for a complex warfighting environment. It was versatile in some ways, in that it could carry many different sorts of ordinance based on the mission, but it flew too much like a bomber for it to be very much use in a dogfight. For its 334 losses to North Vietnamese forces, it claimed just twenty-seven and a half kills of MiG fighter aircraft. Not only that, but its high rate of malfunctions and in-flight accidents contributed to an even higher loss rate than it otherwise would have endured. Although Vietnam presented opportunities, like Wild Weasel operations, where the F-105's narrow capabilities could be adapted to a new mission set, its adaptability only went so far as America's ability to find new ways for the Thunderchief to do the same old thing. Trusting the aircraft with a new task, simply didn't go well.\n\nAs such, the legacy of the Thunderchief can charitably be described as rather mixed, although whether many of its pilots felt like being charitable after having flown the thing, is a different question. Like so many combat aircraft, it's judged for its performance in a war that was fundamentally unlike the war for which it was intended, and it's impossible to know how the Thunderchief would have performed, if entrusted with the missions of nuclear destruction for which it was made. But it never flew those missions, and the missions it did fly, it flew at substantial risk to its pilots, and thus to the war effort. Making matters worse, it flew primarily in what would go down as failed campaigns, as part of a failed war, and as a result, their reputation was tied forever to a difficult period in American military aviation. By the end of its service life, many of the pilots who'd survived flying it, would sing its praises for decades…but that love from the people who knew it best, ultimately wasn't enough to ensure the Thunderchief's place in history.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- The F-105 Thunderchief was designed during the Cold War to deliver nuclear payloads.\n- The aircraft was capable of flying at twice the speed of sound and carrying a nuclear warhead.\n- Despite its powerful capabilities, the F-105 was unreliable and dangerous to fly.\n- The Thunderchief saw extensive use in the Vietnam War, particularly in Wild Weasel missions.\n- Nearly half of the 833 F-105s produced were lost in Vietnam, leading to its early retirement.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What was the primary mission of the F-105 Thunderchief?\n\nThe F-105 Thunderchief was designed to deliver nuclear apocalypse upon the Soviets, capable of flying at double the speed of sound and performing high-speed, low-altitude nuclear bombing runs deep into enemy territory.\n\n### Who designed and built the F-105 Thunderchief?\n\nThe F-105 Thunderchief was created by the Republic Aviation Corporation, which was later bought by Fairchild, the creator of the A-10 Thunderbolt.\n\n### What were the key specifications of the F-105D variant?\n\nThe F-105D variant had a length of about sixty-four feet, a wingspan of thirty-five feet, and could reach speeds of over twice the speed of sound. It had a combat range of nearly eight hundred miles and could carry a significant weapons payload.\n\n### What challenges did the F-105 face during its service life?\n\nThe F-105 was difficult to handle, had a high rate of malfunctions and in-flight accidents, and was vulnerable to enemy aircraft and anti-aircraft defenses. It was also criticized for its lack of operational versatility.\n\n### What was the 'Wild Weasel' mission and how did the F-105 contribute to it?\n\nThe 'Wild Weasel' mission involved flying directly into known or suspected enemy air defenses to destroy the source of radar emissions. The F-105 was adapted for this role, with two-seater aircraft carrying an electronic warfare officer to pinpoint enemy air defenses.\n\n### How did the F-105 perform in the Vietnam War?\n\nThe F-105 was effective in Wild Weasel operations but struggled in other roles due to its vulnerability to enemy aircraft and anti-aircraft defenses. It was largely phased out by the midpoint of the war.\n\n### What was the legacy of the F-105 Thunderchief?\n\nThe legacy of the F-105 Thunderchief is mixed. It was praised by pilots who survived flying it but was criticized for its high loss rate and lack of operational versatility. It was the only American warplane ever taken out of service early due to the number of aircraft lost.\n\n### What were some of the nicknames given to the F-105 by its pilots?\n\nThe F-105 was nicknamed the 'Thud' and the 'Lead Sled' by its pilots, reflecting its reputation for being difficult to handle and prone to crashes.\n\n### How many F-105s were produced and how many were lost?\n\nA total of 833 F-105s were produced. Nearly half were lost in Vietnam, and over six hundred were lost for various reasons, making it the only American warplane to be taken out of service early due to losses.\n\n### What was the significance of the F-105 in the context of the Cold War?\n\nThe F-105 was seen as a key to America's security and the destruction of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It represented a historic breakthrough in Cold War engineering but left a difficult and complex legacy due to its reliability issues and high loss rate.