Regarding a comparo between the Hunter vs. the Thunderjet, it should be remembered that the Thunderjet was introduced in 1947, seven years before the Hunter's introduction in 1954. Wing loading on a F-84G was 70 lb/ft squared, vs. a Hunter F.6 with a wing loading of 51.6 lb/ft squared.
She (the F-84) was a bit of a dog, but the F-84 was reputed to be a stable gun platform, and despite the "hot" landing speeds, the Thunderjet was easy to fly on instruments, and crosswinds did not present much of a problem. They could carry up to 4,450 lbs of rockets and bombs, or one Mk.7 nuclear bomb.
The first aircraft operated by The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds was the F-84G Thunderjet, from 1953 to 1955. They upgraded to the swept wing model F-84F Thunderstreak in 1955, and operated the type until 1956. The F-84E was also flown by the Skyblazers team of United States Air Forces Europe (USAFE) from 1950 to 1955.
As previously mentioned by
DaveReidUK, On 22 September 1950, two EF-84Es, flown by David C. Schilling and Col. William Ritchie, flew across the North Atlantic from Great Britain to the United States. Ritchie's aircraft ran out of fuel over Newfoundland but the other jet successfully made the crossing which took ten hours two minutes and three aerial refuelings. The flight demonstrated that large numbers of fighters could be rapidly moved across the Atlantic.
On 20 August 1953, 17 F-84Gs using aerial refueling flew from the United States to the United Kingdom. The 4,485-mile (3,900 nmi, 7,220 km) journey was the longest-ever
nonstop flight by jet fighters.
1,972 Hunters were built. 7,524 F-84s of all variants were built, over half going to NATO countries.
