XBradTC

About the time thermonuclear weapons design achieved a small enough size to be fitted to tactical aircraft, the Air Force put out a request for proposals for a tactical fighter that would carry one weapon deep behind enemy lines.  Republic Aviation responded with what became the F-105 Thunderchief.  A huge single engine fighter with the mighty J75 engine, the Thud featured an internal bomb bay that could accommodate a single B28 nuclear bomb.

Of course, the Tactical Air Command knew that it couldn’t only use the F-105 for the nuclear delivery role. And so the F-105 also was designed to carry a wide variety of other, conventional ordnance, such as bombs, napalm, and rockets. 

About the first video, I damn near cried seeing the target was a B-29.  As to the second video, two thoughts. First, man, look at the take-off performance. A lightly loaded Thud was a pretty good climber. Fully loaded in a hot, heavy day, a Vietnam war Thud might suck up 9000’ of runway, and take forever to begin climbing at more than 500’ a minute. Second, the lack of Multiple Ejector Racks for the bomb racks is interesting . At about the time the film was being produced, the Marines at China Lake were beginning to develop the MER in concert with Douglas Aircraft. The MER would allow a single weapons pylon to carry not just one bomb, but up to six. That would vastly improve the loadout of the Marine Corps’ A-4 Skyhawks, making them much better Close Air Support platforms. And eventually, the MER would find its way to the F-105. A typical loadout for an F-105 during the Vietnam War would be six 750# bombs on a centerline MER, two 450 gallon drop tanks on the inboard wing stations, and one QRC-160 jammer on an outboard wing station, and an AIM-9B on the other.