My uncle flew F-105's during the Vietnam War, he was shot down during a mission but thankfully he was rescued by a Jolly Green rescue helo. When the Wings channel was still on I would watch it all the time and when they did the episode on Combat Rescue Helicopters of the Vietnam War, my uncle was featured in the last 10 or 15 minutes which showed how difficult his rescue was due to him suffering a serious back injury. The PJ had to go down into the jungle to help him due to his injuries with the Viet Cong closing in on them.
Impressive story, and I'm glad he made it. I was navy, so you'll have to allow me a bit of ignorance here, but my great uncle also flew in 'Nam. He began in WWII flying a B-17, the "Axis Ass Ache" with the 9th out of Tunisia. Flew in Korea, though I don't know what (we weren't real close -- he was always deployed). Close support with TAC, I do know that. Flew F-89s in the later '50s, then deployed to 'Nam initially in F-105s. My grandma, his sister, said she could hear the relief in his voice when his unit transitioned to F-4s. He was a colonel at the time and commanded a squadron or a wing -- my navy ignorance showing -- and retired in 74 or 75 as a major general. As far as I know, he was never shot down, though his B-17 did make a hard landing after being shot up on a mission, and never flew again. Amazing career, spanning the eras from piston-engine bombers to high performance jets with some early computerization. Tech moves so fast anymore that its an exceptional flier who can keep up.
One day on our way back to the Tonkin Gulf after a worthless temporary expedition to North Korean coastal waters following the USS Pueblo hijack, we towed a floating target for a flight of USAF Thuds with gattling gun pods strapped on the centerline weapons pylon. Took time off from our aircraft maintenance work on the flight deck to watch these beautifully mean-looking machines dive and strafe. It was a treat remembered over the past 53 years! USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14).
My Dad was a Air Craft Fabricator in the 60's for Fairchild Hiller in Farmingdale building the F 105S. I remember waiting in the parking lot at 12:00 in the morning with my Mom to pick up my Dad after work. Great times I will always remember.
Another GREAT video. Only 20 years between P47 and F105 and it retired in 1983. Amazing company. Delta Darts, Phantoms and Thunderchiefs are the best looking fighters from the fifties IMO. Thank you for your time and dedication!
Much nostalgia! I was 18 days old when FH-099 made its first flight.😊 So, of course, the F-105 was very familiar to me through my childhood and teen years.
Used to watch these take off and land from the fence line runway end of McGuire AFB in mid 60s. NOISY ! All were camo painted ! Mostly F105s and C141s.
Thanks for this great video Mike. It was my privilege to work on the F-105B, D and F models for ten years in the USAF and ANG. It was easy to maintain and a big impressive bird.
Appreciate your well chosen high quality photos with rich comments to match, which bring back exquisite memories from your Wings & Airpower magazine days caping off with a silent background. Can't ask for more!
The pylons were built at a small firm in west l.a. my friends father Irv worked there. I visited the factory in the early 60s and was amazed at the size of them for a child and that they went on a airplane.
FH-107 has survived and is on display at the Hickory Aviation Museum, Hickory N.C. Also, if you look at the picture on the museum website, the red trim was added for a cold weather test program carried out in Alaska.
I always loved the F-105, so much that I bought when I was young the lovely Monogram two seater scale 1/48!! I never saw this airplane but I was impressed how big it was just comparing this model to my other models including the P-47 that was dwarfed, almost like compared it with the old Fiat 500 and the Cadillac Eldorado! Very interesting video with really nice selection photos 👍👍! Looking forward to your new videos....
Really enjoy your videos Mike and always loved the look of the 105. As a kid I'd see it on static display and doing a flying routine at the Pease AFB open house circa early 70s.
Early aviation had some really beautiful designs. Thanks for bringing this video to you tube. I really appreciate, and enjoyed it. It's a nice salute to our history in aviation.
My only association with F-105s is from my time at Korat AFB, Thailand with the Wild Weasels. That plane had the most awesome afterburner light off. They'd run up to power and hit AB, and there'd be a half second of silence and then BOOM!
Another awesome presentation, love your choice of subject matter- I’m pretty familiar with F-105 but a lot of this early production story was new to me and very interesting!! Very well illustrated, too, which is no surprise-
Appreciate the comment, thanks. After a lifetime of collecting archival photos, it's a priviledge sharing them now with all my wonderful RUclips viewers!
Thanks, and great to have you aboard! 'Started the channel May 1, 2020 after being laid-off a Museum Curatorship job due to COVID. Had no idea it would be this much fun!
