Restored F-100 on Display at Smithsonian

A newly restored Vietnam War-era F-100D Super Sabre is now on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. This particular airframe “participated throughout the Vietnam War and is currently in the markings it wore during the Tet Offensive in 1968” when it was at Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon, Robert van der Linden, the museum’s aeronautics division chairman, told the Daily Report. The restoration began last September; after 2,154 man-hours of work, the F-100 went on display on April 4. The Air Force had preserved the airframe at JB Andrews, Md., with wings and fluids removed, for more than 30 years, said van der Linden. “There was very little restoration” needed, he said, since the aircraft was already in good shape. The original paint is still on the aircraft, but some of the fuselage markings needed a fresh coat of paint, he said. In 2011, AFA honored F-100 Misty pilots with a Lifetime Achievement Award for their heroism during the Vietnam War. Unofficially, there are some 20 Super Sabres in museums around the United States, or on static display on military bases, said van der Linden. (For more on the Super Sabre, see the Air Power Classics spotlight from Air Force Magazine’s May 2010 issue.)