aviation - the past, present and future of flight

USAF IN THE UK SPECIAL

I

 rst met the ‘Voodoo Warriors’ of the

USAF’s 66th Tactical Reconnaissance

Wing (TRW) at Spangdahlem Air Base,

West Germany, when competing against

them with my RAF Supermarine Swift FR.5,

in the 1958 NATO tactical reconnaissance

competition, Royal Flush. A year later I

was  ying McDonnell RF-101 Voodoo as an

exchange officer on a training squadron at

Shaw AFB, South Carolina and met aircrew

destined for the unit. These were the men

who would have to face combat in the

extremely hostile skies over Vietnam.

The huge, robust and powerful Voodoo

had a most impressive acceleration and

top speed in reheat (600+ knots and Mach

1.57), coupled with a prodigious range, given

its two 450 gallon (1,046 litre) external fuel

tanks and an air-to-air refuelling capability.

The initial operational equipment for this

tactical reconnaissance (Tac Recon) version

of the Voodoo consisted of Fairchild KA-1

and KA-2 cameras for oblique, vertical and

mapping photography and a pair of KA-18,

36in (91.4cm) split-vertical cameras for area

cover – a cockpit view nder to help the pilot

aim the cameras. Throughout the RF-101’s

life, demands for greater clarity and complete

photographic cover at very high operating

speeds and ultra low-level  ight led to higher

performance cameras being incorporated.

Contemporary warfare demands

immediate, continuous, near real-time

intelligence on troop movements, enemy

aircraft deployments, bomb damage

assessments and more. The RF-101s could

provide this service with visual sightings on

salient features passed to command and

control centres, via in- ight reports in code

or on secure communications, followed by

more comprehensive details drawn from

rapidly processed  lm.

What of the vulnerability of the Voodoo

in war, given the imperatives of the tactical

reconnaissance role, the proliferation of

Warsaw Pact air defences, and paucity in

the 1960s of electronic countermeasures

(ECM) on board or from external support?

There was little sensible option but to enter

and exit hostile airspace at high speed

and the lowest practicable altitude, and the

66th TRW trained accordingly, making best

use of all the low- ying facilities available

to them. At very low level, the RF-101’s

acceleration, high speed, and use where

possible of terrain masking, offered a

credible means of survival.

AU REVOIR FRANCE,

HELLO ENGLAND

General Charles de Gaulle found the

presence of US military units in France

an anathema, so the announcement in

1965 that France would withdraw from the

military arm of NATO the following year,

and that the Americans forces must leave

Group Captain

Nigel Walpole

looks back at the

RF-101 Voodoo’s time

at Upper Heyford.

VOODOO

ALONE, UNARMED

AND UNAFRAID

30 Aviation News incorporating Jets July 2018

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