F-84E

[Uther]

I can certainly see why they used drop tanks, these things sure burn through the gas.

[Tuna_Lead]

12 hours ago, migmadmarine said:

Are you conflating the 84 and 80 there? I think the 84 wasn't able to jettison the tip tanks in flight to my knowledge. 

AN 01-65BJC-1, HANDBOOK FLIGHT OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS USAF SERIES F-84E AIRCRAFT
Page 34, para 3-62. TIP TANK JETTISON

2. TIP TANK JETTISON.
a. Tip tank air pressure switches "OFF."
b. Tip tanks jettison switch "JETTISON."
WARNING
Jettison empty tip tanks in straight flight at speeds above 250 mph IAS if conditions permit. At lower speeds, the air loads that separate the tank from the airplane are small and one or both tanks may hang-up. If this should occur, hold the airplane straight then yaw slightly away from the tank by tapping the rudder pedal. Do not roll or yaw the airplane sharply. Do not jettison empty tip tanks in a turn. Jettison full tip tanks in straight flight or shallow turns, if possible, at any speed.

[Tuna_Lead]

On 6/29/2026 at 4:37 PM, Rails said:

I don't know if it's appropriate to post here but FM issues I've noticed are the aircraft doesn't seem to respond at all to elevator trim at high speed. Seems like after 50% nose down it doesn't do anything and the aircraft still wants to pitch up (After much testing I found with my force feedback it's not giving a nose down response with trim above 400-410 mph. The stick is slowing starting to come back to center giving a nose up feeling. If I drop below this speed it'll start giving a nose down feeling to the stick again. Not sure if this is how it should be with it's flight data, but it's what I'm getting. It might be reacting fine with non force feedback sticks as well?). The stall seems wrong as well, from the manual it should stall straight ahead with no tendency to roll off, and reaching critical mach the aircraft should pitch up not down. I've also noticed the elevator response seems way to sensitive given it's a mechanical push rod system. It feels like the elevators are boosted like the ailerons. I've also noticed the max range rheostat for the gunsight radar doesn't seem to move when you set it to different distances.

Rails, 
The F-84E's FM seems very much in development to me. I have not had any issues with lower speed behavior, I should go test this. 

Related to this, this is not from the F-84E specific manual, is it? If you found a different issue for the E model I would love to get a copy. I only have this one.

As for the higher speed behavior,
I posted a post on the 84E's specific behavior in relation to pitch up at redline:

Maybe it is better to post or link here. 
I will attach two images from the 84E specific manual AN 01-65BJC-1, HANDBOOK FLIGHT OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS USAF SERIES F-84E AIRCRAFT.
I don't want to tread any issues on copyright but this was a widely publicized manual, so this should be fine.



The warning text here is of particular interest. Page 27.

Edited July 7 by Tuna_Lead

[Avimimus]

On 7/6/2026 at 11:31 AM, MajorMagee said:

1950: The Peacetime Deficit

• Actual Production Rate: ~200 to 500 tanks per month globally.
• The Reality: When the war began in June 1950, domestic manufacturing of external fuel tanks was virtually nonexistent due to a post-WWII defense drawdown. The F-84 wings deployed to Korea rapidly exhausted existing peacetime reserves within the first 60 days, forcing the U.S. Air Force to scramble to establish brand-new manufacturing contracts.

 

1951: The Logistics Bottleneck

• Actual Production Rate: Ramped up from 1,500 to roughly 4,000 tanks per month by late winter.
• The Reality: Republic Aviation and subcontracted automotive manufacturers faced crippling aluminum shortages. Despite hitting a 4,000-per-month threshold, this was a drop in the bucket compared to the FEAF's consumption. In mid-1951, F-84 operations faced near-grounding crisis levels, forcing theater commanders to ration sorties because theater consumption was hovering around 8,000+ tanks monthly.