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original MegaProjects video: Republic F-105 Thunderchief: The Jet to End the World.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehruThikotA)\n- [https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196054/republic-f-105d-thunderchief/](https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196054/republic-f-105d-thunderchief/)\n- [https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/republic-f-105d-thunderchief/nasm_A19820064000](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/republic-f-105d-thunderchief/nasm_A19820064000)\n- [https://www.hickoryaviationmuseum.org/aircraft/republic-f-105-thunderchief/](https://www.hickoryaviationmuseum.org/aircraft/republic-f-105-thunderchief/)\n- 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[https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/f-105-thunderchief-fighter-bomber-f-35-vietnam-war-180367](https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/f-105-thunderchief-fighter-bomber-f-35-vietnam-war-180367)\n- [https://theaviationgeekclub.com/thud-drivers-former-f-105-pilots-explain-what-it-was-like-flying-the-mighty-thud-in-peace-and-war/](https://theaviationgeekclub.com/thud-drivers-former-f-105-pilots-explain-what-it-was-like-flying-the-mighty-thud-in-peace-and-war/)\n- [https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197447/f-105f-thud-wild-weasels-and-rolling-thunder/](https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197447/f-105f-thud-wild-weasels-and-rolling-thunder/)\n- [https://theaviationgeekclub.com/thud-vs-sams-f-105f-wild-weasel-operation-rolling-thunder/](https://theaviationgeekclub.com/thud-vs-sams-f-105f-wild-weasel-operation-rolling-thunder/)\n- [https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-of-the-wild-weasel-mission-of-f-105f-lincoln-03-and-the-medal-of-honor-awarded-to-maj-merlyn-dethlefsen/](https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-of-the-wild-weasel-mission-of-f-105f-lincoln-03-and-the-medal-of-honor-awarded-to-maj-merlyn-dethlefsen/)\n- [https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/f105-wild-weasel-vs-sa2-guideline-sam-9781849084710/](https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/f105-wild-weasel-vs-sa2-guideline-sam-9781849084710/)\n- [https://www.thoughtco.com/vietnam-war-republic-f-105-thunderchief-2361076](https://www.thoughtco.com/vietnam-war-republic-f-105-thunderchief-2361076)\n- [https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a42178643/why-the-f-105-thunderchief-is-such-a-badass-plane/](https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a42178643/why-the-f-105-thunderchief-is-such-a-badass-plane/)\n- [https://substack.com/home/post/p-161855933?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web](https://substack.com/home/post/p-161855933?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/250114-D-LS763-1019_%2854267120727%29.jpg) by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Washington D.C, United States / openverse, by.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://megaprojects.pub/article/republic-f-105-thunderchief-jet-to-end-world.md canonical: https://megaprojects.pub/article/republic-f-105-thunderchief-jet-to-end-world datePublished: 2026-07-02 dateModified: 2026-07-02 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://megaprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: MegaProjects image: "https://media.megaprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=600,height=338,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/ehruThikotA/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: e6d9a5245e846d4db25766a4b6ad63689bb60aa65c11ce194f5cab3ded7daac5 tokens: 8331 summaryUrl: https://megaprojects.pub/article/republic-f-105-thunderchief-jet-to-end-world.md.summary.md --- ## Introduction At the height of the Cold War, nothing was more important than the question of nuclear war. If an all-out nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union was possible, then how could it be avoided? If it couldn't be avoided, how could it be won? And if it couldn't be won, in a final world war that would end with mutually assured destruction, then how could either side ensure that if it went down, then it was taking its sworn enemies down with it? In the bitterest, and most difficult moments of the Cold War, from the Cuban Missile Crisis, to the creation of the Berlin Wall, to the outbreak of the Vietnam War, the United States of America had one single answer to all of those questions. That answer, the key to America's own security and to the destruction of the Soviet Union, was the aircraft known as the Thunderchief. Capable of flying at double the speed of sound, and designed with the sole purpose of delivering nuclear apocalypse upon the Soviets, the F-105 represented a historic breakthrough in Cold War engineering. But unreliable, dangerous to fly, and trusted with the riskiest missions America's Air Force carried out, it was an aircraft that left a difficult and complex legacy. This is the story of the F-105 Thunderchief, the jet that was made to end the world. ## Design and Development The dawn of the global jet age was a time of rapid progress in military aviation. At the start of the 1940s, jet-powered