As the Royal Canadian Navy wanted to replace their obsolete Hawker Sea Furies with Banshees back in 1951 but due to economical reasons the purchase wasn't approved until the production of the Banshee had been shut down in 1953 forcing Canada to adquire second-hand Banshees that were delivered from 1955 to 1958 and flew from the carrier HMCS Bonaventure or as NORAD interceptors.
Initially it had good reputation among the Canadian pilots. However it suffered various problems as one of them was lost after an inflight structural failure of the folding wing mechanism and another one had a brake failure when landing on the carrier, rolling off from it, falling into the ocean and, unfortunately, drowning its pilot.
As the main focus of the Royal Canadian Navy switched to anti-submarine warfare, the Banshees were left ashore and they retired without replacement in 1962 being the only jet-powered carrier-based fighters that served with the RCN.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_F2H_Banshee#Royal_Canadian_Navy
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
No comments:
Post a Comment