How fast was the F-84F Thunderstreak?

The swept-wing F-84F topped out around 1,120 km/h, about 695 mph or roughly Mach 0.9. It was subsonic but faster than the straight-wing Thunderjet.

Aircraft Museum › Fighter-Bomber › F-84

Republic F-84
Thunderjet · Thunderstreak · Thunderflash

Q: Can I fly in an F-84?

No. There are no public F-84 passenger or ride experiences; surviving Thunderjets, Thunderstreaks and Thunderflashes are museum aircraft. You can, however, fly in several genuine ex-military jets today via MiGFlug.

Q: What is the difference between the Thunderjet, Thunderstreak and Thunderflash?

All are F-84s. The Thunderjet (F-84B to G) is the straight-wing, Allison J35 original and Korea fighter-bomber. The F-84F Thunderstreak is the swept-wing, Wright J65 redesign. The RF-84F Thunderflash is the swept-wing reconnaissance version with wing-root intakes and a camera nose.

Q: Is any F-84 still flying?

No. The last operational F-84s were Greek RF-84F Thunderflashes, retired in 1991. Survivors today are static museum exhibits.

One name, three very different jets: the straight-wing Thunderjet that became Korea’s hardest-working fighter-bomber, the swept-wing Thunderstreak that re-armed NATO, and the camera-nosed Thunderflash that flew the Cold War’s reconnaissance missions.

1946First flight · straight-wing XP-84

~7,500+Built across the whole family

Mach 0.9F-84F top speed · ~1,120 km/h

1950First non-stop transatlantic jet flight

Photo: U.S. Air Force · Public domain

RoleFighter-bomber & reconnaissanceEraEarly Cold War · KoreaMotorAllison J35 (straight) · Wright J65 (swept)OriginUSA · Republic AviationStatusRetiredFly a fighter jet with MiGFlug

A História

Three jets, one designation

The Republic F-84 is really three aircraft wearing one number. It began as the F-84 Thunderjet — a straight-winged jet that Alexander Kartveli designed at Republic Aviation as the jet-age heir to his rugged P-47 Thunderbolt. It first flew in 1946, entered service in 1947, and almost didn’t survive its own troubled youth: early models suffered structural failures and feeble engines, and a 1948 Air Force review reportedly judged it unable to perform its intended mission.

What saved it was the ground-attack war in Korea. Outclassed in a dogfight by the swept-wing MiG-15, the Thunderjet instead became one of the theatre’s hardest-working fighter-bombers, hauling bombs, rockets and napalm across tens of thousands of sorties. The definitive F-84G added an in-flight refuelling receptacle and nuclear capability, and in 1950 an F-84E made the first non-stop transatlantic flight by any jet.

Then Republic swept the wings. The F-84F Thunderstreak looked like a facelift but was effectively a new aircraft built around a bigger British-derived engine; the RF-84F Thunderflash moved its air intakes to the wing roots so cameras could fill the nose. Distributed by the hundreds across NATO under American military aid, the swept F-84s soldiered on into the 1970s — and, in Greek reconnaissance service, all the way to 1991.

Outclassed in the air, unbeatable at the mud-moving work nobody else wanted.The fighter-bomber — how Korea saved the Thunderjet

01Thunderjet, Thunderstreak, Thunderflash: telling the F-84 family apart

It helps to think of the F-84 as two generations. The straight-wing generation — F-84B through F-84G, all called Thunderjet — used the Allison J35 engine and a conventional straight wing. These are the Korea aircraft: stable gun and bomb platforms, thirsty and slow to accelerate, but tough and dependable.

O swept-wing generation is where the names split. The F-84F Thunderstreak is the swept-wing fighter-bomber, powered by the Wright J65. The RF-84F Thunderflash is its reconnaissance sibling — same swept wing, but with the engine air fed from intakes in the wing roots so the entire nose could be packed with cameras. Despite sharing a designation, the swept jets shared only a fraction of their parts with the straight-wing Thunderjet.