aircraft were little more than a dream for any faction of World War II, but by the decade's end, the Soviets and the Americans were flying jets that regularly pushed against the sound barrier: the F-86 for Washington, and the MiG-15 for Moscow. By the mid-1950s, those jets had given way to even more powerful creations, aircraft that could shatter the sound barrier without issue: the MiG-17 and MiG-19 for the Soviets, and the Super Sabre, the Voodoo, the Delta Dagger, and the Fury for the Americans. It was a period in which all sides understood that innovation would proceed at a breakneck pace, that American and Soviet industry would churn out hundreds or even thousands of a given jet today, despite knowing full well that they'd be obsolete tomorrow. At a time when a slight miscalculation or an accidental encounter could lead to an all-out nuclear exchange, there was no price too high to ensure that each nation was ready for the worst-case scenario. At this time in American military aviation, any given aircraft could be expected to perform one of a few critical tasks. This was still about a decade off from the introduction of the first true American multirole fighter, the F-4 Phantom, and as a result, any new aircraft in development could be expected to perform one of a few key functions. Interceptors were tasked with confronting an incoming attack, timing a rendezvous with Soviet strategic bombers and bringing them down before they could lay waste to their targets on American soil. Dedicated fighter aircraft were meant to meet the fighter jets of their adversaries in tactical engagements, winning air-to-air battles that were typically part of a wider war. Carrier-based jets were meant to project American air power as best they could, using the runway space and limited munitions available to them at sea. Strategic bombers, meanwhile, were precisely what they sounded like. But the mission role that the Thunderchief would eventually fulfill, was that of a fighter-bomber: an aircraft with the required weapons, maneuverability, and other attributes to be able to bring down aerial adversaries, but an aircraft where the real objective was to deliver a bomb payload to a fixed target. Unlike strategic bombers, smaller fighter-bombers were expected to be able to deal with flying enemies themselves, thunder into contested airspace, and deliver precise attacks at low altitude. And in the case of the aircraft that America was looking for in the early 1950s, those precise attacks were to be of the nuclear variety. The Thunderchief was created by the Republic Aviation Corporation, a company that was founded in 1931 and would eventually be bought by Fairchild, the creator of the A-10 Thunderbolt. By the early fifties, Republic was already known for a highly successful fighter-bomber, the Thunderstreak, with nearly 3,500 copies built and distributed to America, Taiwan, Israel, and many nations of the NATO alliance. But as impressive as the Thunderstreak was, it was already on the verge of being outdated by the time it entered service in 1954, and Republic knew it. By then, Republic was already three years into designing the jet that would take over for the Thunderstreak, delivering previously impossible capabilities in the process. As the designers of this new aircraft saw it, the US Air Force was lacking a jet that was capable of performing high-speed, low-altitude nuclear bombing runs, deep into enemy territory. As such, they set out to design a jet that could do precisely that, trying to hit a precise balance between maximum speed, maximum flying range, and the required payload capacity to transport a nuclear warhead. The aircraft they designed would have to be survivable on long missions by itself, with minimal support from other aircraft and possibly no escorts of a different fighter type, with the structural stability to handle the aerodynamic challenges of low-altitude flight as it hugged the landscape. And when it came to self-defense, the fighter jet would have to be capable of one, out of two things. Either it would have to be able to dogfight, with the weapons capacity and maneuverability to face down the jets that would be coming to intercept it, or it would have to be able to outrun them, and ensure that a confrontation never happened at all. The Republic corporation chose the latter, and with that, the concept for the Thunderchief was born. When they were shown the idea a year later, the US Air Force were very happy to learn that such an aircraft had been designed, especially because of the lessons American pilots had learned from the Korean War. The Air Force promptly told Republic to stop any further work on the Thunderstreak, its previous fighter-bomber, and go full-bore on getting this new aircraft ready for service. It ultimately wouldn't be ready in time to help bring about a victory in Korea, but by 1954, the Air Force was ready to place its first order. By then, the new plane had been paired with a powerful engine that hadn't been available any earlier, and it had been given a designation, the F-105. It was the fifth aircraft produced as part of America's Century Series, and it would enter service alongside another fighter that had just taken to the skies for the first time, an interceptor known as the F-104 Starfighter. The