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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0682.PDF
680 FLIGHT, 20 May 1955 SUPERSONIC FIGHTER A Critical Examination of the F-100A Super Sabre CONTRARY to the official procedure in this country,American manufacturers are permitted unrestrictedpublication of photographs of new types of military aircraft, either complete or under construction, so long as no "classified" items of equipment are revealed. As a result we now have more detailed photographs of the North American F-100 than we have of any contemporary British machine; and so much can be gleaned from these photo- graphs that it has been possible for a Flight artist to prepare * a cut-away drawing of this aircraft. This illustration incor- porates only what can be established without recourse to guesswork; nevertheless, it reveals a great deal and appears on pages 682-3. The F-100 is, by any standard, a remarkable machine, and it isworthy of as much study as its security status allows. We have, therefore, prepared a concise survey of the major features exhibitedby the machine as it now exists, together with notes on its possi- bilities for future development. The basic design was a private venture by North AmericanAviation, Inc., stemming from initial projects of about 1949. The early development took place outside the U.S. Air Force weaponssystem concept of purchasing (in fact, the basic design preceded this concept), but the Air Force were quick to buy the designwhen it became apparent that it would be a great advance on anything that had gone before. All through the early life of the design, the dominant NorthAmerican machine was the F-86 Sabre. It is, therefore, not surprising that the company tried, wherever possible, to adhereto proven features of the F-86, and to use the earlier machine as a basis. Superficially, the two designs appear utterly dissimilarbut, in fact, their similarity in some regions is quite remarkable. This emphasizes how correct was the concept of the F-86, particularly when it is remembered that the prototype F-86 flewin October 1947 (the F-86E was fully described in our issue of January 30th, 1953, and later variants were described onJanuary 15th, 1954). The initial concept of the F-100 visualized a true supersonicfighter, i.e., a machine which could reach, and sustain, super- sonic speed in level flight. Such an aircraft had, of necessity, tobe a very different machine from the F-86, and its design posed very severe problems. These problems covered the whole rangeof design criteria, but particular emphasis was placed on stability and control, the breathing characteristics of the power installa-tion, the operating conditions of the systems and military equip- ment and the overall performance of the aircraft from a practical"mission" viewpoint. Even the design of the structure required the fullest possibleuse of the latest available data, and implied the adoption of advanced techniques, in many cases considerably ahead of any-thing possible (either then or now) in this country. A number of basic layouts were considered, but opinion crystallized upona remarkably conventional (and Sabre-like) design. In fact, once the North American designers had established that the Sabregeometry could be employed in a supersonic fighter it is doubtful if they ever looked back. This, in spite of a fundamental stabilityproblem (described in our issue of February 25th, 1955, p. 251) which became manifest last autumn. The wing adopted has a leading-edge sweep of 45 deg, a figurewhich resulted in the design being known initially as the "Sabre 45." From the aerodynamic aspect, the wing is quite conven-tional, having a simple geometry and a low aspect ratio (in spite of the long-range requirement) to achieve a good rate of roll, aslarge an area as possible and a low thickness/chord ratio (of about 7 per cent). After examining the various possibilities, the North Americanengineers decided to adopt an unusual form of lateral control At the head of the page and below are views which show to particular advantage characteristic features of the F-100, especially the design of the intake, fuselage, undercarriage and wing slats, and the arrangement of the auxiliary tanks.
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