North American F-100D Super Sabre

The F-100D was widely used in Vietnam. A typical mission found the F-100D approaching the target at very low altitude at approximately 500 mph. The pilot would then elevate the nose of the aircraft by using a 4G pull up. Partway into the "toss" maneuver, the computer would automatically release the bomb.

The F-100D was equipped with a Minneapolis-Honeywell MB-3 automatic pilot. This device provided the capability to allow the pilot to work with both hands on maps reading or weapons arming while the F-100D flew itself to the target. While flying in formation with other aircraft, the autopilot was not used. By the early 'sixties, the F-100D had been subjected to so many in-service modifications to correct its obvious deficiencies that no two F-100Ds were identical. Over five hundred were lost in accidents between mid-1956 and mid-1970, far more than were lost in combat in Vietnam.

Photo 177, Udvar-Hazy Center, 2013

North American F-100 Super Sabre

Photo f100, New England Air Museum, 2001