process of actually building the F-105, would turn out to be a messy one. The first prototype would get off the ground for the first time in October of 1955, but it would quickly endure so much damage during testing that it was nearly unflyable. The second prototype had to be built with an inferior engine, as a copy of the new engine couldn't yet be spared. Both aircraft bore design elements that Republic already knew wouldn't carry over to the final product, and as a result, the prototypes were underwhelming, compared to what Republic had promised. But as one element after another was reworked, the Air Force was convinced that it could place its trust in the new aircraft anyway. Production orders started rolling in, the first few planes were handed over, and in the summer of 1957, the F-105 was designated the Thunderchief, the fourth fighter plane made by Republic to bear reference to thunder in its name. In 1959, the first squadron of Thunderchief aircraft finally went operational, out of a total 833 that would ultimately serve the United States. ## Specs and Capabilities The F-105 was modified into about a dozen variants over the course of its service life, some of which would be built, and others of which would be abandoned on the drawing board. The first major production run of the jets would produce the F-105B, in seventy-one copies that were phased out of frontline service by 1964. But the vast majority of Thunderchief aircraft were of the F-105D variant, and it's the capabilities of those aircraft that we'll focus on, when we dig into what the Thunderchief could do. The F-105 was a single-seat aircraft, and like so many aircraft of its day, it came with some strange physical proportions. Measuring at a length, tip to tail, of about sixty-four feet or nineteen and a half meters, the F-105's wingspan measured just thirty-five feet, or ten and a half meters. The aircraft utilized back-swept wings, angled at forty-five degrees, with a relatively large surface area for purposes of maneuverability. It flew with the aid of a single Pratt & Whitney J75 turbojet engine, complete with afterburners, capable of producing 26,500 pound-thrust of force when firing at maximum power. That engine was fed by a pair of air intakes, one at the leading edge of each wing, with fuel stored in three separate tanks inside the fuselage, plus the option to add up to four specialized tanks if extra range was required. Sitting empty, the F-105 weighed in at just shy of twenty-seven thousand pounds; that's a bit over twelve metric tons. But when fully loaded up, it could take off at nearly double that weight, maxing out at about twenty-four metric tons or fifty-three thousand pounds. When flying at altitude, the Thunderchief could hit top speeds of over twice the speed of sound, capping out a bit shy of 1,400 miles per hour, or 2,250 kilometers per hour. It could fly at altitudes of nearly fifteen kilometers or 49,000 feet, with an impressive combat range for its time, nearly eight hundred miles or well over twelve hundred kilometers. On one-way trips, including nuclear bombing runs where the pilot of a Thunderchief was realistically unlikely to escape detonation alive, the aircraft could travel some 2,200 miles without external fuel stores, or 3,500 kilometers. It could climb to altitudes of thirty-five thousand feet, or eleven kilometers, in under two minutes, although it was said to be capable of even faster climbs than that. It could receive air-to-air refueling through a side-fuselage boom, the only combat aircraft in US history to come with that particular feature. In terms of its armament, the Thunderchief could pack a fairly serious punch for its time, leveraging five external hardpoints in total, including four under the wings and one on the aircraft centerline. On those hardpoints, the F-105 could carry up to four rocket pods, launching seven rockets each, or several kinds of conventional bombs. When they became available, the aircraft could also mount missiles on the outer two pylons, including the air-to-air Sidewinder and the air-to-surface Bullpup. It also featured an internal weapons bay, where the F-105's ultimate payload was meant to be stored. Within the bomb bay, the aircraft could carry a single nuclear warhead, loaded up into one of a few kinds of bomb deliverables that were compatible with the aircraft's design. For close-range dogfighting and ground strafing, the aircraft was equipped with a six-barreled Gatling gun, with about a thousand rounds of ammunition carried onboard. In all, the maximum weapons payload of the F-105 was up to three times greater than that of the four-engine B-17 bomber of World War II, and considerably greater than that of the larger and much-improved bombers of the later war. Just as important was the F-105's avionics suite, as one of the first jet aircraft to integrate the types of onboard systems that would later become synonymous with modern fighter planes. In the case of the Thunderchief, those systems included a specialized ranging radar, allowing the aircraft to track itself and its surroundings mid-flight, as well as a proper fire control system. The radar was designed for terrain mapping and avoidance, still a very new feature to have on a combat jet, while the cockpit was designed for