Design & Engineering

What makes the F-84 special

The straight-wing Thunderjet: a stable bomb truck

The original F-84 was built around a thick, straight wing and the Allison J35 turbojet. That made it a steady, accurate gun and bomb platform — but also heavy on the controls and sluggish to accelerate, so a fully-loaded Thunderjet often needed a long runway or JATO rocket bottles to get airborne. Pilots nicknamed it “the Hog” and “the world’s fastest tricycle” for its ground-loving takeoffs, yet praised how quickly a crew could swap its engine and how much battle damage it could absorb.

The swept-wing F-84F redesign

To chase the MiG-15, Republic gave the F-84F a swept wing and tail and a much larger engine — the Wright J65, a licence-built version of Britain’s Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire. What was billed as a simple upgrade became almost a new aeroplane: only around 15% of the Thunderjet’s tooling carried over, and the thick press-forged wings could be made by just a handful of American presses, delaying the programme until 1954.

The Thunderflash’s wing-root intakes — and FICON

O RF-84F Thunderflash solved a recon problem elegantly: it moved the air intakes from the nose to the wing roots, freeing the whole nose for a battery of up to fifteen cameras. A handful were rebuilt as RF-84K parasite fighters for the FICON project — carried in, and launched from, the bomb bay of a giant GRB-36 bomber, then hooked back aboard in flight.

02Why the F-84G mattered: refuelling probes and the atomic mission

The straight-wing story peaked with the F-84G, built in the thousands. It was the first F-84 with a factory in-flight refuelling receptacle, and the first single-seat fighter cleared to carry a nuclear weapon — the bulky Mark 7 bomb — giving the Tactical Air Command a jet that could, in theory, deliver an atomic strike and be refuelled on the way. That refuelling capability is what made the type’s record-setting long-distance flights possible.

03The FICON experiment: a fighter that lived in a bomber’s belly

In the early 1950s the USAF experimented with parasite fighters — escorts carried by the bombers they protected. About twenty-five RF-84F Thunderflashes were converted into RF-84Ks for Project FICON (“Fighter Conveyor”), fitted with a hook above the nose and marked anhedral tailplanes so they could nestle under a modified GRB-36 bomber. The mother ship would launch the recon jet deep over hostile territory and recover it afterwards. It worked, just barely — the mid-air hook-ups were hair-raising — and the idea was overtaken by better tankers and reconnaissance satellites.

Technical Data

Full specifications — F-84F Thunderstreak

Airframe & Performance

Equipe: 1
Comprimento: 13.23 m (43 ft 4.75 in)
Envergadura: 10.25 m (33 ft 7 in)
Altura: 4.39 m (14 ft 4.75 in)
Peso vazio: ~6,270 kg
Max takeoff weight: ~12,700 kg (up to ~13,000 kg)
Max speed: ~1,120 km/h (695 mph) · ~Mach 0.9
Teto de serviço: ~14,000 m (46,000 ft)
Raio de combate: ~1,300 km with drop tanks

Propulsion & Armament

Motor: 1 × Wright J65-W-3 turbojet
Thrust: ~34 kN (7,220 lbf)
Guns: 6 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M3 Browning
Ordnance: ~2,700 kg of bombs & rockets, incl. one Mark 7 nuclear bomb
Straight-wing engine: Allison J35 (F-84B–G Thunderjet)
First flight: 28 Feb 1946 (XP-84) · 3 Jun 1950 (F-84F)
Built (all types): ~7,500+ (1947–1957)
Unit cost: ~$0.77 million (F-84G, 1950s)
Cost per flight hour: No reliable modern figure

04The F-84’s cost: cheap by design, in a hurry

The F-84 was a mass-production jet of the early Cold War, and price figures reflect that. Period sources put the flyaway cost of an F-84G Thunderjet at roughly $770,000 in early-1950s dollars, and the swept F-84F Thunderstreak broadly in the same order of magnitude. Because thousands were handed to NATO air forces under American Mutual Defense Assistance funding rather than sold on an open market, a single clean unit price for the family does not exist, and there is no reliable modern cost-per-flight-hour figure for a type retired decades ago. Treat any exact dollar figure as an estimate.