The last JF-105 with its Reconnaissance package is at Lackland AFB's Airmans Heritage Museum, just past the MOB Barracks. It is painted in its Razzle Dazzle paint scheme. If you ever want to see it in person contact the Airmans Heritage Museum's Curator Mr. Fernando Cortez after the lockdown, the museum has also an F-105D which is displayed at the base Parade Grounds behind the base headquarters building in the Southeast Asia Airpark (parked next to the B-52D).
At the bar I was stationed at Germany. Hahn AB, GE there was a F-105 there was used for the ABDR guys to practice on. Shoot it up and then patch it up.
Thanks for making great videos. F-105 one of my all time faves(I have about 50 “faves” in every imaginable category you can think of) Yeah , I love military aviation.
Hi Mike. The box art work at 5:15 looks fantastic. The yellows of the sun/sky by the nose of the 105 transition to orange and at the tail of the aircraft, then the same yellow of the sun comes back in the flame of the jet exhaust. looks great. I'm slowly catching up on you past work. "OH" by the way, out of all my old aviation books I have one with your name on it. The book is on Pan Am and it's aircraft. I enjoy your narration, full in information without making the viewer feel uninformed. Just bought a 1955 Revell type "S" oil tanker kit, it looks like new in the pic's. Thanks.....
Interesting sidenote - the Thud was a top contender for Canada's NATO nuclear strike role in Europe. Deemed too expensive, the RCAF elected to go with Canadian-built CF-104 Starfighters instead. Great presentation on a remarkable airplane - thanks Mike.
Agreed Martin, thanks, and for the best operational history of the F-105 ever written, check out this book by the great Dennis R. Jenkins: www.amazon.com/Thunderchief-Complete-History-Republic-F-105/dp/1580072593/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=thunderchief+dennis+jenkins&qid=1607250380&s=books&sr=1-2
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 I have the Jenkins book you mention. It is a really deep dive into the -105, a very enjoyable read and a bulletproof reference. Every -105 afficianado must have this book.
Amazing story with incredible photos and you saved the best for almost last--@13:20! Looking forward to your sequel, Republic F-105 THUNDERCHIEF-The Later Years. BTW... what the heck happened to the F-103? Was there even a prototype, and if so, who developed it?
Thanks Mark, and the Mach-3 all-titanium XF-103 Thunder Warrior made it to mock-up stage at Farmingdale, but it was too far ahead of its time in 1953. Technical challenges plus the initial development of the F-105 led to cancellation of the '103 Program in 1955 and the mock-up was scrapped. In 1964, the YF-12 interceptor version of the Lockheed Blackbird was flying, and advanced 1960s technology (plus Kelly Johnson's brilliant team) made it happen.
I climbed all over and under a Thud nestled among some trees and an F-4 near the runway at Wright-Patt in 1987. She had some SAM shrapnel damage to her tail. Pretty sure she eventually made it to the museum after some repair.
Amazingly informative and interesting. Is it true that when refueling, the tanker and the 105 had to go into a shallow dive to keep the airspeed if for the 105?
Great Presentation! I just finished an old 1/48 scale Revell kit I found on Ebay. Can anyone tell me what the yellow border around the canopy glass was ?
Wait wait wait, Kartvelli? What about Seversky? He was the principle genius that founded the company and was the main revenue maker, But I don't see anything about him, it is pretty much all Kartvelli in post. Seversky even made the book appealing for air power...hmm I wonder....
Good question Chris, and yes Alexander de Seversky was indeed the driving force behind the original company that bore his name and he is the one who hired his Chief Designer, Alexander Kartvelli. However, facing many operational and financial problems, Seversky was ousted by his Board of Directors in 1939, and the company was renamed Republic. By the time of the F-105 in the early 1950s, Seversky was no longer involved. Thanks for watching!
Why could they build cutting edge fighter planes like that but cars in the background that GM, Ford and Chrysler made in those days were not much more advanced than Model T’s
Well done thx i enjoyed your Video , have around 200 books about airplanes WW2 to late 1960s, 2 of them about the Type F-105 (Warbird Tech and a small one from squadron)plus some Books with a chapter for the operational history SEA/RSVN of the F-105 like "......AND KILL MIGS" ect.. Cant wait for your Part 2 F-105 video , i hope we can see some nose art on F-105 too like Capt. Vic Vizcarra`s famous "pussy galore II"
Should have been an outstanding plane , alas fell well short shame , don’t know why they were even used in Nam I not gonna say no more , and I love republics aircraft
The F-105 was indeed an outstanding airplane serving in a role it was never designed for - carrying a heavy external payload with Mach-2 dash speed capability on the return-to-base. Thanks for watching!
