REPUBLIC F-105D THUNDERCHIEF

Affectionately called "Thud" by its crews the Thunderchief was the first supersonic tactical fighter-bomber developed from scratch rather then from an earlier design. The F-105 was selected over the F-107 for production in a fly-off competition. The "D" model introduced all weather capability and was the most widely used and produced version with 610 built. The F-105 served throughout the Vietnam War dropping thousands of tons of bombs on North Vietnamese targets. Thuds continued in U.S. Air Force service until the early 1980s when the last of them were retired out of the Air National Guard.