far better pilot utility than had been a feature of prior fighters. Meanwhile, the fire control system would do the hard work of figuring out precisely when to release the nuclear bomb that the Thunderchief was carrying, after the pilot identified the target via radar, and basically gave the plane approval to release a warhead at a position that the plane's onboard computers tracked thereafter. That meant that the Thunderchief could engage in a practice called toss-bombing, where the plane would pull up and release the onboard warhead in hopes that it would fly far enough, before detonation, that the pilot stood a chance at surviving. It also meant that if the pilot was under pressure from any number of possible external factors, the plane could be maneuvered and still release the onboard warhead at the right moment. When it was used in combat, the F-105 was meant to fly low and fast, skimming the landscape and hugging the ground as close as possible. Unlike nap-of-the-earth flight tactics that became popular later in the decade, when flying close to the ground was a good way to avoid enemy radar installations, the F-105's low-altitude flight was meant to exploit the limitations of enemy aircraft. At sea level, the Soviet Union's MiG-17 could only hit speeds of about 1,100 kilometers or 680 miles per hour, well below the sound barrier, while the MiG-19 and the MiG-21 could get past Mach 1, but not by much. In the thicker air at or near sea level, the Thunderchief was built to thrive, traveling a good deal faster than any of the Soviet planes that would have tried to stop it. So long as it had enough fuel to keep flying, the F-105 would have been all but impossible to intercept as it approached the targets for a nuclear bombing run, unless the aircraft that would try and interdict it, happened to be placed just perfectly. Even then, there were no guarantees that they'd survive an encounter with the F-105 once they got close. ## Operations and Legacy When the F-105 began its service life in the late 1950s, it entered a relatively peaceful phase of the Cold War. Korea had been split and ceded to each of the world's dueling superpowers, and although things were already ramping up in Vietnam, it would be half a decade before the large-scale bombing campaigns of the Johnson era. As such, America and its fighter pilots had ample time to get to know the F-105, but unfortunately for the Air Force and the Republic corporation, the result was not the warm reception that they had hoped. While the aircraft was undeniably powerful and well-suited to its role in theory, it proved to be difficult for its pilots to handle—in part, because it took off and landed at very high speeds, where the slightest error could lead to fireballs on the runway. Although the aircraft was aerodynamically suited to its role as a low-flying, fast aircraft, it was unwieldy when sitting in the cockpit, while its initial lack of an ejection seat didn't exactly inspire confidence. For the F-105D variant, the reception was hardly any better; it would be referred to, by its pilots and maintenance crews, as the Thud—widely understood to mean the noise the aircraft made when crashing into the ground. It would alternatively be called the Lead Sled, while its pilots used to helpfully explain that it could kill America's enemies in precisely three ways: Bombing them, strafing them, or crashing onto their heads. The plane was difficult to maintain, and was grounded repeatedly, while its reputation for in-flight disasters was well-known among those unfortunate enough to pilot it. Nor were those issues easily fixed; problems with the plane would persist well into the era when the D-variant had taken over combat operations. But after the F-105's pilots had a chance to really get comfortable with their aircraft, opinions on the Thunderchief slowly grew more favorable over time. The aircraft was fast as hell, it could drop explosive ordnance in amounts that would have been impossible on a jet of that size just a few years ago, and when pilots mastered its handling, it excelled at its low-and-fast mission as long as all of its parts remained attached. Not only that, but it improved steadily with time, as pointed pilot feedback led to the addition of better armor, better gun sights, electronic countermeasures, and more. It was hardened against water, which had been responsible for many early crashes as it found its way into the plane's internal systems, and it was standardized to fix many of the problems that made regular maintenance so difficult. As such, the Thunderchief and its pilots were poised to take a leading role in the Vietnam War when it first broke out, with the F-105 rapidly becoming the US Air Force's favored plane to carry out airstrikes. Between its large payload, its long range, and its optimization for ground-hugging attacks that offered greater precision in heavily forested areas, the Thunderchief was an ideal platform for the role. Yet unfortunately for both the F-105 and its pilots, the aircraft was only so potent as long as enemy MiGs didn't show up. Heavy, laden with ordnance, and limited in mobility, the F-105 was often a sitting duck when more nimble enemy aircraft showed up, especially considering that it could only carry a very small number of air-to-air