We should be learning about the launch plans for the DCS: F-100D by Grinnelli Designs any day now and that means that its time to wrap-up my preview series. If you’re curious about what I’ve written so far, check out part one which focuses on flying the airplane. Part two is about using it make things go boom. This article is going to be more of an overview of the module itself and how I think it will be received. I’ll be reserving full judgment on the module until its out and fully released but I will be talking about what I like and don’t like here too.

Overall impressions

Oh it’s a good one! But I will qualify that slightly by the end.

This is the first commercial module release for Grinnelli Designs, however, its clear that the team behind the DCS: F-100D clearly have experience from past development (and at least one of them comes from another well known developer). These folks know what they are doing and that was evident on getting into the module and starting the jet for the very first time.

The visual impression is of an aircraft that is reaching for the same kind of quality level that we’ve seen from Eagle Dynamics and Heatblur most recently. I don’t think the F-100D breaks any new ground but its certainly a highly detailed aircraft that has benefited from photos and laser scanning as well as a careful attention to detail. The cockpit is especially beautiful though I feel like it is sometimes too dark in certain lighting situations and some of the beauty is lost unless you look very closely. When you do, its stunning!

The aircraft certainly has a well-worn look but I don’t think they took it too far either as everything seems readable. The instrumentation is crisp and clear which I appreciate a whole lot!

How does it fly?

The F-100D, as many of you will know, is the improved version of earlier F-100 models which had a reputation as a particularly difficult airplane to fly. Real world accident rates on the F-100 are, in general, quite sobering. This improved model as presented in DCS World remains unforgiving.

While the real world aircraft designers may have made the F-100D more approachable than earlier editions, this is still a bit of a beast and quite a handful in some regimes of flight. I think that’s really going to appeal to 2026’s Cold War era DCS World flight sim fan who isn’t necessarily chasing the best airplane but rather enjoys something that has character and the F-100D from Grinnelli has quite a bit of character!

The Pratt & Whitney J57-P-21/21A afterburning turbojet engine is good for about 10,000lbs of thrust without afterburner but up to 16,000lbs with the burner on. The aircraft has a kind of split personality where it really performs well with the burner on but feels a bit sluggish without it. The engine requires careful modulation of the throttle too. Advance the throttles too quickly? Compressor stall! You’ll feel and hear the banging as the airplane makes all kinds of noises and movements that you don’t want. Do it gently and its runs smoothly.

The F-100 is known for something called the “Sabre dance” where loss of lift on the highly swept wingtips cause the aircraft to perform a violent pitch-up and then subsequently stall and crash if it happens at low altitudes. If you go looking for it or if you mess up your takeoff roll, you can definitely get into one of those states with this module. Landing is perhaps the most difficult regime of flight with the same instability and nose pitch issues cropping up. Its not as twitchy as the MiG-21 is and in level flight its quite restrained but get into the edges of the envelope and the Super Sabre is a bit of a handful.

Unless you already know all of these issues ahead of time, you’re going to likely crash this one at least a few times in regular flight if not in combat.

Early learning

Once getting the controls mapped, I jumped straight into making the F-100D into a combat effective module. Fortunately, this era of jet doesn’t require a lot of complexity and its more about making sure the correct toggles and dials are in the right places. Its not too hard to be able to make things go boom as a result.

The armament panel, located on the left side of the cockpit, is relatively easy to manage with the ability to select weapon types and power on and off weapon pylons. There’s no master arm but a dial control will let you select a range of different types of weapons quickly. Additional controls will give you ability to toggle salvo modes and set weapon spacing. Its all quite familiar if you’re coming from airplanes like the F-4 Phantom or A-4 Skyhawk.

I did get briefly stumped on the guns before discovering that a separate control, tucked almost entirely under the HUD and just to the right, lets you select inboard, outboard or all guns. I decided to put that on a HOTAS keybind so I could select full guns on and off instantly.

Speaking of important keybinds, you’ll need one for the afterburner as the throttle advances forward and then you tap the button to click it into the afterburner. It’s not quite as intuitive as more modern types so it’ll take some getting used to… especially as igniting the afterburner is a kind of adventure in early jet engine mechanics. Fortunately, the sound effects are great at conveying not only the fact that the burner is now on and engaged but giving you a sense of the violent kick that it introduces. This isn’t as refined as more modern types.

This is going to intimidate at least some of you, but I encourage you to move past that and enjoy the charm that is flying an aircraft from this era! You’re very much on the bleeding edge of what was possible in the 1950s and 1960s and that is evident all around in this module.

