Comments by "Gort" (@gort8203) on "MIG KILLER: The USAF's First MiG Kill In Vietnam Was By An F-100 Super Sabre" video.

People hear all sorts of things, but there is nothing to indicate the aerodynamics of this aircraft were modified to make it a bomber interceptor. It was designed as an air superiority fighter, and like all such aircraft it was designed to be faster and fly higher than opposing fighters because that conferred advantage in aerial combat. It was later modified to serve as a fighter-bomber. Any fighter can intercept a bomber, but the F-100 didn't even have a radar or radar homing missiles. The F-102 was the first supersonic purpose-built all-weather bomber interceptor, designed to be directed at bombers by ground control until being able to complete the intercept with its own radar and fire radar homing missiles.
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The F-100 was employed only briefly in the air-to-air role and the great majority of its work was interdiction and close air support, for which the C and D models had been produced. The Misty FACs were indeed a very daring part of its prodigious SEA service.
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@chriscarbaugh3936 They were not a complete failure. They kept MiGs from attacking the assets for which they flew escort or BARCAP, and even performed successful ground attack missions.
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It was listed as a "probable" becuse it had been hit, but nobody saw the aircraft destroyed. Thems the rules.
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@fighterjetsteve I Plane Encyclopedia lists the XP-86 Sabre as the original designation of the airplane. "In June of 1948, the new US Air Force redesignated all Pursuit aircraft as Fighter aircraft, changing the prefix from P to F. Thus the XP-86 became the XF-86. XP-86 number one was officially delivered to the USAF on November 30, 1948. The three prototypes remained in various test and evaluation roles well into the 1950s, and were unofficially referred to as YP-86s."
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@lancerevell5979 I don't know that the F-102 was totally unsuited to the role of defending South Vietnam and American assets there from air attack by North Vietnam, which was the reason for the deployment. But I was quite surprised to read that while there it was pressed into service in a night ground attack role and reportedly scored a least one hit with an AIM-4 Falcon IR missile. When you don't have the perfect weapon, you use the one you have available.
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@icewaterslim7260 The D had larger wing to provide more lift and a larger vertical tail for more directional stability. It also had improved avionics. A big improvement to lift was the addition of trailing edge flaps, which the earlier models did not have. It had two more pylons and was the definitive fighter bomber variant. The airplane didn't have a tendency to "porpoise at throttling up". Its low-speed handling was fine as long as the pilot did not get below the charted minimum controllable airspeed. Final approach speed was based on this rather than on stall speed. The famous Sabre dance incident was a result of the pilot getting below minimum control speed. At the time the airplane still had the small vertical fin, which did not provide sufficient directional stability. This allowed the airplane to yaw, inducing roll that could not be controlled with lateral controls. Uncontrolled bank angle is what caused the airplane to hit the ground, not uncontrolled pitch.
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@icewaterslim7260 Thank you for being open to new information; many viewers are not.
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