We had a privately owned F100 flying out of ELP for a couple years in NM National Guard colors.

Next, maybe they will do an F-105.

Are the Collings Foundation Hun and Dean Cutshall’s Hun the only F-100s flying?

My kids loved the F-100 flying out of Indiana but I rarely see it at air shows outside of Oshkosh. The pilot, Dean Cutshall, was super super nice to everyone. A few retired AF pilots came up to talk to him and one talked to us about his experience when Dean asked if he was willing to share. It was like watching the grey hair fade away and the bright eyes light up again. My kids got rambunctious but I enjoyed the time hanging around that shiny beauty!

I haven’t seen the Collings F-100 flying but love to see their F-4 bellowing the black smoke the times it’s came to KOSH.

I hadn't seen any of the Colling's jets out and about in Ellington in YEARS!
But a few weeks ago I at least saw the F-4 out on the ramp with activity around it.

Anybody seen the Saber Dance filmstrip?

This one ?

I think that's it.

Not gonna happen. There was a project to fly a civilian F-105. They had the plane, they had the engine, but were told the FAA would never sign off on it. A while back, after a jet warbird crash (Sacramento ice cream parlor, I think), Congress commissioned a report that concluded that some jet warbirds could be safely operated by civilians, but there were others that could not, citing the F-105 as an example. The FAA pulled out a copy of that Congressional report, highlighted that sentence about the F-105, and said that there was no way on Earth the FAA would ever sign off on a civilian F-105.

Do you remember what is it that makes an F-105 so dangerous for a civilian to operate that’s different than an F-100, F-104, or F-4?

I can find nothing implicating Congress in such a rule. Rather; it is apparently USAF that objects. It was Congressional action that allows the F-4 to fly. Collings also got their TA-4J thru Congressional action.

Given that there are at least two F-104’s and one Harrier in civilian hands … any FAA objection to a F-105 seems … wrong.

https://www.airwarriors.com/community/t ... ion.34593/

There are folks in the Pentagon that would like nothing more than to ground all warbirds.

The objections (And actual rule) are related to fighters manufactured in the US. The Starfighters and SHAR you're talking about were built by Canadair, FIat and BAE, respectively. None of them are the Lockheed or McDonnell Douglas examples.

No exemption is needed for the TA-4, as it's a trainer. There's been an F-4 for sale for years that hasn't attracted any interest from the jet warbird community because it cannot be flown in the United States.

There must be more to it than that. For example, the F-5B once owned by Paul Allen was manufactured in the US. The Classic Jet Aircraft Association's website says, "The U.S. military does not sell tactical-type aircraft directly to the public [unless they have been made permanently unflyable]". But they will sell or give them to other countries, who are sometimes not so picky when they are done with them. Paul's F-5B was ex-Norwegian AF. But the F-105 was never operated by any other country but the US, so that backdoor is closed.

There was a big deal made out of the Chuck Thorton T-38.

That was a bunch of years ago.
I understand Thorton Aviation had two,
along with other Military birds.

I understand they've both been sold.

A T-38 seemed to be a reachable civilian thing.