In addition to the thin, highly swept wing and tail, the F-100 design incorporated other features that reflect an answer to the problem of supersonic flight. Heat-resisting titanium was used extensively throughout the plane. A low-drag, ultra-streamlined fuselage and canopy with but one thin-lipped air intake duct helped make supersonic speed possible. The canopy line matched the rear fuselage in a smoothly curving line so that from the side, the Super Sabre appeared to be slightly arched. Other features included automatic leading-edge slats and a low-positioned one-piece horizontal stabilizer. The F-100 was the first USAF airplane to utilize the low tail.

Since May 1953, when the first prototype model, the YF-100, bettered the speed of sound on its first flight, the versatile fighter set numerous records for speed, endurance, range and maintenance.

By the early 'sixties, the F-100D had been subjected to so many in-service modifications to correct its obvious deficiencies that no two F-100Ds were alike, making for a maintenance and spare parts nightmare. Beginning in 1962, about 700 F-100Ds and Fs were subjected to a series of modifications under *Project High Wire*, a major standardization and upgrading program. The goal of this program was to extend the variety of non-nuclear weapons that could be carried, to eliminate excess weight, and to standardize the cockpit and rewire it completely. Perhaps the most readily noticeable modification produced by the - High Wire - program was the addition of a spring-steel tailhook underneath the rear fuselage. This tailhook was not meant for carrier-based operations, but was intended to engage wires at the end of runways to prevent overshooting during bad landings. Aircraft so modified were distinguished by adding one to their production block numbers--for example, the F-100D-25-NA became F-100D-26-NA after modification. These modifications were completed in 1965.