F-100 Super Sabre

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LJS1993

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LJ Savala
Well guys today I saw something very cool that I think you guys will appreciate. A newer Buick with a bumper sticker reading "My other ride used to be a Super Sabre". It was an older gentlemen so I assume he was perhaps a Vietnam era pilot of this very awesome aircraft. How awesome is this guys? The old guys who loved speed and danger are just hardcore man.
 
LJS1993 said:
Awesome though Henning!!! Truly awesome are those older jets and the guys that flew them. They just seemed so much more rough on the edges then the newer jets.
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They had places that an inexperienced guy could go and never come back from, which is thankfully not as common today. You can still hamfist a modern fighter into the dirt, but they are more forgiving. What hasn't changed are the things that have always and will always make up the majority of fatal mishaps in the fighter community. Specifically midairs, CFIT, and to some extent G-LOC. But mostly midairs or flying into the ground.
 
35 AoA said:
They had places that an inexperienced guy could go and never come back from, which is thankfully not as common today. You can still hamfist a modern fighter into the dirt, but they are more forgiving. What hasn't changed are the things that have always and will always make up the majority of fatal mishaps in the fighter community. Specifically midairs, CFIT, and to some extent G-LOC. But mostly midairs or flying into the ground.
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Yes that's what makes them so appealing.
 
I think you're missing the point that the sticker was on a Buick. I'm pretty sure there was an old Buick model informally called a Super Sabre.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
I think you're missing the point that the sticker was on a Buick. I'm pretty sure there was an old Buick model informally called a Super Sabre.
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The Buick was a LeSabre, and they didn't do stickers back then, they were bolted emblems.;)
 
Jeff Oslick said:
I think you're missing the point that the sticker was on a Buick. I'm pretty sure there was an old Buick model informally called a Super Sabre.
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Nope, but there was a Buick Super. A loooong time ago. Same general vintage as my old 1954 Buick Special, IIRC. :D

And the F-100 was a great looking bird.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
I think you're missing the point that the sticker was on a Buick. I'm pretty sure there was an old Buick model informally called a Super Sabre.
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Nice try but that was the LeSABRE. Not to mention it was obviously about the aircraft as it had a silhouette of the plane. Unless Buick made planes back in the day. :rofl:
 
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LJS1993 said:
Nice try but that was the LeSABRE. Not to mention it was obviously about the aircraft as it had a silhouette of the plane. Unless Buick made planes back in the day. :rofl:
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The Liberty L-12 and L-8 aircraft engines were Buicks, and in WWII they produced the P&W R-2800 and Allison 1710.;)
 
Have some friends who flew Misty FAC missions in Vietnam in the Hun. Doubt any of them would be seen in a Buick. ;)

Cheers
 
My father flew them in the Air Force, late 1950s through early 1960s.
Last year he received an FAA Master Pilot Award for 50 years of flying, but he has had his license since 1958, so it has been 55 years.
 

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LJS1993 said:
Yes that's what makes them so appealing.
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Oh yeah, I'm not arguing that.....the F-100 is probably the sexiest jet the USAF ever flew (or maybe the Phantom). Just saying I don't think they were inherently more dangerous than what we have today. That said, those fine Americans did a whole lot more with a whole lot less than we ever did. I respect that, and they did have big brass ones for going where they did with a single engine, a TACAN, and a bunch of GP bombs and a grease pen.
 
Swiveling wind tee, St. Maries, Idaho (S72):

SAM_0353.JPG
 
bluee said:
My father flew them in the Air Force, late 1950s through early 1960s.
Last year he received an FAA Master Pilot Award for 50 years of flying, but he has had his license since 1958, so it has been 55 years.
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What a cool photo. Thanks for this.
 
bluee said:
My father flew them in the Air Force, late 1950s through early 1960s.
Last year he received an FAA Master Pilot Award for 50 years of flying, but he has had his license since 1958, so it has been 55 years.
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Awesome!!!!!!!!
 
35 AoA said:
Oh yeah, I'm not arguing that.....the F-100 is probably the sexiest jet the USAF ever flew (or maybe the Phantom). Just saying I don't think they were inherently more dangerous than what we have today. That said, those fine Americans did a whole lot more with a whole lot less than we ever did. I respect that, and they did have big brass ones for going where they did with a single engine, a TACAN, and a bunch of GP bombs and a grease pen.
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Now you describe it perfectly!!! Sexy is the right word I was looking for.
 
