The F-105 Thunderchief made its initial flight 22 October 1955, exceeding Mach in the process. This aircraft ultimately beat North American's bid with the YF-107A for the USAF interceptor/penetrator allocation. The only major area of concern at the time was whether the Allison J71 turbojet engine would have been powerful enough to support the F-105 airframe and the decision was made to replace the Allison engine with the Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojet, and th is was ultimately replaced with the Pratt & Whitney J75 afterburni ng turbojet, which produced 26,500 pounds of thrust with afterburner. The name of the game here was power and thrust and the need for speed! The F-105D had a gross airframe weight of 52,000 pounds, a maximum speed at sea level of 730 knots, a thrust-to-weight ratio of 0.745, and a wing loading of 9.25 G. These features gave the F-105 an excellent performance in the trans-sonic range and excellent acceleration in the vertical envelope, which made it an excellent penetration nuclear strike aircraft. However, it was was to take on a much different role brought back men that would have either perished during the mission or become POWs. Payload and weapon capacity of the F-105 was considerable at 14,000 pounds. It carried more ordnance than the four-engined bombers of World War II, and for this reason alone the F-105 flew the majority of ground attack sorties during the war for the US Air Force. The airframe was not originally designed for the mud moving role but it did prove successful and even influenced the development of its successor, the Fairchild A-10 Warthog. The F-105 could be considered successful during the Vietnam War as its missions allowed the military and politicians to proceed with their strategy and tactics, and in the end there could have been no American involvement, let alone success, in South Vietnam without the combined efforts of the air assets of the US Armed Forces.
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