missiles. Although F-105s often traveled with a fighter escort, MiG pilots who could hide until the last possible moment would quite frequently manage an attack of opportunity. They'd strike the Thunderchiefs while they flew in formation, before turning around and putting distance between themselves and the aircraft acting as escort. Not only that, but if America's adversaries could figure out in advance that Thunderchiefs were on the way, then anti-aircraft guns would reliably have a brief, but perfect window of opportunity to pelt massive, low-flying, bomb-laden aircraft with a hail of bullets face-first. When its hydraulic systems were hit, the F-105 tended to pitch downward almost immediately, and with the aircraft usually flying very low and very fast, that was a recipe for a rapid and unpreventable crash. Meanwhile, its fuel tanks were positioned too close to the hot engines, so that even minor shrapnel damage could cause fuel to leak and then ignite. Losses of the aircraft were common, although they did manage to get some of their own air-to-air kills in the process, primarily with their cannons in a time when air-to-air missiles were notoriously unreliable. But standard bombing runs weren't the only sort of attack that the F-105 could deliver. In the early days of America's involvement with Vietnam, pilots of the F-100 Super Sabre and the Navy's F-4 Skyhawk had started work on a new series of missions, known as the Wild Weasel. By all accounts, the Wild Weasel is one of those tactics that's best described as, "so crazy it just might work", although a pilot tasked with the mission would also be well within their right to describe them as, "absolutely insane". Around this time, North Vietnam had come into possession of surface-to-air missiles, used in air defense systems that were quite sophisticated for their time. Those missiles relied on ground-based radar to identify incoming aircraft, with missiles subsequently being launched to bring them down. The United States had a way to take out enemy radar: specifically, anti-radiation missiles that picked up on a source of radar emissions, and then treated that source as a target. The tough part, however, was that America was less interested in the standalone radar that tracked incoming aircraft, than they were in the radar that identified targets on behalf of the anti-air battery itself—and was, as a result, very near to where the missiles in question were located. But in order to stay hidden, those radar systems only activated when aircraft were inbound…and America's pilots could make that happen, by being the inbound aircraft in question. Basically, their job was to fly directly into known or suspected enemy air defenses, allow those air defenses to get a lock, and then destroy the source of radar emissions before they, themselves, were shot down. That job was precisely as dangerous as it sounded, and neither the F-100 nor the A-4 were suited to the task…but the F-105 was a far more potent tool. Before long, F-105 pilots were regularly running Wild Weasel attacks, relying on two-seater aircraft with a backseat electronic warfare officer who was in charge of pinpointing enemy air defenses, and warning the pilots about the locations of incoming missiles. Working in groups of four, the F-105s would bait North Vietnamese air defense systems, then swoop in with heavy weapons as quickly as possible. As such, it was the job of one lucky F-105 pilot to make themselves as obvious and as tasty as possible for North Vietnamese SAM crews. If all went well, that pilot would be able to dodge incoming missiles or otherwise avoid them, but to say that the mission was dangerous, would be an incredible understatement. Pilots in this role would be deployed to fly for either a year, or a hundred missions, whichever came first, and about seventy-five percent of pilots ultimately made it to the finish line. Quite a few would fall victim to so-called "ninety-ninth mission syndrome", where a combination of fatigue, eagerness to get home, and more dangerous missions for more experienced pilots, led them to be shot down just before they would have gone home. Despite their success in Wild Weasel operations, the F-105 proved to be relatively ineffective in most other roles during the Vietnam War. While their in-flight attributes made them a potent weapon in the right circumstances, Vietnam simply wasn't the right circumstances, and with more capable aircraft like the F-4 Phantom able to take on most of the airstrike role of the F-105, it was largely phased out by the midpoint of the war. Some of the aircraft, particularly the ones purpose-built for Wild Weasel missions, would continue through to the war's end, but they were a rare sight in the later years of the conflict. Once America's involvement in Vietnam concluded, and the Air Force had an excuse to get the Thunderchief off the front lines permanently, they did exactly that. By the time that the F-105 left service, nearly half of the 833 copies produced had been lost in Vietnam, including three hundred and thirty-four that were brought down by the forces of North Vietnam directly. To this day, it is the only American warplane ever to be taken out of service early, because of the sheer number of aircraft that were lost. That wasn't all; by the time