Saturday, 27 May 2017

McDonnell F-101B Voodoo, American users

The McDonnell F-101B was first deployed into service on 5th January 1959, serving with the 60th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron and it was produced until March 1961. It had many new features, a coockpit to carry a crew of two, with a larger and more rounded forward fuselage to hold the Hughes MG-13  fire control radar and a data link to the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system. It was also powered by the new and more powerful version of the Pratt & Whitney J57-P-55 engines, making the Voodoo not using the -13 engines.
It was stripped of the four M39 cannons, and carried four AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missiles arranged in a two apiece rotating pallet in the fuselage weapons bay. Late versions could carry two 1.7 kiloton MB-1/AIR-2 Genie Nuclear Rockets on one side of the pallet with infrarred guided GAR-2A (AIM-4C) on the other side.
It was manufactured in greater numbers than the F-101A and F-101C with a total of 479 of them delivered in 1961. Most of them served with the Air Defence Command (ADC) beginning in January 1959. It was withdrawn from active service from 1969 to 1972, with many of them being transferred to the Air National Guard where it replaced the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger serving until 1982.
The RF-101B were a batch of ex-Canadian machines that were returned to the United States Air Force and were reconverted into reconnaissance machines with the weapons replaced by cameras and with an in-flight refuelling probe added. They served with the 192nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of the Nevada Air National Guard only, until 1975. As they were expensive to operate and maintain, they were discontinued.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_F-101_Voodoo#F-101B_.2F_CF-101B_.2F_EF-101B
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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