Foreword

“Hun!” The F-one-HUNdred, the first operational fighter capable of supersonic level flight. Appropriately the flagship of the “Century Series” of warplanes, the F-100 looks like it is breaking Mach just sitting on the tarmac. This North American Aviation’s successor to their lineage of world beating air superiority fighters became an air-to-ground workhorse “in-country” in Vietnam, and exported to several allies, some who took theirs to war.

Detail & Scale is a publishing company of modelers for modelers, and F-100 Super Sabre In Detail & Scale is their latest excellent source for anyone interested in the classic F-100 Super Sabre. History and specific aircraft details are presented and illustrated for this first fighter capable of supersonic level flight. Included is a description of flying the F-100 by a Super Sabre pilot with over 200 combat missions in type.

Introduction

F-100 Super Sabre In Detail & Scale is Volume 11 in the growing Detail & Scale Series by Detail & Scale. It is actually the 80th volume in an enterprise going back more than forty years and their third title about the F-100 since 1983. This book offers modelers and historians of the F-100 Super Sabre an excellent source of history and detail. Detail and Scale is a publishing company that has been producing high-quality technical and historical military aviation books since c.1978. F-100 Super Sabre is presented through 104 pages, brimming with 230 photographs (over 190 in color) and over two dozen line drawings and other artwork, and five full color aircraft profiles. It is catalogued as ISBN 9798655632578.

Many Detail and Scale books occupy my library and they are excellent sources for modeling. They always impressed me and yet only recently have I comprehended just how comprehensive they are. Founders and authors Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak bring over 60 years of first-hand military aviation expertise into their Detail and Scale brand. Roszak, an USAF navigator who retired as a colonel, creates the illustrations in the books. Both of Detail and Scale creators are modelers, too.

Content

F-100 Super Sabre In Detail & Scale covers these subjects:

Introduction
Super Sabre History
Scale Drawings
Super Sabre Variants

YF-100 Prototypes
F-100A
RF-100A
F-100C
F-100D
F-100F
Super Sabre Drones

Foreign Super Sabres
Super Sabre Pilot's Report
The Super Sabre in Southeast Asia
Super Sabre Details

Cockpit Details
Windscreen & Canopy Details .
Fuselage Details
Wing Details
Landing Gear Details
Tail Details
Engine Details
20mm Cannon Details .
Pylons & External Stores Details

Modelers Section

North American Aviation (NAA) designed the F-100. NAA also created two of the world's supreme fighters, the P-51 Mustang and F-86 Sabre, the iconic T-6 trainer and B-25 bomber, and technological envelope bursting X-15 and XB-70, and may be considered the origins of today's USAF B-1. Oh, and they also made the Apollo CSM and Space Shuttle, among other aerospace craft. Eight detailed pages of Super Sabre History present the Hun's story through development, war, foreign use, and retirement. Block numbers and serials are documented where appropriate. Seven pages of Scale Drawings then lead into 26 pages of Super Sabre Variants. With a balance of text and visuals, we learn the service of F-100 in its many guises. Detail is thorough beyond common subjects like extending the vertical stabilizer, to the point of noting modifications to de-icing fluid tubes and oxygen lines. Again, the variants spotlighted are:

YF-100 Prototypes
F-100A
RF-100A
F-100C
F-100D
F-100F
Super Sabre Drones

The chapter presents development and changes of the airframes, growing capability, and ultimate use of the variants. Each begins with the model, i.e., F-100A, and follows with NAA company designations, e.g., NA-214, NA-235. Even the small group of "Slick Chick" RF-100As are included. Informational charts are included for each variant. Each section includes topics such as development of aerial refueling equipment, redesign of flaps and leading edge contouring, to name a few. Huns originated as clear air mass air-superiority fighters but developed into fighter-bombers, and the evolution of weapons is presented. Each variant was more capable than the previous F-100 and this is reflected by each section growing in content.

While only three pages in length, Foreign Super Sabres is the most surprising to me. I never knew France operated them. Like the preceding chapter, interesting detail about equipment and weapons is presented.

Super Sabre Pilot's Report are three fascinating pages by a highly experienced Hun combat pilot. Over the years I've read the F-100 was a handful so this section was very interesting.

A significant part of this book is 10 pages of The Super Sabre in Southeast Asia. This is a overview as Huns were heavily employed in air-to-ground "in country" after a short air-to-air employments. That air-to-air clash is still controversial. This section recounts the jet's use far and wide, focusing on units, deployments, and weapons. Subjects presented are the F-100 being the first Wild Weasel, and "Misty" FACs. Weapon loads are discussed and the F-100s sortie and losses are presented.

The book now transitions from pure history into the visual reference and modeling sections with Super Sabre Details. Changes and peculiarities are show, with useful color information noted where appropriate. This section starts with seven pages of...

Cockpit Details

...with 22 detailed photographs and captions are the F-100A, F-100C, F-100D, and F-100F. A further page of five photos presents the F-100 ejection seat.

Windscreen & Canopy Details

Two pages with nine photos.

Fuselage Details

Four pages with 21 detail images.

Wing Details

Three pages, 14 photos; differences between variants are shown along with changes in wing fences.

Landing Gear Details

Three pages and 14 photos examine the nose gear, and left and right main gear.

Tail Details

Two pages with eight photos of F-100A, C, D, and F models, including tall and short tail differences. It shows antenna placement details. Did you know some position lights were orange?

