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Help ID a late 50's aircraft: F-101 Voodoo


338thRCT
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This was in with a group of several hundred old Kodachrome slides that I got at the flea market. I believe this is in California as most were of a family vacation to Disneyland and other stuff in CA.I was wondering what this aircraft is.post-70300-0-58454800-1581094616_thumb.jpgpost-70300-0-91746900-1581094640_thumb.jpg

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That was a good looking plane. Planes back then never seemed to have any longevity. I remember as a kid (late 50's early 60's) building (poorly) model plane after model plane. It seemed that new planes were coming out all the time. I'm guessing that technology was advancing so fast that planes quickly became obsolete. I remember that the military plane I saw most frequently in my upstate NY neighborhood was the flying boxcar.

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  • 1 month later...
The Rooster

That was a good looking plane. Planes back then never seemed to have any longevity. I remember as a kid (late 50's early 60's) building (poorly) model plane after model plane. It seemed that new planes were coming out all the time. I'm guessing that technology was advancing so fast that planes quickly became obsolete. I remember that the military plane I saw most frequently in my upstate NY neighborhood was the flying boxcar.

 

C119- Flying Boxcar....

Yes aviation developed at warp speed after WW2. After Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier.

 

I remember in 1984 or 85 the Illinois Air Guard was still flying the F4 Phantom. I watched a couple taking off. Talk about loud !!! And smoke !!!

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That's an F-101B Voodoo interceptor. They stayed in ANG service into the late 70's I believe. When I was stationed at K.I. Sawyer AFB Michigan 1966-1970, the 62nd Fighter Interceptor Squadron flew these until late 1970. ANG units flew older fighters thru the 1960's and beyond. In 1966, the Illinois ANG was still flying F-84's. Talk about noise!

The F-101: fast, sexy and LOUD!

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Having watched them, I know the Kentucky ANG was flying RF-101s as late as 1975 or 76. The Illinois guard still had those F-84Fs as late as 1969 or 70. And it was fun watching the Missouri ANG wing based at Lambert Field in St. Louis as they were converting from F-100s to F-4 Phantoms in the 1978-79 time frame. I have some good 35mm photos of the latter.

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Little known bit of trivia--the USAF version of the Phantom II was originally called the F-110. It too is a century series jet.

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Steindaddie

Little known bit of trivia--the USAF version of the Phantom II was originally called the F-110. It too is a century series jet.

Here's a couple period photos of the F-110A. Although it was dubbed the F-110 "Spectre", the name was never official. That being said, these pictures show that the name was in use. The second photo was taken at Langley AFB in 1962, and though it's hard to see in the pic, the signboard says "F-110A Phantom" - but not "Spectre". Again, both names were at best semi-official. Both photos show the same aircraft: 49406 which was a Navy plane on loan to the USAF. It's air force serial was 62-12169. The aircraft was returned to the USN but crashed in 1967. Of additional interest is the F-105 alongside - shotdown by a MiG in 1966. Both photos can be seen on my website, "thejivebombers.com". (It's vintage aviation stuff, free to see, nothing sold, etc.)

post-1949-0-81422300-1586327453_thumb.jpg

post-1949-0-72984700-1586327465_thumb.jpg

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Some nice shots Steindaddie. More trivia: The takeoff shot is of the jet taking off on runway 30 - Lambert Field, St. Louis. The building in the background is the old McDonnell HQ building (also known as Building 1) on the south side of Banshee Rd., and in which I was located when when I started working for the company in 1978. By then the corporate offices had moved out of the building - McDonnell built a newer more modern HQ building around 1970 next to the Astronautics campus.

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Great info!

As I look at the 1962 photo I'm struck by the fact that only 20 years prior the P-47 Thunderbolt was the newest fighter entering the USAAF inventory. The pace of progress was astounding in the 40s and 50s, especially when you consider the USAF is still using F-15s and F-16s as front-line fighters and they were first flown 40+ years ago.

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