AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 172 / 252

Plate 172 of 252 · Early jet age · Fighter-bomber

Republic F-84F Thunderstreak

F-84F Thunderstreak, 52-6541, painted as 52-6541, a Republic F-84F Thunderstreak delivered to the US Air Force in August 1954, flown by the 401st and 366th Fighter-Bomber Groups at England AFB, Louisiana, then supplied to Greece under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program in 1958 and flown as '26541' by the Hellenic Air Force until 1983, and at the North East Land, Sea and Air Museums in Sunderland since 1986: Republic's swept-wing development of the Thunderjet, a single-seat fighter-bomber with a Wright J65 turbojet fed from a round nose intake, a 40-degree swept wing with slight anhedral, a swept fin and an all-moving swept tailplane, perforated airbrakes on the rear fuselage sides and a tricycle undercarriage, shown standing on its wheels with the canopy closed and no external stores, in the Hellenic Air Force scheme it wears in the museum: tan, dark green and medium green camouflage over light grey undersides, blue, white and blue roundels on the rear fuselage and the wings, a blue and white fin flash, black '26541' on the fin and a large black '541' on the nose, a red rescue triangle below the canopy and bare-metal airbrakes (shape from a dimensioned USAF-style three-view, paint and markings following photographs of 52-6541 at Sunderland; the camouflage on the port side and the upper surfaces, which no photograph shows in full, is representative).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 52-6541, a Republic F-84F Thunderstreak delivered to the US Air Force in August 1954, flown by the 401st and 366th Fighter-Bomber Groups at England AFB, Louisiana, then supplied to Greece under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program in 1958 and flown as '26541' by the Hellenic Air Force until 1983, and at the North East Land, Sea and Air Museums in Sunderland since 1986: Republic's swept-wing development of the Thunderjet, a single-seat fighter-bomber with a Wright J65 turbojet fed from a round nose intake, a 40-degree swept wing with slight anhedral, a swept fin and an all-moving swept tailplane, perforated airbrakes on the rear fuselage sides and a tricycle undercarriage, shown standing on its wheels with the canopy closed and no external stores, in the Hellenic Air Force scheme it wears in the museum: tan, dark green and medium green camouflage over light grey undersides, blue, white and blue roundels on the rear fuselage and the wings, a blue and white fin flash, black '26541' on the fin and a large black '541' on the nose, a red rescue triangle below the canopy and bare-metal airbrakes (shape from a dimensioned USAF-style three-view, paint and markings following photographs of 52-6541 at Sunderland; the camouflage on the port side and the upper surfaces, which no photograph shows in full, is representative). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (849 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (F-84F, RF-84F); engine, crew and dimensions are for the F-84F Thunderstreak, 52-6541 modelled here.

History

The Thunderstreak

Republic began the Thunderstreak in 1949 as a cheap way to give its straight-winged F-84 Thunderjet the performance of the new swept-wing fighters, by putting a swept wing and tail on the existing fuselage. The prototype, first called the YF-96A, flew on 3 June 1950, and the Korean War brought a production order under the name F-84F. Little of the Thunderjet survived the redesign: the fuselage was deepened to take the Wright J65, an American-built Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire, and only about a sixth of the tooling turned out to be common to both types.

Production was slow. The forged wing spars could be made on only a handful of presses, which were busy with the B-47, and the J65 was late and troublesome. Early aircraft also pitched up sharply at high angles of attack, which Republic cured from the F-84F-25 onwards with an all-moving tailplane. The type was declared operational in May 1954. It carried six .50 in machine guns and up to 6,000 lb of bombs and rockets, and it could carry a Mark 7 nuclear bomb. Republic and General Motors built 2,711 F-84Fs, and 715 more were built as the RF-84F Thunderflash reconnaissance aircraft, with intakes in the wing roots and cameras in the nose.

The USAF moved its F-84Fs to the Air National Guard from the late 1950s, and the last were retired in the early 1970s. More than 1,300 went to NATO air forces under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program: Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey all flew them. French F-84Fs flew from Cyprus and Israel during the Suez crisis of 1956. Greece kept its Thunderstreaks until the early 1980s and was the last air force to fly the F-84 family, retiring its final RF-84Fs in 1991.

This airframe

F-84F 52-6541 (Hellenic Air Force 26541)

52-6541The airframe modelled

52-6541 was delivered to the USAF on 23 August 1954 and, after modification work, served from April 1956 with the 401st and 366th Fighter-Bomber Groups at England Air Force Base, Louisiana. It went into storage in November 1957 and in 1958 was allotted to Greece under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program. As 26541 it flew with the Hellenic Air Force’s 340 Squadron from April 1958 and with 344 Squadron from August 1975, and in August 1983 it was stored at Elefsis, near Athens. In June 1986 it was allocated to the North East Aircraft Museum at Sunderland, now the North East Land, Sea and Air Museums, in a deal between the American and Greek governments, and it was brought to Sunderland by road with the museum’s F-86D Sabre. The model shows it as displayed, standing on its wheels with the canopy closed: Greek tan, dark green and medium green camouflage over light grey, blue and white roundels on the rear fuselage and wings, a blue and white fin flash, black “26541” on the fin and a large “541” on the nose, and bare-metal airbrakes. The shape follows a dimensioned USAF-style three-view; the camouflage on the port side and the upper surfaces, which photographs do not show in full, is representative.

See it at North East Land, Sea and Air Museums

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Thunderstreak in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 252 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.