On February 28th 1946 Major William Lien flew the Republic XP 84 for the first time. The Thunderjet as it beame known was powered by Alliston turbojet engines. The plane first entered service in 1947. Eigh different variants of the plane were produced from the F84B to the RF 84F photo recon. The airforce aquired a total of 4,009 of the aircraft.