Air Brakes are a type of flight control used to reduce air speed during landing. They differ from spoilers in that air brakes are designed to increase drag while making little change to lift, spoilers greatly reduce lift while making little change to drag.

They are on all modern fighters (and many other combat aircraft), although some have them in different places.

F-15 – Center fuselage upper side:

F-16 – beside exhaust both sides:

A-6 – wingtips (early models also had ones on aft fuselage sides which were later removed):

A-4 – aft fuselage sides:

I’m not sure the 3rd San Giorgio will be sold… or even removed from service.

The San Giorgio and San Marco were laid down in 1985 and 1986 respectively while the slightly larger San Giusto was not ordered until 1991. The first two ships were launched in 1987 and commissioned in 1987 and 1988.

The San Giusto, launched in 1993 and finally commissioned in 1994, is some 300 tons heavier as a result of a longer island and increased accommodation. San Marco was funded by the Italian Ministry of Civil Protection and, although run by the Italian navy, is specially fitted for disaster relief operations.

San Guisto is normally operated as a training ship.

The first two were modified and refitted starting in 1999, to allow simultaneous operation of 4 helicopters (similar to San Guisto). The bow doors of the first two have been removed, and a closed bow fitted (San Guisto never had them).

It is likely that one of the three (likely San Marco) will simply be transferred completely to the Ministry of Civil Protection.

The last thread for F-100 pics had lots posted by TangoIII… who removed them a couple of months later.
Hun pics

This one still has a bunch:
Questions about the Hun

Which has a link to an F-100 site:
http://www.f-100.org/

There are also numerous “F-100 vs Mig-19” and “Mig-19 vs F-100” threads that might have some pics… use the search function to find them.

And since Pioneer is still around, I have an aswer to his question from 2006:

Does anyone have any infomation on the carrier-based version of the F-100 Super Sabre proposed by North American to a US Navy Request for Proposal ??

http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2009/10/proposed-super-furies.html

In November 1953, North American tried to end run the F8U program with a Super Fury proposal, which was a carrier-based derivative of the J57-powered F-100B (stretched fuselage, wing flaps, etc.) being proposed to the Air Force. The F-100B was a redesign of the J57-powered F-100A that incorporated the latest supersonic flight technology and almost doubled the internal fuel capacity. The inlet was now swept back and incorporated variable geometry, with a horizontal ramp on the upper side used to establish and control the shock wave associated with supersonic flight. Unlike the F-100A, the fuselage was to be area ruled for improved transonic performance and lower supersonic drag. It had also been lengthened by almost four feet to increase its fineness ratio and add more fuel. The wing was basically the same in shape and area, but it was thinner and designed to hold fuel. Flaps were added and boundary layer control incorporated for slower takeoff and landing speeds. The main landing gear now featured dual wheels.

For the Super Fury proposal, in addition to adding the requisite tail hook, wing folding, catapult hooks, etc., other changes were made to the F-100B design to further improve the prospect of carrier suitability. When the flaps were lowered, the folding portion of the wings was repositioned to provide 15 degrees of anhedral to improve lateral stability and aileron control at low speeds. The fuselage speed brake was intended to be deployed on approach and would retract automatically on touchdown. Another innovation was a retractable gun sight to improve over the nose visibility.

North American chose to propose armament of three T-160 20 mm cannons. Dual rotating rocket launchers contained 44 two-inch folding fin rockets could be substituted for the guns. One feature from the F-100B design was an alternative forward fuselage that incorporated a radome housing a small search radar in place of the APG-30 ranging radar.

Although it had the same engine and equipment, the Super Fury was heavier than Crusader so it would also have cost somewhat more. Although shorter, only 22 could be spotted in the requisite deck space compared to 25 F8Us . The Super Fury proposal was also deficient in military power ceiling. However, it was projected to be slightly better than just supersonic on military power, faster than required on combat power, have considerably more range on internal fuel and external fuel, and otherwise meet or exceed the requirements.

The proposal’s most compelling feature was that a prototype of sorts was flying and first Super Fury production delivery was expected in early 1956 on that basis. As it turned out, the Air Force decided not to proceed with the F-100B (although it did seque into the F-107) and the Vought F8U Crusader was a success.

Links are to full-size versions of the illustrations:
The gray shadow is the F-100B:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wI-DdPSXymk/SvS1PEq_l9I/AAAAAAAAAd4/1YcZKuJheA8/s1600/F-100A%2Bvs%2BF2J.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wI-DdPSXymk/SvL8CLdYY0I/AAAAAAAAAdI/7JbXUW64s-s/s1600-h/Design+Brief+low+res.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wI-DdPSXymk/SvL8HSN3dzI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/YXR2omWPG7g/s1600-h/General+Arrangement+low+res.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wI-DdPSXymk/SvTCKxuW3CI/AAAAAAAAAeA/XAUqTpgctVc/s1600-h/Super+Fury+Landing+Configuration.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wI-DdPSXymk/SvTCVgDNwEI/AAAAAAAAAeI/-p3pn-jMSe4/s1600-h/Super+Fury+Landing+Gear.jpg

Well, the UK can afford to give out £8billion per year in foreign aid.

You give £38 million a year to China… each year you will give about £1billion in aid to India, a nuclear-armed power and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world… a nation which launched an un-manned probe to the moon in 2008*, has formally established a manned space program of its own**, and which is building its own aircraft carriers and has bought one from Russia at nearly the cost of one CVF.

Now you tell me the UK can’t afford its own carriers?

Perhaps you wish to sub-contract the defense of the UK to India… after all, the UK is paying for much of India’s Navy.

* http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/3240/early-end-to-indias-moon-mission

** http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8483787.stm

Look again.

F-100D: Wingspan 38 feet 9 inches, length 50 feet 0 inches, height 16 feet 2 3/4 inches

F-8E: wingspan 35 feet 8 inches, length 54 feet 6 inches, height 15 feet 9 inches

What you are seeing is due to aircraft being at different distances from the camera.

Think they could come over to England this fall & do that?

😀

>grabs jacket & exits<

Catapult strops on a A6. Never heard of that before.

The A-6A was designed for bridle-launch. The prototype, designated A2F-1, made its first flight on 19 April 1960.
The A-6A (the USN changed its designation scheme to match the USAF in the fall of 1962) entered squadron service in February 1963.

On 19 Dec 1962, an E-2 Hawkeye catapulted from the USS Enterprise in the first shipboard test of nose-tow gear designed to replace the catapult bridle. A second nose-tow launch was made by an A-6A.

The F-100 was out of all USAF squadrons by 1972.

Several hundred F-100Ds (single seat ground attack) & a hundred F-100F (combat trainer & Wild Weasel I) served in the Air National Guard in various states, but all F-100D/Fs were gone from the ANG by 1979, replaced by F-4s, A-7s, & A-10s.

Denmark & Turkey retired their F-100s in 1982.

France retired the last of theirs in 1978.

Taiwan is nearly impossible to get public-sector info from, and Fight’s On: Airborne With the Aggressors (Tim Laming, 1996) {about aggressor & drone aircraft} claims that Taiwan might still be operating some of their F-100D/Fs at that date.

Don Chan on the Modern Military section has an extensive knowledge of Asian air forces… he should be able to provide a date for Taiwan’s retirement of their F-100s if anyone can.