My uncle flew F-105's during the Vietnam War, he was shot down during a mission but thankfully he was rescued by a Jolly Green rescue helo. When the Wings channel was still on I would watch it all the time and when they did the episode on Combat Rescue Helicopters of the Vietnam War, my uncle was featured in the last 10 or 15 minutes which showed how difficult his rescue was due to him suffering a serious back injury. The PJ had to go down into the jungle to help him due to his injuries with the Viet Cong closing in on them.
Wonderful story, thanks, and I remember that episode of the WINGS channel! So glad your UIncle was rescued.
I think he was very lucky to be rescued with the Viet Cong closing on him and the rescuers! Thanks for sharing this story 👍👍
Wings documentary series needs to be brought back.
Impressive story, and I'm glad he made it. I was navy, so you'll have to allow me a bit of ignorance here, but my great uncle also flew in 'Nam. He began in WWII flying a B-17, the "Axis Ass Ache" with the 9th out of Tunisia. Flew in Korea, though I don't know what (we weren't real close -- he was always deployed). Close support with TAC, I do know that. Flew F-89s in the later '50s, then deployed to 'Nam initially in F-105s. My grandma, his sister, said she could hear the relief in his voice when his unit transitioned to F-4s. He was a colonel at the time and commanded a squadron or a wing -- my navy ignorance showing -- and retired in 74 or 75 as a major general. As far as I know, he was never shot down, though his B-17 did make a hard landing after being shot up on a mission, and never flew again. Amazing career, spanning the eras from piston-engine bombers to high performance jets with some early computerization. Tech moves so fast anymore that its an exceptional flier who can keep up.
One day on our way back to the Tonkin Gulf after a worthless temporary expedition to North Korean coastal waters following the USS Pueblo hijack, we towed a floating target for a flight of USAF Thuds with gattling gun pods strapped on the centerline weapons pylon. Took time off from our aircraft maintenance work on the flight deck to watch these beautifully mean-looking machines dive and strafe. It was a treat remembered over the past 53 years! USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14).
Great story, thanks! I was at Misawa AB, Japan at that same time.
Very well choreographed, Alexander Kartveli is one of the greats along with Kelly Johnson, what a life!
My Dad was a Air Craft Fabricator in the 60's for Fairchild Hiller in Farmingdale building the F 105S. I remember waiting in the parking lot at 12:00 in the morning with my Mom to pick up my Dad after work. Great times I will always remember.
Very cool! My Uncle worked there as well in the 1950s and '60s.
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 Maybe they knew each other!
Another GREAT video. Only 20 years between P47 and F105 and it retired in 1983. Amazing company. Delta Darts, Phantoms and Thunderchiefs are the best looking fighters from the fifties IMO. Thank you for your time and dedication!
Belated thanks for your great comment!
First time I've ever seen a picture of the flower petals feed
Very cool being placed back there at the very tail end. 👍🏻
Great F-105 presentation, Mike. Congrats!
A great piece on a great Aircraft. Thanks Chief.
Much nostalgia! I was 18 days old when FH-099 made its first flight.😊 So, of course, the F-105 was very familiar to me through my childhood and teen years.
Used to watch these take off and land from the fence line runway end of McGuire AFB in mid 60s.
NOISY ! All were camo painted ! Mostly F105s and C141s.
5:12 got this original S Kit in my collection...love the unique “sun-blocked” box art!
Thanks for this great video Mike. It was my privilege to work on the F-105B, D and F models for ten years in the USAF and ANG. It was easy to maintain and a big impressive bird.
Great comment, thanks!
Appreciate your well chosen high quality photos with rich comments to match, which bring back exquisite memories from your Wings & Airpower magazine days caping off with a silent background. Can't ask for more!
Thank you Pablo - so glad you enjoyed the video and 'appreciate the nice comment!
Doing a rewatch on this episode.. Thanks Mike for all your great work..!
The pylons were built at a small firm in west l.a. my friends father Irv worked there. I visited the factory in the early 60s and was amazed at the size of them for a child and that they went on a airplane.
A great presention of a fabulous aircraft. Thanks, Mike.
Excellent work! Heard and saw things I've not heard anywhere else. Thank you!
Pictures from the bottom accentuate the look of speed of the 105. Shows the sleek lines, beautiful.
The "Thud" is a favourite as well! 😍😎👍🏻
Mine too!