35 AoA said:
Oh yeah, I'm not arguing that.....the F-100 is probably the sexiest jet the USAF ever flew (or maybe the Phantom). Just saying I don't think they were inherently more dangerous than what we have today. That said, those fine Americans did a whole lot more with a whole lot less than we ever did. I respect that, and they did have big brass ones for going where they did with a single engine, a TACAN, and a bunch of GP bombs and a grease pen.
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F-100 was definitely sexy, there was nothing sexy about the Phantom, it was pure evil lol. I remember as a kid being in a valley behind my Grandma's in Germany when a pair of Phantoms came over the pass ridge at one end dropping in nap of the earth, over me and my cousins and out the other side. They are the embodiment of Death coming after you, especially with the black smoke they poured out, and if the looks weren't enough, the sound would seal the deal.
 
F-4's were called the Rhino for good reasons. Big, ugly, hell for stout and very dangerous to anybody who wished to do them some harm.

Cheers
 
How did bombers navigate to targets in Vietnam?

Was it TACAN in the South and near the border, and then pilotage and dead reckoning beyond the range of the TACAN?
 
NoHeat said:
How did bombers navigate to targets in Vietnam?

Was it TACAN in the South and near the border, and then pilotage and dead reckoning beyond the range of the TACAN?
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From my understanding they used doppler nav systems a lot. Basically terrain radar that kept track of the aircraft's position. Surprisingly accurate

Also a lot of work done with controllers and radar vectoring.
 
NoHeat said:
How did bombers navigate to targets in Vietnam?

Was it TACAN in the South and near the border, and then pilotage and dead reckoning beyond the range of the TACAN?
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With a Garmin 496 mounted on the dash. Current database was crucial. :D
 
Velocity173 said:
With a Garmin 496 mounted on the dash. Current database was crucial. :D
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You joke about that. That's exactly how I flew the B-52H as of 3 years ago. No s--t, a 496 with Wx subscription on top of the glareshield. For "SA only" of course, but a hell of a lot better than that craptastic radar they haven't upgraded in too many years. It'll be a neat story to tell the grandkids, but I don't miss flying that outdated PoS.

I do envy those fighter old timers. Flying pointy-nosers in a political environment more focused on hacking the mission than sexual assault prevention training, qweepy ancillary duties or a general emasculation of the military in order to appease the female gender. These old timers had it good, even with flakier turbojet equipment. It's all timing and luck; that much I've learned about life so far.

Agreed on the sexy count. Considering the lack of CFD/FEM/CAD/CAM equipment to flight test and produce these things, they are works of art compared to the new generation fighters. Not to say a Viper or Typhoon aren't just as sexy as a hot naked lady flying through the sky, but there's something about the polished finish of the classic Sabre that just gives it an artistic value.
 
hindsight2020 said:
You joke about that. That's exactly how I flew the B-52H as of 3 years ago. No s--t, a 496 with Wx subscription on top of the glareshield. For "SA only" of course, but a hell of a lot better than that craptastic radar they haven't upgraded in too many years. It'll be a neat story to tell the grandkids, but I don't miss flying that outdated PoS.

I do envy those fighter old timers. Flying pointy-nosers in a political environment more focused on hacking the mission than sexual assault prevention training, qweepy ancillary duties or a general emasculation of the military in order to appease the female gender. These old timers had it good, even with flakier turbojet equipment. It's all timing and luck; that much I've learned about life so far.

Agreed on the sexy count. Considering the lack of CFD/FEM/CAD/CAM equipment to flight test and produce these things, they are works of art compared to the new generation fighters. Not to say a Viper or Typhoon aren't just as sexy as a hot naked lady flying through the sky, but there's something about the polished finish of the classic Sabre that just gives it an artistic value.
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Yep, that's exactly what we used in Afghanistan in UH-60s. Although we couldn't afford the XM weather upgrade. :D We flew so much that after awhile we had the place memorized and didn't even turn the thing on. Plus it didn't have ROZs depicted so it wasn't of much use anyway.
 
dell30rb said:
From my understanding they used doppler nav systems a lot. Basically terrain radar that kept track of the aircraft's position. Surprisingly accurate

Also a lot of work done with controllers and radar vectoring.
Click to expand...

How would that work exactly and how complex would navigation be by that method?
 
LJS1993 said:
How would that work exactly and how complex would navigation be by that method?
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Some older aircraft had INS with either internal gyros or Doppler radar or combination of both. Prior to GPS the UH-60 had Doppler. Basically an attenna on the bottom that sends radar down. It's measuring the velocity over the ground. Combined with the roll, pitch and heading information from either the gyros or AHARS in the nose, it can provide a fairly acurrate position. Over time your position starts to get off so you either had to update the system with a known point in flight or update at the next destination on landing. Nowadays most dopplers are updated by GPS but they still retain navigation capability if the GPS signal should get blocked or scrambled.

Some tactical aircraft use radar mapping of the terrain ahead as well. I'm sure Ron can describe how that worked on the A-6.
 
