QF-100D Super Sabre

QF-100D Super Sabre
Country	USA
Type	Jet fighter aircraft
Topic	Album of 46 photos walk-around of a «QF-100D Super Sabre»

Photo gallery of a QF-100D Super Sabre, The North American F-100 Super Sabre was an American supersonic jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard (ANG) until 1979. The first of the Century Series of USAF jet fighters, it was the first USAF fighter capable of supersonic speed in level flight. The F-100 was originally designed by North American Aviation as a higher performance follow-on to the F-86 Sabre air superiority fighter.

Source: Wikipedia

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From Top Cover to Target Drone

The QF-100D was the final iteration of the legendary F-100D Super Sabre, the first US fighter capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. In the 1980s, as the “Hun” became obsolete against modern Soviet fighters, the US Air Force converted hundreds of mothballed airframes into Full-Scale Aerial Targets (FSAT). These were remote-controlled robots designed to be shot down by the next generation of air-to-air missiles, providing pilots and engineers with the most realistic test of a missile’s lethality against a high-performance supersonic threat.

Attribute	Technical Specification (QF-100D)
Role	Remote-Controlled Target Drone (FSAT)
Control System	DFCS (Digital Flight Control System) / Vega Control
Engine	1 × Pratt & Whitney J57-P-21A afterburning turbojet
Maximum Speed	Mach 1.3 (1,390 km/h at altitude)
Status	“NULLO” (No Upper Limit Life Onboard) or Manned
Special Equipment	Scoring systems, smoke generators, destruct charges
Combat Weight	Approx. 13,000 kg (28,000 lbs)

Design Engineering: Robotizing a Legend

The DFCS Upgrade: Converting a 1950s hydraulic fighter into a remote drone required the Digital Flight Control System. This “brain” translated radio commands from a ground station into physical movements of the flight surfaces, allowing for maneuvers that would have exceeded the safety limits of a human pilot.
Visual Augmentation: Since these aircraft were meant to be tracked from miles away, they were painted with bright “International Orange” markings. They also featured smoke generators in the tail to help ground observers and missile seekers track them visually.
Dual-Mode Capability: Most QF-100Ds could be flown by a human pilot for “ferry flights” between airbases. However, once cleared for a live-fire mission, they were flown “NULLO” (No Live Operator)—the seat was empty, and the aircraft was controlled entirely from a ground van.
The Destruct Charge: To prevent a rogue drone from flying off into civilian areas if it lost its radio link, a specialized explosive charge was installed. If the link was severed for more than a few seconds, the aircraft would self-destruct in mid-air.

The Final Mission: Testing the Eagle and Falcon

A Realistic Enemy: The QF-100D was used extensively to test the **AIM-9 Sidewinder** and **AIM-120 AMRAAM** missiles. Because the F-100 had a massive heat signature from its J57 engine, it was the perfect target for heat-seeking missiles.
Scoring, Not Always Killing: Not every mission ended in a crash. Many drones were equipped with “near-miss” scoring sensors that measured exactly how close a missile came to the fuselage without actually detonating, allowing the drone to be reused for multiple missions.
The End of the Fleet: By the early 1990s, the supply of old F-100 airframes was exhausted. The role of the supersonic drone was eventually passed on to the QF-4 Phantom II and later the QF-16 Fighting Falcon.
The Tyndall “Shoots”: Most of these final flights took place over the Gulf of Mexico near Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. The sea floor there is a graveyard for many of the most famous aircraft in aviation history.