aviation - the past, present and future of flight

by then, was no surprise. Also, grist to the

mill for the French ‘unilateralists’, was an

incident in April 1965 in which an RF-101

of the 38th TRS, 66th TRW, over ew a new

nuclear site at Pierrelatte, in the Rhône

Valley. The French had designated this

a highly sensitive restricted area, so the

incident generated a dramatic, convoluted

and acrimonious exchange between the

two nations, at all political and military

levels up to the White House. However,

an exhaustive inquiry found that, although

there was a violation, the necessary

information on the restricted area had not

reached the USAF, let alone the  ight line,

and the US airmen were exonerated of all

blame. Nonetheless, the 66th TRW had to

 nd a new home.

The wing was moved to RAF Upper

Heyford, in the hitherto quiet Oxfordshire

countryside. Occupied by the Royal Flying

Corps in 1916, the air eld was used by

the RAF in World War Two to train bomber

crews, and in the Cold War by the USAF

Strategic Air Command (SAC), one of four

stations in the area to serve as forward

deployment bases for its bombers. The

runway was extended and strengthened,

aircraft dispersals and a nuclear storage

facility added, and from January 1952,

successive detachments of Boeing B-50s,

Convair B-36s, Boeing B-47s or Boeing

B-52s from SAC’s 3918th Strategic Wing

held ‘Re ex Alert’ on the base. Highly

classi ed, special reconnaissance and

intelligence operations followed until early

1965, when the 3918th Wing withdrew,

and the base prepared to receive the

66th TRW.

The 66th TRW, commanded by Colonel

Robert J Holbury, consisted of the 17th

and 18th TRS, and they departed Laon,

northern France, on September 11, 1966.

The  rst of the 36 Voodoos landed at Upper

Heyford at 4.30pm, with the wing then

coming under the command of the USAF

3rd Air Force. The timing of the move

had been threatened by a defect in the

undercarriage of the RF-101, which affected

the whole  eet, but it seems that Lt Col John

Lashuay, commanding the 18th TRS, had

begged, borrowed or otherwise obtained the

sufficient parts to render all his 18 Voodoos

serviceable on the day. Thus, the squadron

deployed as a whole, arriving at Upper

Heyford in the customary manner – landing,

taxiing in and raising their cockpit canopies

together – in style.

http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 31

Above: Early RF-101s had a KA-1 36in split

vertical camera, plus three 6in KA-2 oblique

and one 6in KA-2 vertical. Improved cameras

would follow. John Nevill

Above right: Stonehenge as photographed

from a 66th TRW Voodoo. Nick Pishvanov

Right: An MGR-1 Honest John surface-to-

surface missile unit, caught in the open by an

RF-101 pilot, and given away by smoke and

movement. Jack Bowland

30-34_usaf_voodoosDC.mfDC.mfDC.indd 31 08/06/2018 11:47