From what I understand the F-100's had neither system, they did use dead reckoning quite a bit in Vietnam. But they usually accompanied F-105's and, most of those guys had a combination doppler/inertial nav system.
 
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Henning said:
F-100 was definitely sexy, there was nothing sexy about the Phantom, it was pure evil lol. I remember as a kid being in a valley behind my Grandma's in Germany when a pair of Phantoms came over the pass ridge at one end dropping in nap of the earth, over me and my cousins and out the other side. They are the embodiment of Death coming after you, especially with the black smoke they poured out, and if the looks weren't enough, the sound would seal the deal.
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++1!!
:eek:
 
Velocity173 said:
Yep, that's exactly what we used in Afghanistan in UH-60s. Although we couldn't afford the XM weather upgrade. :D We flew so much that after awhile we had the place memorized and didn't even turn the thing on. Plus it didn't have ROZs depicted so it wasn't of much use anyway.
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XM wouldn't have worked in Afghanistan anyway.;)
 
NoHeat said:
How did bombers navigate to targets in Vietnam?

Was it TACAN in the South and near the border, and then pilotage and dead reckoning beyond the range of the TACAN?
Click to expand...

There was a LORAN-C net operated by the USCG that covered the area as well. The Master station was on Con Son island off the southern coast and the two slaves were in Thailand.
 
Probably some of the old timers can comment more, but some of the newer jets of that era had INS. I'd be surprised if the Hun did, but I believe later variants of the F-4 and F-105G did. I could be wrong. Modern fighters all do, though normally with some form of GPS aided updating. There are a whole bunch of ways you can update an INS and keep it pretty tight however, even without GPS (radar, moving map/wypt, Tacan, etc). That and strap down laser ring gyro units (the norm nowadays) have much smaller drift over time. I know my old man told me stories about seeing the RA-5C guys plugged into the ship with the SINS cable attached for like a full hour prior to getting a good alignment and being able to launch. Speaking of which, I remember flying in the 'Bo with him a number of years ago, and out of curiosity, I fired up the LORAN-C receiver he has in it. It somehow seemed excited, like that old toy that some little kid had kicked to the corner years ago, that someone had finally brought back out.......like "oh hey there, would you like to know where you are? absolutely I can do that" and it was still pretty accurate, even after all the years.....he said he hadn't even turned it on in more than a decade.
 
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Henning said:
The Buick was a LeSabre, and they didn't do stickers back then, they were bolted emblems.;)
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Yes, at one point in the 1960s my Dad had a Buick Wildcat. All it took was two nuts under the trunk lid and I turned it into a Buick Mildcat. He didn't notice for a few months.....:goofy:

-Skip
 
LJS1993 said:
Well guys today I saw something very cool that I think you guys will appreciate. A newer Buick with a bumper sticker reading "My other ride used to be a Super Sabre". It was an older gentlemen so I assume he was perhaps a Vietnam era pilot of this very awesome aircraft. How awesome is this guys? The old guys who loved speed and danger are just hardcore man.
Click to expand...


Collings Foundation at EFD has one in their hangar... I'm going to get up close and personal very very soon.
 
35 AoA said:
They had places that an inexperienced guy could go and never come back from, which is thankfully not as common today. You can still hamfist a modern fighter into the dirt, but they are more forgiving. What hasn't changed are the things that have always and will always make up the majority of fatal mishaps in the fighter community. Specifically midairs, CFIT, and to some extent G-LOC. But mostly midairs or flying into the ground.
Click to expand...

Funny none of those reasons got the guys we picked up "up north" (Jolly Greens). I think enemy fire is another reason. They weren't fatal though so your description may be correct.
 
ebetancourt said:
Funny none of those reasons got the guys we picked up "up north" (Jolly Greens). I think enemy fire is another reason. They weren't fatal though so your description may be correct.
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Oh absolutely. What those guys (and you) went up against in the sky over Vietnam is probably without modern day comparison.....maybe the opening nights/days of the Gulf War, but obviously that was on a much shorter timeline. And that is certainly a risk to life and limb that has been unique to this era of fighter compared to the rest of us. Big brass ones. No question about that!
 
Threefingeredjack said:
There was a LORAN-C net operated by the USCG that covered the area as well. The Master station was on Con Son island off the southern coast and the two slaves were in Thailand.
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One of the things about the USCG most people fail to realize is their involvement in every military conflict the US has been in doing their job right along side the other 4 branches of the service.
Semper Paradus!
And thank you!
 
ebetancourt said:
Funny none of those reasons got the guys we picked up "up north" (Jolly Greens). I think enemy fire is another reason. They weren't fatal though so your description may be correct.
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I'd consider enemy fire a 'mid air'...;)
 
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