that the aircraft left service completely, over six hundred had been lost for some reason or another, nearly three-fourths of the entire production line. Although those loss rates were partly attributable to bad luck, in that the F-105 had ended up fighting in a conflict that was very different than the one it was designed for, luck didn't account for all of it…or anything close. The aircraft had been built with such a narrow mission focus that it lacked any real operational versatility, in a way that made it unsuitable for a complex warfighting environment. It was versatile in some ways, in that it could carry many different sorts of ordinance based on the mission, but it flew too much like a bomber for it to be very much use in a dogfight. For its 334 losses to North Vietnamese forces, it claimed just twenty-seven and a half kills of MiG fighter aircraft. Not only that, but its high rate of malfunctions and in-flight accidents contributed to an even higher loss rate than it otherwise would have endured. Although Vietnam presented opportunities, like Wild Weasel operations, where the F-105's narrow capabilities could be adapted to a new mission set, its adaptability only went so far as America's ability to find new ways for the Thunderchief to do the same old thing. Trusting the aircraft with a new task, simply didn't go well. As such, the legacy of the Thunderchief can charitably be described as rather mixed, although whether many of its pilots felt like being charitable after having flown the thing, is a different question. Like so many combat aircraft, it's judged for its performance in a war that was fundamentally unlike the war for which it was intended, and it's impossible to know how the Thunderchief would have performed, if entrusted with the missions of nuclear destruction for which it was made. But it never flew those missions, and the missions it did fly, it flew at substantial risk to its pilots, and thus to the war effort. Making matters worse, it flew primarily in what would go down as failed campaigns, as part of a failed war, and as a result, their reputation was tied forever to a difficult period in American military aviation. By the end of its service life, many of the pilots who'd survived flying it, would sing its praises for decades…but that love from the people who knew it best, ultimately wasn't enough to ensure the Thunderchief's place in history. ## Key Takeaways - The F-105 Thunderchief was designed during the Cold War to deliver nuclear payloads. - The aircraft was capable of flying at twice the speed of sound and carrying a nuclear warhead. - Despite its powerful capabilities, the F-105 was unreliable and dangerous to fly. - The Thunderchief saw extensive use in the Vietnam War, particularly in Wild Weasel missions. - Nearly half of the 833 F-105s produced were lost in Vietnam, leading to its early retirement. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What was the primary mission of the F-105 Thunderchief? The F-105 Thunderchief was designed to deliver nuclear apocalypse upon the Soviets, capable of flying at double the speed of sound and performing high-speed, low-altitude nuclear bombing runs deep into enemy territory. ### Who designed and built the F-105 Thunderchief? The F-105 Thunderchief was created by the Republic Aviation Corporation, which was later bought by Fairchild, the creator of the A-10 Thunderbolt. ### What were the key specifications of the F-105D variant? The F-105D variant had a length of about sixty-four feet, a wingspan of thirty-five feet, and could reach speeds of over twice the speed of sound. It had a combat range of nearly eight hundred miles and could carry a significant weapons payload. ### What challenges did the F-105 face during its service life? The F-105 was difficult to handle, had a high rate of malfunctions and in-flight accidents, and was vulnerable to enemy aircraft and anti-aircraft defenses. It was also criticized for its lack of operational versatility. ### What was the 'Wild Weasel' mission and how did the F-105 contribute to it? The 'Wild Weasel' mission involved flying directly into known or suspected enemy air defenses to destroy the source of radar emissions. The F-105 was adapted for this role, with two-seater aircraft carrying an electronic warfare officer to pinpoint enemy air defenses. ### How did the F-105 perform in the Vietnam War? The F-105 was effective in Wild Weasel operations but struggled in other roles due to its vulnerability to enemy aircraft and anti-aircraft defenses. It was largely phased out by the midpoint of the war. ### What was the legacy of the F-105 Thunderchief? The legacy of the F-105 Thunderchief is mixed. It was praised by pilots who survived flying it but was criticized for its high loss rate and lack of operational versatility. It was the only American warplane ever taken out of service early due to the number of aircraft lost. ### What were some of the nicknames given to the F-105 by its pilots? The F-105 was nicknamed the 'Thud' and the 'Lead Sled' by its pilots, reflecting its reputation for being difficult to handle and prone to crashes. ### How many F-105s were produced and how many were lost? A total of 833 F-105s were produced. Nearly half were lost in Vietnam, and over six hundred were lost for various reasons, making it the only American warplane to be taken out of service early due to losses. ### What was the significance of the F-105 in the context of the Cold War? The F-105 was seen as a key to America's security and the destruction of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It represented a historic breakthrough in Cold War engineering but left a difficult and complex legacy due to its reliability issues and high loss rate. ## Sources - [Original MegaProjects video: Republic F-105 Thunderchief: The Jet to End the World.