Good Morning, Oppo, and welcome to Thunderchief Thursday.
The Republic F-105 Thunderchief took its maiden flight in 1955 and was originally designed as a Mach 2, low altitude penetrator whose job was to deliver a single nuclear bomb deep into enemy territory. But in the early years of the Vietnam War, the Thud was pressed into service as a tactical strike bomber, a mission it was not ideally suited for. As a result, casualty rates were high, and the F-105 was the only aircraft ever removed from combat due to high losses. The Thud was well named, as it was the largest and heaviest single seat fighter of of its day, weighing in at a whopping 50,000 pounds capable of carrying up to 14,000 pounds of ordnance. The Thunderchief was also developed into the F-105G Wild Weasel, the first dedicated aircraft designed to target and destroy radar-guided missile batteries. Though the strike variants were removed from service, the Wild Weasels continued flying throughout the Vietnam War, and were finally retired in 1984.