Timeline

From troubled prototype to NATO workhorse

1946

First flight

The straight-wing XP-84 prototype flies on 28 February with test pilot Wallace Lien — Kartveli’s jet successor to the P-47 Thunderbolt.

1947

Enters service

The F-84B reaches the USAF, but early structural and engine problems soon lead to groundings and a near-cancellation.

1950

Korea & the Atlantic

Thunderjets deploy to Korea as fighter-bombers; in September an F-84E makes the first non-stop transatlantic jet flight.

1950

The wings sweep back

The prototype of the swept-wing F-84F flies on 3 June, beginning the redesign that becomes the Thunderstreak.

1951

The atomic Thunderjet

The F-84G enters production with an in-flight refuelling receptacle and clearance to carry the Mark 7 nuclear bomb.

1953

Thunderbirds & Longstride

The USAF Thunderbirds form on the F-84G; F-84Gs also fly the record Operation Longstride crossing to Europe.

1954

Swept jets go operational

The F-84F Thunderstreak and RF-84F Thunderflash finally reach squadrons after a long, tooling-plagued gestation.

1955–91

NATO service — and the last flight

Hundreds of swept F-84s equip a dozen NATO air forces into the 1970s; Greece retires the last RF-84Fs in 1991.

Stories & Eyewitnesses

Twelve F-84 stories

Origins

From Thunderbolt to Thunderjet

Alexander Kartveli built the F-84 as the jet-age heir to his rugged P-47.

Read the full story

Republic Aviation’s chief designer, the Georgian-born Alexander Kartveli, had given the US its finest piston fighter-bomber in the P-47 Thunderbolt. The F-84 was meant to carry that philosophy into the jet age: a big, tough, heavily-armed single-seater built to haul ordnance and take hits. The straight-wing XP-84 first flew on 28 February 1946, and the family name — Thunderjet — deliberately echoed the Thunderbolt that came before it.

A rough start

The jet that was almost cancelled

Early F-84s suffered wing failures and weak engines; a 1948 review judged it unfit for its mission.

Read the full story

The Thunderjet’s first years were grim. The early F-84B and F-84C models were plagued by structural weaknesses and underpowered Allison J35 engines; wing and airframe failures led to groundings in 1948. An Air Force evaluation that year reportedly concluded the aircraft was unable to execute any aspect of its intended mission, and the whole programme came close to being scrapped. It took the reinforced F-84D and the far more capable F-84E to turn the design around.

Korea

Champ of the fighter-bombers

In Korea the Thunderjet flew tens of thousands of ground-attack sorties — the work nobody else wanted.

Read the full story

When the air-superiority job went to the F-86 Sabre, the F-84 found its true calling in the mud. Flying from Korean and Japanese bases, Thunderjets pounded bridges, rail lines, supply dumps and troop concentrations with bombs, rockets and napalm. Sources credit the type with roughly 86,000 sorties and a large share of the ground targets destroyed — a punishing, unglamorous campaign that earned it the reputation as the theatre’s hardest-working fighter-bomber.

Air combat

Underdog against the MiG-15

Outclassed in a turning fight, the straight-wing F-84 still claimed a handful of MiG-15 kills.

Read the full story

The straight-wing Thunderjet was never a match for the swept-wing MiG-15 in a dogfight — it was slower, heavier and could not climb or turn with it. Yet F-84 pilots, usually while defending their bombing runs, are credited with shooting down a small number of MiGs; the most commonly cited figure is around eight to nine confirmed MiG-15 kills. Exact tallies vary between sources, and the F-84 lost more aircraft to MiGs than it downed. Its real value was always in the strike role.

Records

Schilling crosses the Atlantic

On 22 September 1950, Colonel David Schilling made the first non-stop transatlantic flight by a jet.

Read the full story

Colonel David Schilling flew a refuelling-equipped F-84E from RAF Manston in England to Limestone, Maine, in about 10 hours 8 minutes, taking on fuel three times from tankers over Scotland, Iceland and Labrador. It was the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic by a jet aircraft. His wingman, Colonel William Ritchie, could not take on his final load of fuel after a probe failure, nursed the aircraft as far as he could over Labrador, and bailed out safely.