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehruThikotA) - [https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196054/republic-f-105d-thunderchief/](https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196054/republic-f-105d-thunderchief/) - [https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/republic-f-105d-thunderchief/nasm_A19820064000](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/republic-f-105d-thunderchief/nasm_A19820064000) - [https://www.hickoryaviationmuseum.org/aircraft/republic-f-105-thunderchief/](https://www.hickoryaviationmuseum.org/aircraft/republic-f-105-thunderchief/) - [https://www.sacmuseum.org/visit/exhibit/f-105-thunderchief/](https://www.sacmuseum.org/visit/exhibit/f-105-thunderchief/) - [https://museumofaviation.org/portfolio/f-105d-thunderchief/](https://museumofaviation.org/portfolio/f-105d-thunderchief/) - [https://sandiegoairandspace.org/collection/item/f-105f-collection](https://sandiegoairandspace.org/collection/item/f-105f-collection) - [https://simpleflying.com/republic-thunderchief-fighter-bomber-facts-list/](https://simpleflying.com/republic-thunderchief-fighter-bomber-facts-list/) - [https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-the-u-s-air-force-learned-to-love-the-f-105-thunderchief](https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-the-u-s-air-force-learned-to-love-the-f-105-thunderchief) - [https://www.si.edu/object/republic-f-105d-thunderchief%3Anasm_A19820064000](https://www.si.edu/object/republic-f-105d-thunderchief%3Anasm_A19820064000) - [https://nuke.fas.org/guide/usa/airdef/f-105.htm](https://nuke.fas.org/guide/usa/airdef/f-105.htm) - [https://theaviationgeekclub.com/heres-f-105-dubbed-thud/](https://theaviationgeekclub.com/heres-f-105-dubbed-thud/) - [https://www.combatairmuseum.org/aircraft/republicf105thunderchief.html](https://www.combatairmuseum.org/aircraft/republicf105thunderchief.html) - [https://www.airvectors.net/avf105.html](https://www.airvectors.net/avf105.html) - [https://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/republic_thunderchief.php](https://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/republic_thunderchief.php) - [https://www.slashgear.com/1582856/differences-between-f-105-and-mig-19-fighter-jets/](https://www.slashgear.com/1582856/differences-between-f-105-and-mig-19-fighter-jets/) - [https://www.historynet.com/why-pilots-loved-the-f-105-thud-despite-its-vulnerability/](https://www.historynet.com/why-pilots-loved-the-f-105-thud-despite-its-vulnerability/) - [https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/f-105-thunderchief-fighter-bomber-f-35-vietnam-war-180367](https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/f-105-thunderchief-fighter-bomber-f-35-vietnam-war-180367) - [https://theaviationgeekclub.com/thud-drivers-former-f-105-pilots-explain-what-it-was-like-flying-the-mighty-thud-in-peace-and-war/](https://theaviationgeekclub.com/thud-drivers-former-f-105-pilots-explain-what-it-was-like-flying-the-mighty-thud-in-peace-and-war/) - [https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197447/f-105f-thud-wild-weasels-and-rolling-thunder/](https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197447/f-105f-thud-wild-weasels-and-rolling-thunder/) - [https://theaviationgeekclub.com/thud-vs-sams-f-105f-wild-weasel-operation-rolling-thunder/](https://theaviationgeekclub.com/thud-vs-sams-f-105f-wild-weasel-operation-rolling-thunder/) - [https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-of-the-wild-weasel-mission-of-f-105f-lincoln-03-and-the-medal-of-honor-awarded-to-maj-merlyn-dethlefsen/](https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-of-the-wild-weasel-mission-of-f-105f-lincoln-03-and-the-medal-of-honor-awarded-to-maj-merlyn-dethlefsen/) - [https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/f105-wild-weasel-vs-sa2-guideline-sam-9781849084710/](https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/f105-wild-weasel-vs-sa2-guideline-sam-9781849084710/) - [https://www.thoughtco.com/vietnam-war-republic-f-105-thunderchief-2361076](https://www.thoughtco.com/vietnam-war-republic-f-105-thunderchief-2361076) - [https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a42178643/why-the-f-105-thunderchief-is-such-a-badass-plane/](https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a42178643/why-the-f-105-thunderchief-is-such-a-badass-plane/) - [https://substack.com/home/post/p-161855933?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web](https://substack.com/home/post/p-161855933?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/250114-D-LS763-1019_%2854267120727%29.jpg) by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Washington D.C, United States / openverse, by. ## Related Coverage