Engine Details

Two pages, seven photos, and a wealth of detail, including Huns refitted with F-102 afterburner nozzles.

20mm Cannon Details

The blade of the sabre illustrated with 10 photos across two pages. Not every image is a gun but more importantly, the gun bays and other ancillary references. Very interesting what color a 20mm M-39 was!

Pylons & External Stores Details

Twenty-six photos wrap up this seven-page presentation showing external stores, ranging from nukes to dumb bombs and napalm, rockets, CBUs, drop tanks, and even jamming pods. A page presents the table Externally Carried Stores Certified For Use On F-100D & F-100F Super Sabres: 33 weapons and equipment with brief descriptions.

Those excellent resources for modelers and historians alike segues into Modelers Section. I said it in previous reviews and I'll say it again, Modelers!, you will love this section! Dozens of injection-molded Super Sabres have been released since the 1950s in dozens of standard and weird scales. While the four main "modern" F-100s scales are 1/144, 1/72, 1/48, and 1/32, Modelers Section begins with the survey Super Sabre Scale Modeling Summary, which discusses older, mainly collector valued, F-100 kits from days of yore. If you are familiar with the "box scale" era then you know airplanes were kitted in peculiar scales. The popular Hun was too, ranging from 1/175 through 1/49. Read this section and then look over your stash - you may be sitting on a collector's gold mine!

Thirteen pages survey F-100 models with concise reviews of all the kits, including scales, brands and re-brands. Kit histories are mentioned, as are aftermarket offerings and supporting products. Detail and Scale even offers recommendations of the best F-100 in a scale, backed up with models they, or other contributors, have personally built.

Accuracy characteristics and details for particular kits are pointed out, i.e., mismatching ejection seat and speedbrake characteristics, intake contouring, mis-shaped and mis-sized drop tanks, refueling probes, size of instrument panels, etc. It is important to understand what changes were made for variants, and the authors' text helps with this information.

Kits are presented with photographs of several completed models. Aftermarket items are mentioned, and strengths and weaknesses of each kit are discussed. The year of release is mentioned, as are number of reissues. From the introduction through the modeling chapter, such expertise of the authors and contributors should allow modelers to build best Super Sabre model possible.

Photography, Artwork, Graphics

F-100 was born into the era of Kodachrome and the revolution of easily obtained high performance color film, as well as Brownie cameras. This book is full of color and b/w photography. Focused eyes can glean a lot of information for historians and modelers, such as the variety of metal skinning on the prototype. D&S populates the book with a gallery of choice images, a great strength of the series. One in particular is a Hun fuselage opened up for engine maintenance, a dozen other panels popped and open.

Artwork

1. F-100A-20-NA, S/N 53-1662: profile of the tragic only Super Sabre with a confirmed kill.
2. RF-100A Internal Arrangement, keyed to 24 components.
3. RF-100A Access and Inspection Provisions, keyed to 15 components.
4. Thunderbirds F-100C.
5. Skyblazers F-100C.
6. F-100F, S/N 56-3869, 354th Tactical Fighter Wing, CO Francis Gabreski
7. F-100D, Maj. Don Schmenk, 31 TFW, Vietnam: aircraft of Super Sabre Pilot's Report.
8. Wild Weasel external equipment: USAF color photo of an original Wild Weasel airframe keyed to special equipment.

Graphics

Early in the book we are treated to seven pages of line art by Terry Smith and Dana Bell:
1. F-100A/C Drawings

a. F-100 planform
b. Short-tail used on the first 70 A-models
c. Head-on
d. Left profile, gear up
e. Right profile, gear down
f. Underside planform
g. Wing pylons
i. Inner
ii. Center
iii. Outer

2. F-100D

a. F-100 planform
b. Head-on
d. Left profile, gear down
e. Right profile
f. Underside planform

3. F-100F Supplemental Drawings

a. Left profile
b. Nose planform, above
c. Nose planform, bottom

4. External Fuel Tanks

a. 200-gallon
b. 275-gal
c. 335-gal
d. 450-gal

5. F-100F Wild Weasel: antenna locations and alignments.
6. F-100F Wild Weasel modifications

Charts and Tables

1. YF-100 Dimensions
2. F-100A Data

a. Performance
b. Dimensions
c. Serial Numbers

3. F-100C Data

a. Performance
b. Dimensions
c. Serial Numbers
d. Fuel Quantities/Locations
e. Weights
f. Electronic equipment

4. F-100D Data

a. Performance
b. Dimensions
c. Serial Numbers
d. Fuel Quantities/Locations
e. Weights
f. Electronic equipment

5. F-100F Data

a. Performance
b. Dimensions
c. Serial Numbers
d. Weights
e. Electronic equipment

6. Squadron and Assigned Wing in Southeast Asia.
7. Squadron Tail Codes
8. Externally Carried Stores Certified For Use On F-100D & F-100F Super Sabres: 33 items with brief descriptions.

Chocking This Bird

F-100 Super Sabre In Detail & Scale is an exceptional examination of the F-100 Super Sabre, with excellent text and an extraordinary gallery of photographs and illustrations. Tables present data effectively. For modelers, the modeling experience and expertise leaves little uncovered about the the strengths and weaknesses of a particular model.

Even trying to be picky, I can't think of any meaningful complaint about this book. Modelers and students of the F-100, Cold War combat aircraft, and Century Series jets should be thrilled with this book. Heartily recommended.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.