thunderscreech

quite possibly the worst airplane ever made, the thunderscreech was an experimental aircraft from the 1950s. some genius had the idea to take one of the most successful jet fighters of the day, the f-84 thunderjet, and put a propeller on the shaft of its engine. this was all well and good, but not only did it decrease the plane’s top speed, but because the jet engine spun so fast, the tips of the propeller blades would go faster than the speed of sound. this meant that if you were standing in line with the edge of the propeller, you would be hearing around 200 sonic booms per second. the high-pitched scream the plane made gave it the sinister nickname “thunderscreech”. it was, by all measurements, the loudest single-engined aircraft on earth. it was so loud that if you were unlucky enough to have it fly past you, you could experience nausea, fainting, seizures, or even lose control of your bowels. all but 2 of the 7 flights ever made by the lone prototype ended in emergency landings, and the 25-ton aluminum t-rd now sits at an air museum, where it will forever serve as a warning to never put a prop on a jet fighter ever again.
we saw the thunderscreech at the air museum. man, they told us it was ugly, but i never thought it would be that ugly!