 

1952: The Stamped-Steel Pivot

• Actual Production Rate: Exploded to 10,000+ tanks per month by mid-1952.
• The Reality: This was the year the crisis was solved. The Department of Defense expanded production contracts beyond aircraft builders to heavy consumer appliance and industrial stamping plants. By modifying the design to utilize stamped low-grade steel, factories in the U.S. were finally able to achieve the true mass-production volumes required.

 

1953: Overseas Local Procurement

• Actual Production Rate: Stabilized at 12,000 to 15,000 tanks per month until the July armistice.
• The Reality: To bypass the grueling logistical lag of shipping thousands of hollow, bulky metal tanks across the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. began heavily utilizing local procurement. They contracted reconstructed Japanese manufacturing plants to build the heavy wingtip and under-wing drop tanks directly in theater. This eliminated the shipping bottleneck and finally allowed supply to safely exceed the daily combat drop rate until the end of the conflict.

What is your source for this infomration?

[migmadmarine]

Seems like decent info, but the formatting feels very LLM, so I would also like to know where it comes from.

[Rails]

@Tuna_Lead the two manuals i referenced are the D and G models, I could not find the E for free online. I figured the airframes aren't drastically different between these two variants and the characteristics of the aircraft should be similar. In turns I'm finding the aircraft wants to roll off the inboard wing of the turn instead of straight ahead like the manuals says. The plane is also not pitching up when it enters compressibility like the manual states and I can see why they'd issue the warning in the manual about the airbrake. The airbrake should also be giving a pitch up moment, in game it does not currently.

I'm also hesitant to put out anymore FM issues I've noticed since this is early access still and I am expecting changes for final release. We'll see what happens I guess.

[Aapje]

7 hours ago, Rails said:

I'm also hesitant to put out anymore FM issues I've noticed since this is early access still and I am expecting changes for final release.

This is exactly the time to report FM issues, so the devs can fix them before release.

[Avimimus]

 

9 hours ago, Rails said:

@Tuna_Lead the two manuals i referenced are the D and G models, I could not find the E for free online. I figured the airframes aren't drastically different between these two variants and the characteristics of the aircraft should be similar.

FWIW - The F-84D was 30 centimetres shorter and had less structural strength for the wings. So, the distribution of mass and elevator effects will be a bit different, and potentially roll rate will be effected (if the wings are less rigid). The F-84G had a more powerful engine but also more equipment (it weighed an extra 250kg empty and 700kg when fully loaded).

[Rails]

6 hours ago, Aapje said:

This is exactly the time to report FM issues, so the devs can fix them before release.

Which I have reported what I’ve found so far so I’ll wait to see if those changes get made. If they do make changes it could affect other things, best practice is to change something and see if it causes other problems imo. Not give them a laundry list and expect them to change everything, I think the biggest changes that should happen are at the extreme ends of the flight envelope currently. 

[Avimimus]

I'd trust them to create a list of things to look into, make detailed notes, and prioritise the order in which things are done.

What they need from us is information about our experiences of the sim and source material/documentation where relevant (especially in a few narrow areas that might have been hard to research without access to archives etc.) But I'm pretty sure the best practice is to post what you've found all at once.

[Rails]

5 hours ago, Avimimus said:

 

FWIW - The F-84D was 30 centimetres shorter and had less structural strength for the wings. So, the distribution of mass and elevator effects will be a bit different, and potentially roll rate will be effected (if the wings are less rigid). The F-84G had a more powerful engine but also more equipment (it weighed an extra 250kg empty and 700kg when fully loaded).

Well the stalling characteristics between the D and G manuals are the same. Like I said I don’t think they’d be drastically different characteristics wise between the models. What is different is the G tolerance but the warnings are the same because of how it flies. 

10 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

I'd trust them to create a list of things to look into, make detailed notes, and prioritise the order in which things are done.