Capabilities

I’m still coming to grips with the handling of the F-100D but I can report happily that anything that you can get aim on will promptly go down thanks to the rapid fire power of four 20mm cannons under the nose. Very effective against virtually all typical light skinned vehicles and aircraft.

The mix of air to ground ordinance is mostly limited to unguided, yet era-appropriate, weaponry. It is one of the more unique tricks in the F-100D’s capability list is the ability to sling a pair of AGM-54A Shrike missiles. The Shrike isn’t great but a lot of jets of the era simply don’t have the capability except for the community mod A-4E and the DCS: F-4E.

I did get asked if the Shrike works correctly in this module or if its having issues the way the DCS: F-4E reportedly is. I can only report on my offline testing but it seems to work nicely and the dev team report that they’ve not had any issues either.

As it currently exists, you can fit everything from the AIM-9B to AIM-9J with up to four being carried at a time.

You can absolutely setup a fighter-bomber or multi-role mix here with AIM-9s on the inboard pylons and rockets or bombs on the outboard with fuel tanks in the middle. Asymmetric loadouts are possible!

There are FFAR rockets, bomblet dispensers, Mk 82 Snakeyes high drag bombs, AGM-45 Shrike missiles, and even some more exotic (for the time) options like the laser guided BOLT-117 – the precursor to the modern laser guided munition. The F-100D comes with an ample array of pylons and weapons intended to make things on the ground go boom. Very few of them are smart weapons so mostly what you’re going to be doing is making use of bombing tables, gunsight depression settings, or the LABS calculator which should enable at least some degree of precision drops on ground targets.

Thoughts on the online “meta”

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently on Heatblur’s Cold War server and most recently putting in a bit of time on the Contention Cold War server as well. That’s been very useful while flying this aircraft because the F-100D is going to fit perfectly into that mix.

It does some with some disadvantages which I can see being an issue for some. One is that it really lacks in the dogfight, or at least it does in my hands. The F-100D is a bit sluggish in roll and turn and I can see it suffering against more agile opponents.

It does have an excellent RWR system, for the era, so I can see that giving the F-100 some measure of warning against certain types of radar weapons being used against it. It’s more intuitive than some of the systems that you’ll see in the MiG-21 or F-1CE for example. On the other hand, the F-100 lacks a countermeasure dispensing system so it will struggle to throw off already fired IR missiles much as the MiG-19 does. In many ways, the F-100D will be in the same general category as types like the MiG-19 or MiG-17 though it won’t have the agility of either.

Dogfighting isn’t the only thing we do on these servers, however, and the F-100’s role as a fighter-bomber I think will make it highly useful and popular with some virtual flyers. It will certainly with this virtual pilot!

As an attacker you can bring a decent array of cluster, area effect, and direct attack munitions. Flying in at low altitudes, using a reasonably effective afterburner to pop-up, roll over, use varying methods including LABS to get an accurate bomb drop, and escape will be more than doable in the F-100. The guns and options of AIM-9 missiles up to the J will give it some backing as a fighter when it needs it.

On servers with ample SAM presence, appropriately configured Shrike missiles will also provide yet another platform to operate that missile from and to engage in some serious SEAD type operations.

While a few may be disappointed in all of this analysis, I suspect others won’t be thrown off at all. We don’t always buy DCS modules to have the best at something but to have an engaging experience and I think this is going to be a very entertain, challenging yes, but overall fun experience.

It’s also very in keeping with the F-100’s role in USAF operations in Vietnam. The type was never actually credited with an air to air kill (just a probable) and so this is very much an attacker at heart and it will do well in that online.

Things I haven’t got to yet

Grinnelli have added some really cool features. A gun camera system with video recordings, a bomb camera system to do the same for strike missions, and a cockpit customization feature that lets you mimic real world F-100s with varying cockpit arrangements.

I really wanted to get to these features but I just haven’t had the time yet. I do suspect, however, that they will be quite fun and even valuable in the after action reporting from online battles. I will be getting into these things eventually! I’m certain!

Summing up my first impressions

I’m really excited for the whole community to gain access to this aircraft. As a digital museum piece, Grinnelli Designs have absolutely managed to get a beautiful capture of the aircraft’s visuals inside and out, its systems, its sounds, and the overall character. The team’s work with real world examples really made a difference.

The aircraft will add additional flavour to the popular Cold War era segment of the DCS World community with something that is both challenging and capable in about equal quantities. It’ll hold appeal to a variety of styles of flying as well though you will have to be the kind of sim pilot who enjoys or even revels in the unique challenges of flying this generation of jet. If you like the MiG-21 or enjoy the F-4E but find it to be overly complex, the F-100D might fit your desires nicely!

I’ll be revisiting all of this sometime after launch looking at the module as it evolves post launch!