F-105F artwork

[Chek]

I came across this piece of what appears to be promo artwork showing an early concept for the two-seater Thunderchief with a tandem bubble canopy.

I have a couple of F-105 titles and a fair number of photos collected over the years, but have never seen this before.

I have to say it looks a bit more handsome than the production ones we're more used to.

[Oldbaldguy]

Just when I thought I'd seen everything.  Obviously Republic promo/concept art like you said.  Wonder why they dropped this version instead of the one with two separate canopies.  I'd guess that the separate canopies were easier and more cost effective to build, seal, maintain etc, than a single canoe-sized transparency.  Nicely executed illustration.  Looks like a water color.

[Finn]

A bit more than artwork, the F-105C:

 

 

Jari

[Chek]

Joe Baugher has this to say about it.

 

"The F-105C was to have been a two-seat version of the single-seat F-105B. The F-105C was intended to be used for advanced training, and the student and instructor were seated in tandem ejector seats underneath a very large single canopy. The second cockpit would replace one of the fuselage fuel cells. All of the combat capabilities of the single-seat F-105B would be retained.

In April of 1956, Republic received authorization to build five F-105Cs. However, in October of 1957, the F-105C project was cancelled before any examples could be built or flown. Nevertheless, the F-105C had reached the mockup stage at the time of the cancellation".

 

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f105_4.html

[red Dog]

Learned something interesting about the F-105 not so long ago.

The F-105 is able to refuel with both systems: the probe & drogue and the boom into the receptacle

 

I didn't know about any aircraft that featured both system.

sounds peculiar but I was really suprised learning this

(sorry for the hijack)