Subject: Number 101 in the Series--McDonnell F-101 Voodoo (6 of 10)

From: [email-masked]
Date: 24 Nov 93 18:07:55 GMT

>From [email-masked]

The RF-101C was the unarmed photographic reconnaissance version of the 
single-seat F-101C.  It combined the strengthened structure of the 
F-101C with the camera installation of the RF-101A.  A total of 166 
RF-101Cs were built, and were the last single-seat Voodoos to be built 
for the USAF.  

The first RF-101Cs were delivered to to the 20th and 29th squadrons of 
the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Shaw AFB in September of 
1957.  The last delivery to the USAF was on March 31, 1959.  

RF-101Cs were first assigned to Europe during the spring of 1958 when 
the 66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Laon AB in France converted 
from RF-84Fs.  By the end of 1958, 30 RF-101Cs were based overseas.  
They were stationed at Nouasseur AFB in Morocco and at the Laon and 
Phalsbourg air bases in France.  They later served with the 66th TRW 
in England until 1970.  In the Pacific, RF-101Cs served with the 15th 
Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of the 67th TRW at Kadena AFB on 
Okinawa.  This outfit received its first RF-101Cs in August of 1958.  
Later, RF-101Cs were located at Misawa AFB in Japan.  

The RF-101C, like the RF-101A before it, was beset with maintenance 
problems.  There were a series of groundings caused by defective 
landing gears and deficient hydraulic systems.  Urgent modifications 
by McDonnell and Air Force crews helped to solve these problems.  

In 1962, new high resolution cameras were installed in most RF-101s.  
A special modification allowed the aircraft to take photographs at 
lower altitudes and the installation of flash cartridge pods gave them 
a limited night photography capability.  The Voodoos were given the 
capability of refueling each other via a buddy refueling tank being 
carried in place of the usual external fuel tank underneath the 
aircraft's left wing.  

RF-101A/C aircraft of the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing flew 
vital reconnaissance missions over Cuba during the Missile Crisis of 
October 1962, confirming and then monitoring the Soviet missile 
buildup on that island.  The first missions over Cuba took place on 
October 23, 1962, and 15 pilots from the 363rd were awarded 
Distinguished Flying Crosses during that action.  

The RF-101C was the only Voodoo version to serve in Vietnam.  The 
RF-101C first appeared in the Pacific in August of 1958, when the 15th 
Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance 
Wing based at Kadena AFB on Okinawa got its first RF-101Cs.  RF-101Cs 
from this squadron were deployed to South Vietnam in October-November 
of 1961 to fly intelligence gathering flights over South Vietnam and 
Laos.  They flew their missions from Tan Son Nhut AFB near Saigon (now 
Ho Chi Minh City) The 67th TRW was soon followed by detachments of the 
15th and 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadrons, which flew missions 
over Laos and South Vietnam, first from Thailand and then from 
Vietnam.  These reconnaissance missions lasted from November 1961 
through the spring of 1964.  

RF-101Cs flew pathfinder missions for F-100s in the first USAF strike 
against North Vietnam on February 8, 1965.  They initially operated 
out of South Vietnam, but later flew most of their missions over North 
Vietnam out of bases in Thailand.  Bombing missions against the North 
required a large amount of photographic reconnaissance support, and by 
the end of 1967, all but one of the TAC RF-101C squadrons were in 
Southeast Asia.  

The RF-101C was fast enough to be easily able to evade interception by 
North Vietnamese MiG-17s.  The Mach-2 MiG-21 Fishbed was another 
story.  Following the loss of an RF-101C to a MiG-21 Fishbed in 
September of 1967, the RF-101C was replaced by the McDonnell RF-4C 
Phantom II in reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam.  with the 
Voodoo being restricted to missions over Laos and South Vietnam, where 
the probability of encountering enemy fighters was much smaller.  

33 RF-101Cs were lost in combat in Southeast Asia--24 to AAA and small 
arms fire, 5 to surface-to-air missiles, one to a MiG-21, one in a 
sapper attack on its base at Tan Son Nhut AFB near Saigon, and two to 
unknown causes.  Six were lost in operational (non-combat related) 
accidents while serving in Southeast Asia.  More than 30 
RF-101Cs were lost in accidents during their early years of service, 
mainly due to pilot inexperience.  

Plans had been made for the RF-101C to be gradually phased out of USAF 
service in favor of the McDonnell RF-4C Phantom II beginning in 1965.  
The RF-101Cs withdrawn from USAF service were to be transferred over 
to the Air National Guard.  However, the requirements of the Vietnam 
war forced the USAF to change its plans, and the RF-101C had to 
soldier on for a few more years.  

The Air National Guard did not get its first batch of RF-101Cs until 
early 1969.  Over the next two years, President Nixon's program of 
Vietnamization increased the pace at which USAF units left Southeast 
Asia, and more and more RF-101Cs were transferred to the ANG.  The 
last Voodoos departed the war zone in November of 1970.  The Air Force 
transferred its last RF-101C to the ANG in 1971.  

The RF-101C served with the ANG only for a relatively short time.  The 
last ANG RF-101C was retired in 1975.  

RF-101C-40-MC serial number 56-166 is on display at the 
Wright-Patterson AFB Museum in Dayton, Ohio.  

There is a forward fuselage of another RF-101C in storage at the Paul 
Garber Restoration Facility of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at 
Suitland, Maryland.  I don't have its serial number.  

Serials of the RF-101C: 

56-040/057 	McDonnell RF-101C-60-MC Voodoo 
56-058/086 	McDonnell RF-101C-65-MC Voodoo 
56-087/114 	McDonnell RF-101C-70-MC Voodoo 
56-115/135 	McDonnell RF-101C-75-MC Voodoo 
56-134/154 	Cancelled contract for RF-101C 
56-162/173 	McDonnell RF-101C-40-MC Voodoo 
56-174/186 	McDonnell RF-101C-45-MC Voodoo 
56-187/198 	McDonnell RF-101C-50-MC Voodoo 
56-199/221 	McDonnell RF-101C-55-MC Voodoo 
56-222/231 	McDonnell RF-101C-60-MC Voodoo 

Specifications of the RF-101C: 

Two Pratt & Whitney J57-P-13 turbojets, 10,200 lb.s.t. dry and 15,000 
lb.s.t. with afterburner.  Dimensions: wingspan 39 feet 8 inches, 
length 69 feet 4 inches, height 18 feet 0 inches, wing area 368 square 
feet.  Maximum speed 1012 mph at 35,000 feet.  Initial climb rate 
45,500 feet/min.  Service ceiling 55,300 feet, combat ceiling 51,540 
feet.  Normal range 1715 miles, maximum range 2145 miles.  Weights: 
26,136 pounds empty, 48,133 pounds gross, 39,495 pounds combat weight, 
51,000 pounds maximum takeoff.  Maximum internal fuel load was 2250 US 
gallons.  A total of three under-fuselage drop tanks could be carried, 
bringing maximum fuel load to 3150 US gallons.  The RF-101C was 
unarmed.  

Sources:

  McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920: Volume II, Rene J.
  Francillon, Naval Institute Press, 1990.

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
  Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.

  Fighters of the United States Air Force, Robert F. Dorr and
  David Donald, Temple Press Aerospace, 1990.

  American Combat Planes, Third Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner, Doubleday,
  1982.

  Post-World War II Fighters, 1945-1973, Marcelle Size Knaack,
  Office of Air Force History, 1986. 

Joe Baugher		AT&T Bell Laboratories   	
2000 North Naperville Road      Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033