F-84G

The first nuclear single-seater

The F-84G could be refuelled in flight and could drop an atomic bomb — a first for a single-seat fighter.

Read the full story

The definitive straight-wing model, the F-84G, was a genuine milestone. It was the first F-84 with a built-in aerial-refuelling receptacle and the first single-seat fighter cleared to carry a nuclear weapon, the sizeable Mark 7 bomb. That combination — long legs via refuelling plus an atomic punch — briefly made the humble Thunderjet a strategic asset, not just a tactical one. More than 3,000 F-84Gs were built.

Thunderbirds

The Thunderbirds’ first jet

When the USAF formed its aerial demonstration team in 1953, it flew the F-84.

Read the full story

The United States Air Force Thunderbirds — today synonymous with the F-16 — began life in 1953 flying the straight-wing F-84G, and soon moved to the swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreak. The Thunderjet was not an obvious display aircraft, being heavy and unspectacular, but it put the new team in front of crowds across America and abroad in the type’s heyday.

Redesign

The Thunderstreak: almost a new aircraft

Billed as a simple swept-wing upgrade, the F-84F ended up sharing barely any tooling with the Thunderjet.

Read the full story

Republic sold the F-84F to the Air Force as a quick swept-wing derivative of the Thunderjet. In reality the new wing and the larger Wright J65 engine forced so many changes that only around 15% of the original production tooling could be reused. Worse, the thick wings needed enormous press forgings that only a few American presses could make — and those presses were busy on the B-47 bomber. The “upgrade” did not reach squadrons until 1954.

Reconnaissance

Cameras in the nose

The RF-84F Thunderflash moved its intakes to the wing roots so its whole nose could carry cameras.

Read the full story

The reconnaissance version of the Thunderstreak solved a neat problem. A normal jet needs its nose for an air intake; a recon jet wants its nose for cameras. Republic’s answer on the RF-84F Thunderflash was to feed the engine from intakes tucked into the wing roots, leaving the entire nose free for a battery of up to fifteen cameras, controlled automatically for light, speed and altitude. More than 700 were built, and several NATO air forces used them as their primary tactical reconnaissance aircraft.

Experiment

The parasite fighter

A few Thunderflashes were rebuilt to be carried — and launched — from the belly of a giant bomber.

Read the full story

Project FICON turned about twenty-five RF-84F Thunderflashes into RF-84K parasite fighters. Fitted with a retractable hook above the nose and down-angled tailplanes, they could be carried semi-recessed in the bomb bay of a modified GRB-36 bomber, launched to fly a reconnaissance run deep into hostile airspace, then hooked back aboard the mother ship in flight. The mid-air recoveries were dangerous, and improving tankers and satellites soon made the whole idea obsolete.

NATO

Backbone of NATO

Under American military aid, hundreds of swept F-84s re-armed a dozen European air forces.

Read the full story

The swept F-84 became one of the great symbols of 1950s NATO rearmament. Through the Mutual Defense Assistance Program, the United States handed over Thunderstreaks and Thunderflashes by the hundred to allied air forces — among them France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Turkey and others. For many of these countries the F-84F was their first modern swept-wing jet, and it formed the core of NATO’s tactical strike and reconnaissance force well into the 1960s.

Legacy

From Thunderjet to Thunderchief

Kartveli’s line ran on from the F-84 to the F-105 and, ultimately, the A-10.

Read the full story

The F-84 is a middle chapter in a remarkable design lineage. Alexander Kartveli followed it with the supersonic F-105 Thunderchief, the heaviest single-seat fighter-bomber of its day and a mainstay of the Vietnam air war. Republic’s final product, the A-10 Warthog, carried the same philosophy — tough, heavily-armed, built to survive the low-level strike mission — all the way back to the P-47 the Thunderjet had once replaced.

