Subject: New Fighter Series--McDonnell F-2 Banshee (5 of 5)

From: [email-masked]
Date: 11 Apr 94 16:33:12 GMT

>From [email-masked]

The Banshee had only one export customer, the Royal Canadian Navy.  

The Royal Canadian Navy had considered acquiring the Banshee as a 
replacement for its Hawker Sea Fury F.B.11 piston-engined 
fighter-bombers.  However, by the time that funding had finally been 
approved by the Canadian government, McDonnell was no longer building 
Banshees.  Consequently, the RCN was forced to settle for 39 F2H-3s 
transferred from US Navy stocks.  

The transfer of Banshees to Canada began on November 30, 1955.  RCN 
pilots collected their F2H-3s at NAS Quonset Point in Rhode Island and 
flew them to Shearwater in Nova Scotia.  Once in Canada, they were 
issued to two operational squadrons, VF-870 and VF-871, and to one 
test squadron, VX-10.  The last RCN F2H-3 was transferred on June 16, 
1958.  

The Banshee had a high attrition rate in RCN service.  By the summer 
of 1962, most of them had been lost in accidents either in flight, 
ashore, or aboard the carrier HMCS *Bonaventure*.  The surviving RCN 
F2H-3s were struck off strength on September 12, 1962.  VF-870, the 
last RCN fighter squadron, was then disbanded.  

The following BuNos were transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy: 

126294, 126295, 126306, 126310, 126313, 126327, 126330, 126331, 
126333/126335, 126337, 126339, 126343, 126346, 126347, 126361, 126381, 
126382, 126390, 126391, 126400, 126402, 126403, 126414, 126415, 
126422, 126428, 126429, 126434, 126443, 126444, 126446, 126449, 
126454, 126464, 126469, 126488, and 127510.  

Sources:

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

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

  The World Guide to Combat Planes, William Green, Macdonald, 1966. 

  The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft Armament, Bill Gunston,
  Orion, 1988. 

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

Joe Baugher		AT&T Bell Laboratories   	
263 Shuman Boulevard 		Naperville, Illinois 60566-7050