What they need from us is information about our experiences of the sim and source material/documentation where relevant (especially in a few narrow areas that might have been hard to research without access to archives etc.) But I'm pretty sure the best practice is to post what you've found all at once.

I’ll compile what I’ve found so far and post in the FM section of the forum. I don’t know if that stuff should be here or over there. 

[Avimimus]

I think comments on a specific aircraft go in that aircraft's thread. If it is a general comment related to multiple aircraft it would go in the FM thread or the suggestions subforum.

[LukeFF]

20 hours ago, Rails said:

@Tuna_Lead the two manuals i referenced are the D and G models, I could not find the E for free online. I figured the airframes aren't drastically different between these two variants and the characteristics of the aircraft should be similar. In turns I'm finding the aircraft wants to roll off the inboard wing of the turn instead of straight ahead like the manuals says. The plane is also not pitching up when it enters compressibility like the manual states and I can see why they'd issue the warning in the manual about the airbrake. The airbrake should also be giving a pitch up moment, in game it does not currently.

I'm also hesitant to put out anymore FM issues I've noticed since this is early access still and I am expecting changes for final release. We'll see what happens I guess.

Here you go

F-84 High Speed Flight Characteristics.pdf Flight Handbook USAF Series F-84E Aircraft.pdf

[Rails]

Wow! thanks a ton @LukeFF!

[Rails]

Updated original post with my findings.

[Tuna_Lead]

On 7/8/2026 at 5:11 PM, LukeFF said:

Here you go

F-84 High Speed Flight Characteristics.pdf 34.9 MB · 12 downloads Flight Handbook USAF Series F-84E Aircraft.pdf 15.16 MB · 13 downloads

Your flight handbook is a 2 year more recent revision than mine, mine is from 1951.
The compressibility and mach red line behavior seems to be the same in this manual, so it does confirm the behavior I wrote before from the '51 version of the book. I will poke through and see if I can find any major differences or if it is just a republication.

List of revisions shows no major changes for the redline behavior.

Very happy to see you are tracking this @LukeFF.

 

Edited July 10 by Tuna_Lead

[migmadmarine]

Would it be possible to tweak the drop tank jettison so if you have both tip tanks and the inboard drop tanks, you can drop the inboard ones only? Like first key press dumps them, then another jettison the tip tanks?

[FuriousMeow]

Is time to altitude off? Or am I making a mistake?

Time to 35,000ft should be 7.5 to 8 minutes according to what I've found, clean aircraft. That time gets me to 27 or 28,000 ft.

[Dash,Polder]

G meter instrument negative G needle will not move into the negative G zone and record it as it should, never moves off zero, positive needle working OK.

[MGMSwordsman]

How do I use the rocket assisted takeoff (RATO) capability?  I see how to place the RATO units on the aircraft during setup, however, when I search key mapping, I can find no actions to fire the RATO units or drop the RATO units after use.  What am I missing?  Thanks in advance for any hep. 

[Valis]

17 minutes ago, MGMSwordsman said:

How do I use the rocket assisted takeoff (RATO) capability?  I see how to place the RATO units on the aircraft during setup, however, when I search key mapping, I can find no actions to fire the RATO units or drop the RATO units after use.  What am I missing?  Thanks in advance for any hep. 

In the engine controls look for Jet boosters: Fire and Jet boosters: Jettison

[MGMSwordsman]

Thanks, Valis! 

[Ludl0w]

Since the white fiberglass tape reinforced canopy was a field-modification to the F-84E, could we eventually see a F-84E in-game without the white fiberglass reinforcement on the canopy? Especially in career mode early in the war before the modification was fitted and widely adopted? Perhaps it could be a modification that the player could choose to fit like the other various modifications other aircraft have in-game?

[Rails]

Newest update has made force feedback bad. pitch seems very light and I don't get much feedback, aircraft is still way to light in pitch compared to what the flight manual says.

[Valis]

F-84 has substantial dihedral, so why is it almost impossible/exhausting to fly wings-level?