The 100 Series 1:48- F-100 , F-104 , F-105 .

[Vinalssergio155]

They look great. So many planes got that sad nickname that I don't remember at all.

[hyair]

Dear Sergio - a list of Widow makers (not full) :
1. B26 Maruder of WW2
2. F7u -3 Cutlass 25% of fleet desroyed in 3 years only
3. F3h Demon - many pilots died !
4.F-8 Crusader - out of 1200 built 1100 had mishaps
5.Mig 21- high landing speed of 340 kph half crashed in India.
6. F-104 Starfighter - 116 Pilots died in West Germany !!!
7. Super Sabre - Very bad landing and snake dance destroyed many !!!
8. Super Mystere IAF - High attrition rate due to poor engine !!!
9.Mig -19 - tendency to blow up in mid air called nasty by Soviet pilots
10. De havilend Comet - structural fuselage problem that lead to many crashes during comercial flights in early models - fixed only with the Comet 4 version.
11. Super Marine Simittar - half Crashed in 8 years of service 76 were built -37 crashed.

Yair

[Vinalssergio155]

And there are several more to add to this list.

[hyair]

The F-105 together with the F-4 Phantom are the two more significant american fighters of the Vietnam war.
When the war started only the Phantom was in production among the two. The F-105 loses in Vietnam are 395 for all reasons including the wild weasel planes.
The F-105 was flying each and every day against the most defended targets ever built !!!
Some images of the Geli model that represent one of the B type prototypes.

Yair

[hyair]

The F-105 was the main bomber in Vietnam in the rolling thunder campaign between 1965 - 68. Each day the Thud was carring it's bomb load faster than any other plane including the Phantom and dropped it on the most heavily defended anti aircraft guns and SAM 2 missiles array ever built.But not only guns and missiles were awaiting the Thud.
The main fighter of Vietnamese was the Mig -17. The plane length was 11.4 meter vs 19.2 of the thud. The big advantage of the Mig -17 was it's small turn rate which was better than any other fighter at that time. So the only tactic that the Thud could do was to relay opon his much better speed and not getting involved in tight turns dogfight.
The Thud killed 28 mig -17's almost all with M-61 6 barrel guttling gun ! with a giant drum of 1069 20mm gun shells. A small burst was only needed for a kill.
Only 3 Mig -17's were killed by Sidewinders missiles !
Again at low level the Thud was the fastest plane and the Phantom was always lagging behind when escorting.
Toward 1972 only a small number remained in service until the war end in late 1972.

Yair

[Vinalssergio155]

A formidable cannon, a few well-directed shots are more than enough to cause much damage.

[hyair]

The Mig -21 was started to appear in North Vietnam by mid 1966. It was less agile than the Mig -17 but much faster with much higher rate of climb. The standard weapon was two Atoll missiles which were a Russian copy of the Sidewinder. The Mig -21 used to dive in speed of mach 1.5 and release the Atoll's from behind the F-105 and in this way they damaged and had a few kills of F-105's. The Thud is only credited with 28 Mig-17's but no Mig-21 was reported as a confirmed kill for the F-105 !!!

Yair

[hyair]

The F-105 was rhe main USAF attack -bomber aircraft in North Vietnam during the rolling thunder operation 1965 -1968. The missions over NV were very costly as 395 Thuds were shut down by AA guns fire ranging from 23 37 57 85 100 mm to SA-2 surface to air missiles.
The Thud could fly with 6 x 700 lb bomb load at tree top level at a speed of 600 knots and after bomb release was supersonic with after burner lit.
The Thud had 3 big weaknesses - the long fuselage of 20 meter was a big target to the AA gunners when flying at low level. If the hidraulic system got hit the plane become incontrollabile and the pilot had to eject. Also the weapon system was not very precise and
a repeated attacks were needed to destroy a target.
The A-7 Corsair could carry more bombs to longer range and put these bombs very precisely on the target and in one pass the target was destroyed. In operation Linebaker II in 1972 it performed very well and had very accurate bombing results . It was not as speedy as the Thud in low level but was good for some 540 knots. Only 54 were shut down in Vietnam which proved that speed is not the ultimate factor alone while attacking.
As an attack aircraft the A-7 had a clear advantage over the Thud because of the reasons above but it was also newer modern design with much more sofisticated electronic equipment and HUD (head up display ) system.

Yair

[hyair]

Some images of the two - the Thud is the much bigger plane and is longer and sleeker and pointed than the "SLUF"- short little ugly fellow ! - unofficial A7 name. The A7 is GPM while the F-105 is from Geli both in 1:48 scale.

Yair

[Don Boose]

Although I haven't commented much, I have been enjoying your informative narratives accompanied by your excellent models and the comparisons among aircraft.

Don