[sci.military] Thunderbird aircraft

welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty) (06/05/90)

From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)

[i realize that the posting i'm following up is a month old, but
i just re-entered this group after some time off -- rpw]

In article <15657@cbnews.ATT.COM>, Duane P Mantick writes: 
*Possibly more interesting than this switch was a previous one.  It has
*been my understanding that the Thunderbirds flew F105 Thunderchief for
*all of about 6 performances inbetween flavors of the F100 Supersabre
*(going from C models to D models, methinks).  I never saw any of
*those shows with the F105, but I'll bet that was one loud bird!

indeed, the thunderbirds flew the F-105B for a very short time.
one of the aircraft crashed, and due to safety concerns, they
switched back to F-100s.

according to Jack Broughton's recent book, _Going Downtown_,
the F-105B that crashed had suffered major structural damage
before it was sent to the thunderbirds, and the depot that
processed the aircraft before the aerobatic team got it screwed
up and failed to correlate the records -- the plane that crashed
should have been retired, not given to an aerobatic team.

richard
-- 
richard welty         518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
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