Does anyone know anything about a USAF RF-101B in an overall black camouflage? I’m not talking about the black canadian EF-101B. Any information, photos, profiles etc would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Aris
Aris…
In the early 1970s a batch of 22 ex-RCAF CF-101Bs were returned to the USAF and converted to RF-101B reconnaissance aircraft, with radar and weapons bay replaced with a package of three KS-87B cameras and two AXQ-2 TV cameras. An in-flight refueling boom was fitted. These aircraft served with the 192nd Tactical Reconnissance Squadron of the ANG through 1975. They were costly to operate and maintain, and had a short service life.
According to the Scale & Detail book the only colors used by the Air Force on the Voodoos was bare metal, overall grey and the Vietnam camouflage. I could not find any pics of U.S. Voodoos in Black, only the EF-101B used by Canada.
T. Young [8-]
I’ve done quite a bit of research on Voodoos and the only black one I ever saw was Canadian. Of those that were retrofitted as recce birds, if I’m not mistaken, in their only squadrdon deployment, which was with, for one, the Nevada ANG, they only wore the SEA camo scheme. I find these retrofitted RF-101s to be the ugliest of all the versions of of the Voodoo, one of my favorite Cold War a/c. I find the RF-101C with its nicely tapered, chiseled nose, to be the nost aesthetically pleasing of the bunch, but it’s just a matter of taste. One thing that pilots loved about that old single seat Voodoo is that once the mission was accomplished it could get down in the weeds and get the hell out of dodge faster than anything on two wings.
There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, that during the Cuban missile crisis a Voodoo was egressing the island so low that he actually collided with the ball as he passed over a volleyball game taking place on a Cuban beach. The ball got the worst of the encounter, so go the reports. And I’m sure the players got a load of sand in the face.
There is a Voodoo Association, whose web address I can’t find right now, but if you google the aircraft, it’ll pop up right away. Anyhow, you can post the question on there and someone will answer. I don’t think these a/c ever carried the designation RF-101B but was something like RF-101G and/orH. Monogram kitted one briefly in the markings of the Nevada ANG. The Monogram kit, outstanding for its days and still pretty good today, especially if you add the Koster convesion set to it, was engineered so that the nose was separate, with the break being just behind the second cockpit. Voodoo fans hoped this meant that the single-seaters would follow, but they didn’t, just the ugly retrofits. Anyway, Koster took caree of that problem and with his kit you can make any single-seat version of the F-101 you want, including the ill-fated, gun-equipped bomber-escort versions, the F-101A and C. Koster includes, if I’m not mistaken, the short exhaust cans of the single-seaters in resin.
TOM
I built the Monogram RF-101B as a “what-if?” project. I painted it in an all-black, suedo-SR-71 scheme. I did the brake wells and inside flaps in zinc chromate yellow. To accent panel lines, I oversprayed the lines (and various panels) with clear semi-gloss acrylic. It showed up nicely on the flat black paint job. I also accented some areas with satin black. I used a decal set for F-117s. I think it turned out pretty good. I say, “go for it Aris!!”. It’ll look sweet, even if no U.S. Voodoo wore the scheme. Gary
the only scheme I can think of like that was on F-4C’s. they had gloss black undersides and about half way up the fuselage. Topsides were the regular Vietnam scheme.
Thank you everyone for your replies. Ultimately I got the answer for my question from texgunner. Thanks again.
Aris