FH-107 has survived and is on display at the Hickory Aviation Museum, Hickory N.C.
Also, if you look at the picture on the museum website, the red trim was added for a cold weather test program carried out in Alaska.
Thanks for that info!
I always loved the F-105, so much that I bought when I was young the lovely Monogram two seater scale 1/48!! I never saw this airplane but I was impressed how big it was just comparing this model to my other models including the P-47 that was dwarfed, almost like compared it with the old Fiat 500 and the Cadillac Eldorado! Very interesting video with really nice selection photos 👍👍! Looking forward to your new videos....
Appreciate the comment, many thanks!
Really enjoy your videos Mike and always loved the look of the 105. As a kid I'd see it on static display and doing a flying routine at the Pease AFB open house circa early 70s.
Early aviation had some really beautiful designs. Thanks for bringing this video to you tube. I really appreciate, and enjoyed it. It's a nice salute to our history in aviation.
Thanks Rick, appreciate the comment!
My only association with F-105s is from my time at Korat AFB, Thailand with the Wild Weasels. That plane had the most awesome afterburner light off. They'd run up to power and hit AB, and there'd be a half second of silence and then BOOM!
Another awesome presentation, love your choice of subject matter- I’m pretty familiar with F-105 but a lot of this early production story was new to me and very interesting!! Very well illustrated, too, which is no surprise-
Thanks Ryan - appreciate the comment!
One of the most iconic and battle hardened strike/bombers of its era. Many a brave men flew the Thud day in...day out. She was very, very fast
I don't know how you manage to always get such exquisite photographs. Each one invites a meditation on the beauty of these aircraft.
Appreciate the comment, thanks. After a lifetime of collecting archival photos, it's a priviledge sharing them now with all my wonderful RUclips viewers!
Great content ... thanks !!!
@1:35 Looking like a Hawker Hunter in that picture
Just ran across your channel and subscribed! I've seen your artwork in books and magazines. Didn't know you had a channel.
Thanks, and great to have you aboard! 'Started the channel May 1, 2020 after being laid-off a Museum Curatorship job due to COVID. Had no idea it would be this much fun!
My dad had his fingerprints on the many of these "ships" he helped build.
great information, thanks. The F105 is a huge airplane
The last JF-105 with its Reconnaissance package is at Lackland AFB's Airmans Heritage Museum, just past the MOB Barracks. It is painted in its Razzle Dazzle paint scheme. If you ever want to see it in person contact the Airmans Heritage Museum's Curator Mr. Fernando Cortez after the lockdown, the museum has also an F-105D which is displayed at the base Parade Grounds behind the base headquarters building in the Southeast Asia Airpark (parked next to the B-52D).
Great to know, thanks!
Thank you for such an awesome video!
Appreciate the comment, thanks!
At the bar I was stationed at Germany. Hahn AB, GE there was a F-105 there was used for the ABDR guys to practice on. Shoot it up and then patch it up.
Thanks for making great videos. F-105 one of my all time faves(I have about 50 “faves” in every imaginable category you can think of) Yeah , I love military aviation.
Excellent. There was one of these on display in front of my barix at Lackland AFB in 1972.
I absolutely love your channel
Appreciate the comment, thanks!
hey I just became 105 th upvote,,,honored
Thanks for this 👍✈️🇳🇿
Hi Mike. The box art work at 5:15 looks fantastic. The yellows of the sun/sky by the nose of the 105 transition to orange and at the tail of the aircraft, then the same yellow of the sun comes back in the flame of the jet exhaust. looks great. I'm slowly catching up on you past work. "OH" by the way, out of all my old aviation books I have one with your name on it. The book is on Pan Am and it's aircraft. I enjoy your narration, full in information without making the viewer feel uninformed. Just bought a 1955 Revell type "S" oil tanker kit, it looks like new in the pic's. Thanks.....
Thanks Mike, and I had the Revell "S" Hawaiian Pilot freighter released at the same time as the oil tanker. Pretty complicated kits for that era!
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 I just got the Revell Visible V8 finished, 321 parts............ Looking forward to your next video. Take care.
Thanks Mike!
Interesting sidenote - the Thud was a top contender for Canada's NATO nuclear strike role in Europe.
Deemed too expensive, the RCAF elected to go with Canadian-built CF-104 Starfighters instead.
Great presentation on a remarkable airplane - thanks Mike.
We need one of the later years too!
