Page 154 - Demo

154Menard. Crowood; 2003. %u00a329.95Beautifully illustrated, with several previously unpublishedphotographs from private collections, this excellent reference bookcontains a wealth of detail about the F-100 Super Sabre, the first fightercapable of achieving supersonic speed in level flight and the first of theUSAF%u2019s %u2018Century Series%u2019. Its pedigree was impeccable, a product of theInglewood design team which created the legendary F-86 Sabre,probably the finest jet fighter of its time, and the earlier but equallydistinguished P-51 Mustang, but it was the last fighter to be produced byNorth American Aviation.Peter Davies%u2019 painstaking research, with the support of David Menard(whose USAF service career, and later his enduring hobby, revolvedaround the F-100 story) has produced an admirable account, whichcontains previously unpublished information on the few RF-100Areconnaissance aircraft deployed to Germany in the mid-1950sspecifically for high altitude but limited penetration of the WarsawPact%u2019s borders before the introduction of the U-2. The book contains veryfew editing errors and is divided into six lengthy chapters detailing thedesign and development of %u2018the Hun%u2019, its operational deployments, withcomprehensive information on unit moves and commitments, its use bythe Air National Guard with similar details of units and an account of itsuse by foreign air forces including the Armee de l%u2019Air, a service whoseequipment is normally of French design and manufacture. There is aseventh, but superfluous, chapter which describes the F-107, a successorto the F-100 of which only two prototypes were built to competeunsuccessfully with the Republic F-105.The first chapter describes the development programme and coversthe severe handling problems of the early A-model which killed NorthAmerican%u2019s chief test pilot George Welch in 1954 and, a few weeks later,Air Cdre Stephenson, Commandant of the RAF%u2019s Central FighterEstablishment. These shortcomings are described fully as are themeasures taken to deal with them but almost a year earlier, the prototypehad gained the world%u2019s speed record flown by a service test pilot, Lt-Col%u2018Speedy Pete%u2019 Everest of the USAF, to publicise its newest fighter.Notwithstanding this bonus, the aircraft was grounded for urgentstructural modifications following the loss of six early productionmodels and a critical review by operational test and evaluation pilots atEglin in 1955 meant that its future as a fighter was to be limited.