The F-105

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 The F-105 was designed by Alexander Kartvelishvili, who also designed the P-47 Thunderbolt in 1939 while on a train ride from Washington, DC to New York City. Over 15,000 P-47s were built and was one of the main United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) fighters during WWII. 
 
 Design  for the F-105 began in the early 1950's and was intended to replace the  the F-85 Thunderjet. Originally intended as a low-altitude penetrator  capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to a target deep within the  Soviet Union, the F-105 was able to achieve speeds of Mach 2.15. The  USAF had intended to purchase 1,500 F-105s but this order was reduced to  833 by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. 
 
 Kartvelishvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia,  at that time a part of Czarist Russia, and emigrated to the United  States in 1928. Worried about possible retaliation from the Russians,  Kartvelshvili's secret work was kept classified because of threats  against scientists and engineers working for the United States. During  his lifetime he did not receive the acclaim that other designers  received. His death in 1974 in New York is still a mystery.