F-101 (and XF-88) Voodoo

[elmayerle]

Think most of the 101's handling issues are the result of the T tail arrangement. If one were to rearrange the tail into a mid or low mounted elevator layout, then a good bit of the issues should be cured.

Well, that's why my 1/72 F3H-3 "Super Demon" is going to have the F3H wings grafted onto the F-101B center section and the horizontal stabilizer moved down to where it is on the F3H.  I'll likely also replace the missile bay with a cannon bay (using Aeroclub's F-101A/C nose conversion) and extra fuel.  I can see four Sparrows under the wings, fuel tanks on the standard F-101 fuel tank hard points, and an option for Sidewinders under the forward fuselage.  I'm crossing the Demon with the Voodoo because they were production contemporaries and 'twould be a bit easier to do from a plausibility standpoint.

[Deino]

...  An F-101B/F-4E Hybrid (with perhaps some F-3 Demon characteristics)!

That was exactly my idea ! Something like a Super-Voodoo which could have been a specialized Taiwanese version after Taiwan received some recce-version (= "Four Voodoos were delivered to Taiwan in 1959 under Project Boom-Town. The aircraft, flown by CNAF pilots, allegedly conducted reconnaissance missions over international waters off the coastline of the Chinese mainland, but, in fact, penetrated deeply into the Chinese airspace. The first Voodoo was shot down in August 1961; in less than four years three others were downed. The US Air Force transferred another four aircraft to cover these losses. RF-101s operated successfully over mainland China for several years before operational attrition ended their careers." http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/rf-101.htm. Later on it requested the Phantom but only received additional retired F-101's ... but it was decided to assist the development of an improved version with some features of the Phantom II.

Deino 

[jcf]

According to  American Secret Projects: Fighters & Interceptors 1945 - 1978 by Buttler the Model 98 that became the F3H-H/F-4 was
not a development from the F3H Demon series, the use of the F3H designator was sales gimmick.
The layout of the new aircraft was done following F-101A practice in terms of guns, cockpit and fuel arrangement.

So ya see, there is some 101 in the ol' F-4. 

Buttler's source is an unpublished work by William E Elmore who was part of the design team and the person who came up with the basic design and layout, because of balance problems due to the required overall length he later substituted a 60 degree delta wing.
The design was further refined by Gene Stephens, who revisited the original swept-wing layout and modified and balanced the design by shortening the tail. The Delta was the 98C and the "chopped-tail" the 98B, the 98B became the F3H-H.

Jon

[dy031101]

Later on it requested the Phantom but only received additional retired F-101's ... but it was decided to assist the development of an improved version with some features of the Phantom II.

F3H-G for the ROCAF, with principal armaments changed to AIM-9s; as tempting as it is to think semi-recessed carriage for AIM-7s, the ROCAF couldn't even buy all-aspect-capable versions of AIM-9 before Bush Senior finished his term......

Come to think about it more, maybe it could have been like F-4F in that the aircraft would be simplified and lightweight at first, and BVR capabilities would later be restored following the development of F-CK-1.

As much as I personally like to imagine a two-seater F3H-G (with cockpit section design like that of evolved AH-1) as the baseline version, having simplified avionics probably wouldn't warrant a second crewman (and therefore probably wouldn't have caused anyone to think about using the two-seater as the baseline)......

A modernised F3H-G armed with four M39 cannons, two to four TC-1s, and four TC-2s...... um......    And a late-model reconnaissance version would probably look better than the long-nose RF-104G.

The F3H-G mockup photo shows its forward fuselage to advantage, but the author of this what-if model imagined quite a bit of heritage from F-101 in everything else.

[Daryl J.]

With the rerelease of the Lindberg XF-88 kit:

Replacing the armaments with reconnaissance equipment, revising the wing a bit, uprating the engine, painting it all white and sending it to England for evals.



Daryl J., with an edit to help the comment make sense now that it's thread merged.

[KJ_Lesnick]

I'm thinking for an F-101B / F-4 / F-3 Hybrid you'd want the following

F-101B LIKE COMPONENTS
- Nose
- Cockpit
- Overall length and size
- Longer tail-cone *

F-4 LIKE COMPONENTS
- Taller, longer, inlet ducts **, splitter-plates -w- porous-ramps
- Fuselage area-ruling ***
- Basic wing-design ****
- Tailfin
- Tailfin set-up -w- anhedral
- Afterbody set-up like the F-4 *****
- AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 capacity
- Possibly a flatter underbelly & fuselage modification potentially to facilitate flush-mounting of missiles.
- Possibly the F-4's radar and fire-control system.

F-3 LIKE COMPONENTS
- Curved inlet-shape ******


KJ Lesnick

Footnotes
* - I prefer the afterbody shape as a whole to be more like the F-4 Phantom (longer inlet duct available if engines are further aft); I think it would look cooler and possibly reduce drag if the tailcone was a couple of feet longer (though I'm not 100% sure how this would work as at least some F-4's have a small antenna at the base of the tailfin); possibly some mix and match between the two.
** - The inlet ducts of the F-101/F-101B are relatively flat and wide.  I would prefer something taller and thinner more like the F-4 Phantom, although I wouldn't want the ducts to be as tall per-se.    Think like a mix of the F-106 inlet and F-4's inlet in terms of height and width.  Since the idea I have has an F-4's wing, the intake would probably have to be in front of it so it would be a bit longer.
*** - The F-4 has substantial area ruling because of it's large, thick-wings and large intakes.  Since the intake design I proposed wasn't quite as big and the fuselage of the F-101 is a different design, I was thinking reducing the vertical height on the top-side in the middle of the plane for area-ruling purposes, and narrowing the fuselage in the middle as well for further aerodynamic clean-up (particularly if necessary).
**** - The F-4 has a larger wing-area than the F-101B
***** - The F-4 has what appears to be a shorter afterbody set-up which probably allows more inlet-room.
****** - The fuselage of the F-101 is round, so having the inlets curved as well probably is useful.

