When I take visitors around the outdoor aircraft on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum, I always say a few words about these Republic F-84s, early jet fighters that show the evolution from straight to swept wings:
F-84C Thunderjet, left; F-84F Thunderstreak, right (photo: Paul Woodford)
The aircraft with the barber-striped tail is an F-84C Thunderjet, first flown in 1946 and later employed as a strike fighter in the Korean War. As with other early US jets, it was designed with straight wings. The closer aircraft, wearing the colors of the USAF Thunderbirds, is an F-84F Thunderstreak, a swept-wing redesign of the Thunderjet, first flown in 1950.