Agreed Martin, thanks, and for the best operational history of the F-105 ever written, check out this book by the great Dennis R. Jenkins: www.amazon.com/Thunderchief-Complete-History-Republic-F-105/dp/1580072593/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=thunderchief+dennis+jenkins&qid=1607250380&s=books&sr=1-2
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 I have the Jenkins book you mention. It is a really deep dive into the -105, a very enjoyable read and a bulletproof reference. Every -105 afficianado must have this book.
Great video on the Thud Mike. A shame the Collings Foundation wasn’t able to get one back in the air.
Thanks for the comment, and I couldn't agree more!
Awesome
Thanks, Max!
Well Done Sir.
Many thanks!
Amazing story with incredible photos and you saved the best for almost last--@13:20! Looking forward to your sequel, Republic F-105 THUNDERCHIEF-The Later Years. BTW... what the heck happened to the F-103? Was there even a prototype, and if so, who developed it?
Thanks Mark, and the Mach-3 all-titanium XF-103 Thunder Warrior made it to mock-up stage at Farmingdale, but it was too far ahead of its time in 1953. Technical challenges plus the initial development of the F-105 led to cancellation of the '103 Program in 1955 and the mock-up was scrapped. In 1964, the YF-12 interceptor version of the Lockheed Blackbird was flying, and advanced 1960s technology (plus Kelly Johnson's brilliant team) made it happen.
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 Thanks Mike!
That mockup looks like an F15 cockpit. . . Maybe they might have used something like that on their F15?
I climbed all over and under a Thud nestled among some trees and an F-4 near the runway at Wright-Patt in 1987. She had some SAM shrapnel damage to her tail. Pretty sure she eventually made it to the museum after some repair.
I heard that the prototype plane wasn't badly damaged from the landing accident, but got totaled when the recovery crane dropped it by accident.
Thanks for the comment, and yes, that is correct.
*OOPS....*
Amazingly informative and interesting. Is it true that when refueling, the tanker and the 105 had to go into a shallow dive to keep the airspeed if for the 105?
Thanks, and only the piston-powered tankers (KB-50 and KC-97) had to do that. Once the jet-powered KC-135 Stratotankers arrived, problem solved!
Great Presentation! I just finished an old 1/48 scale Revell kit I found on Ebay.
Can anyone tell me what the yellow border around the canopy glass was ?
It was just a tubing used as a sealant between the clear plexiglass and the canopy frame. Just a seal.
External stores held the speed down. The vietcong liked them. They used the compressor blades to make razor blades.
Republic Aircraft now no longer exists. What stands today at its production plant is a Walmart Supercenter.
Good point, thanks, and I've visited that location several times. Ate at the Applebees, and saw the American Airpower Museum in Hangar 2.
Thanks 👍
Wait wait wait, Kartvelli? What about Seversky? He was the principle genius that founded the company and was the main revenue maker, But I don't see anything about him, it is pretty much all Kartvelli in post. Seversky even made the book appealing for air power...hmm I wonder....
Good question Chris, and yes Alexander de Seversky was indeed the driving force behind the original company that bore his name and he is the one who hired his Chief Designer, Alexander Kartvelli. However, facing many operational and financial problems, Seversky was ousted by his Board of Directors in 1939, and the company was renamed Republic. By the time of the F-105 in the early 1950s, Seversky was no longer involved. Thanks for watching!
That YF-105A was an inertia coupling disaster waiting to happen!
89 cents for a model kit in 1958.
I'm trying not to weep uncontrollably here, but it's difficult.
If I remember Test pilot and Astournat Guy Gibson was first USAF to fly the F-105.
Why could they build cutting edge fighter planes like that but cars in the background that GM, Ford and Chrysler made in those days were not much more advanced than Model T’s
The vert. stab. has always looked critically undersized to me.
Very small tail fin
Well done thx i enjoyed your Video , have around 200 books about airplanes WW2 to late 1960s, 2 of them about the Type F-105 (Warbird Tech and a small one from squadron)plus some Books with a chapter for the operational history SEA/RSVN of the F-105 like "......AND KILL MIGS" ect..
Cant wait for your Part 2 F-105 video , i hope we can see some nose art on F-105 too like Capt. Vic Vizcarra`s famous "pussy galore II"
Should have been an outstanding plane , alas fell well short shame , don’t know why they were even used in Nam I not gonna say no more , and I love republics aircraft
The F-105 was indeed an outstanding airplane serving in a role it was never designed for - carrying a heavy external payload with Mach-2 dash speed capability on the return-to-base. Thanks for watching!
I meant Gus.
How could a Mach 2Aircraft that looks so good on the ramp get such a bad rap ..?
Sending F4 pretending to be Thuds hurts man