John M. Leonard of the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust performed extensive research on the aircraft and found that with the T40 turning at 14,300rpm through a 6.8:1 gearbox, the outer sections of the propeller blades were traveling at 1.18 Mach. This hammered anyone in plane with those blades with over one hundred sonic booms per second.
While the XF-84H did demonstrate incredible acceleration, it was plagued with problems. The required 30-minute warm-up time for the Allison made it an impracticable combat aircraft and the propeller caused serious vibrations in the airframe and there were several mechanical failures in the prop pitch gearing.
The two prototypes flew a combined dozen test flights. All, but one ended with an in-flight emergency (IFE).
it never flew over 450 knots indicated, since at that speed, it developed an unhappy practice of ‘snaking’, apparently losing longitudinal stability”. As a matter of fact, so shaken by the flight that Hendrix flatly refused to fly it again. He reportedly told Jim Rust, Republic’s chief engineer who stood six-foot-four and weighed 235 pounds, “You aren’t big enough and there aren’t enough of you to get me in that thing again.”
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