Gallery

The F-84 family in pictures

A swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreak in flight the jet that re-armed NATO. — A swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreak in flight — the jet that re-armed NATO.Photo: U.S. Air Force · Public domain

The swept F-84F Thunderstreak (left) and RF-84F Thunderflash prototypes together in 1952 the two branches of the swept family. — The swept F-84F Thunderstreak (left) and RF-84F Thunderflash prototypes together in 1952 — the two branches of the swept family.Photo: U.S. Air Force · Public domain

A formation of straight-wing F-84D Thunderjets the Korea-era generation. — A formation of straight-wing F-84D Thunderjets — the Korea-era generation.Photo: U.S. Air Force · Public domain

An F-84 takes on fuel from a KB-29 tanker the capability that made record crossings possible. — An F-84 takes on fuel from a KB-29 tanker — the capability that made record crossings possible.Photo: U.S. Air Force · Public domain

A Thunderjet fires a Tiny Tim rocket the F-84 in its element as a ground-attack platform. — A Thunderjet fires a Tiny Tim rocket — the F-84 in its element as a ground-attack platform.Photo: U.S. Air Force · Public domain

An RF-84F Thunderflash reconnaissance jet note the wing-root intakes and camera nose. — An RF-84F Thunderflash reconnaissance jet — note the wing-root intakes and camera nose.Photo: U.S. Air Force · Public domain

Watch

The F-84 in motion

A curated F-84 video feature is coming soon. In the meantime, explore the photo gallery and timeline above for a closer look at the Thunderjet, Thunderstreak and Thunderflash.

Operations

Where the F-84 flew

Combat Record

The score that defines it

The F-84’s reputation was made on the ground, not in the air. In Korea the straight-wing Thunderjet flew tens of thousands of strike sorties, absorbing heavy losses to flak while doing the fighter-bomber work the F-86 could not. Its air-to-air tally against the MiG-15 was modest and is cited differently by different sources; its record-setting long-distance flights are far less disputed.

~86,000Thunderjet ground-attack sorties in Korea

~8–9MiG-15 kills credited (sources vary)

1stNon-stop transatlantic jet flight, 1950

Compare the combat record of every military aircraft. Figures as of July 2026.

Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about the F-84

Can I fly in an F-84?

No — there are no public F-84 passenger or ride experiences anywhere; the surviving Thunderjets, Thunderstreaks and Thunderflashes are museum pieces. You can, however, fly in several genuine ex-military jets today — see migflug.com/flights-prices/ for the current fighter-jet flights.

What is the difference between the Thunderjet, Thunderstreak and Thunderflash?

All three are F-84s. The Thunderjet (F-84B–G) is the straight-wing, Allison J35-powered original — the Korea fighter-bomber. The F-84F Thunderstreak is the swept-wing, Wright J65-powered redesign. The RF-84F Thunderflash is the swept-wing reconnaissance version, with wing-root intakes and a camera nose.

How fast was the F-84F?

The swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreak topped out around 1,120 km/h (about 695 mph, roughly Mach 0.9) — subsonic, but a big step up from the straight-wing Thunderjet, which was slower still.

Was the F-84 any good in Korea?

As a dogfighter, no — it was outclassed by the MiG-15. As a fighter-bomber, very much so: the Thunderjet flew roughly 86,000 ground-attack sorties and was regarded as one of the theatre’s most effective and dependable strike aircraft.

Did the F-84 shoot down MiG-15s?

Yes, a few. F-84 pilots are commonly credited with around eight to nine MiG-15 kills, though exact figures vary between sources and the type lost more aircraft to MiGs than it downed. Air-to-air combat was never its main job.

Did an F-84 really cross the Atlantic non-stop first?

Yes. On 22 September 1950 Colonel David Schilling flew a refuelling-equipped F-84E from England to Maine in about 10 hours 8 minutes with three in-flight refuellings — the first non-stop transatlantic flight by any jet aircraft.

Which countries flew the F-84?

Beyond the United States, the swept F-84F and RF-84F were distributed across NATO under US military aid — France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Turkey and Portugal among them — plus straight-wing Thunderjets to countries such as Iran, Thailand, Taiwan and the former Yugoslavia.

Is any F-84 still flying?

No. The last operational F-84s — Greek RF-84F Thunderflashes — retired in 1991. Survivors today are static museum exhibits.

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