[Daryl J.]

XF-88:   Hawker variant:  Dog tooth on wing, Hawker tail empennage, re-engined, underwing fuel tankage.  British lumps, bumps, antennae.   Missile types to be determined.   (Could a strike role be handled by a pilot or did it require the second person?).

XF-88:  US Navy variant:   Phantom wheels/tires, upgraded landing gear, tailhook(s), folded wings, Sundowners or Jolly Rogers markings unless converted to photo recon.   That unit would have its own specific fictitious marks.


Is it just me or is this early machine particularly handsome?



Daryl J.

[jcf]

Daryl,

how about a production XF-88B in USN colours?



A link to drawings:
http://www.freewebs.com/doughtyhobbies/xf88b.jpg

Jon

[Daryl J.]

JCF,
Remember the Fine Scale Modeler article on this conversion?   



Daryl J., glad to have that link 

[Daryl J.]

Ok.....I'm an idiot.   The XF-88 was a twin jet?    The Lindberg Classic XF-88 kits have been in Ye Olde Stash for well over a decade and hadn't been opened.   I always thought it was a single engine machine like the Demon.   JCF's link above had the twin jets underneath and it didn't click even then........

Daryl J., ready to receive the official Dunce award. 

[sotoolslinger]

Yep Daryl /\ here's your hat. the XF-88 is twin engine . I got one of the recently reissued Lindberg kits.

[Daryl J.]

Here's a simpler conversion:

Lindberg kit converted into a photo recon Voodoo for the US Navy.   Gull Grey over White and some sort of black tail.   Guns sanded off.   Gear bays built out and revised landing carrier capable landing gear putting the stance nose high.    Recon. pod under the fuselage.  Twin underwing fuel tanks.   Enlarged flap area giving the rear wing profile a bit of the F-101 look. Folding wings, enlarged horizontal stabs, tail hook, and whatever they used back then to hook up to the catapult.    Engraved panels although the Lindberg pressing has this amazing faceting about the fuselage that I wish other kits would have done.  I'm thinking resin from True Details as a source for wheels and tires.

Cliche as it may be, VF-84 markings appeal.   Maybe a camera needs to hang off a femur or something.   

[pyro-manic]

Does anyone have a picture of a Voodoo carrying a nuclear weapon? I'm building one as an RAF intruder in the early 60s, but I can't find any pictures of the Voodoo armed in such a way. Trying to visualise how the bomb would be carried, but I'm torn between a few options:

• On the bay door, as the Genies and Falcons were
• On a pylon where one of the drop tanks are normally fitted
• Inside the bay itself, the rotating pallet being removed and replaced by conventional doors
• On a pylon between the drop tanks

Any assistance will be most appreciated.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Does anyone have a picture of a Voodoo carrying a nuclear weapon? I'm building one as an RAF intruder in the early 60s, but I can't find any pictures of the Voodoo armed in such a way. Trying to visualize how the bomb would be carried,

F-101A and F-101C carried a nuclear weapon on a stores station mounted between the fuel tanks.  The Mk.7 nuclear bomb was cleared for carriage and it is possible that the Mk.28RE would have been cleared for this aircraft as well.  Both weapons weighed between 1500 and 2000 pounds.  If you are building an RAF strike aircraft your best bet is to source a Red Beard since this would be from around the same time period as the Mk.7 and Mk.28 weapons and is almost the same dimensions and weight and it would be ideal for an RAF strike aircraft. 

On-line references for the F-101 Voodoo (in no particular order):

Greg Goebel's Air Vectors page on the F-101 Voodoo
Wikipedia page on the F-101 Voodoo
Joe Baugher's page on the F-101 Voodoo
Boeing page on the F-101 Voodoo
Military Factory page on the F-101 Voodoo
Global Security page on the F-101 Voodoo
Virtual Aircraft Museum page on the F-101 Voodoo
CyberModeler Page on the F-101 Voodoo
USAF Museum fact sheet for the F-101 Voodoo
48th scale F-101C built by Darius Aibara (Monogram / C&H Aero Miniatures) (no bomb but still a nice model)
48th scale F-101C built by Markus Wuellner (Monogram / C&H Aero Miniatures) (no bomb but still a nice model)
1/48th scale F-101C built by by George Salerno (Monogram / C&H Aero Miniatures) (George built his Voodoo with a nuke mounted between the fuel tanks)

[RAF] Bentwaters Buds (81st TFW) (might find something useful in the photo album section)

Attached image was found on-line.  Attempted to hot-link it to the comment but the page has some security certificate issues so I decided to save it to my hard drive and upload it instead.  Original source for the image was http://www.palba.cz/forumfoto/albums/userpics/10486/F-101A_1.jpg if you want to try and view the source page.

[pyro-manic]

That is most helpful, thanks.