RF-101C flight manual with main instrument panel pics (1 Viewer)

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

I served with a USAF officer who had been an RF-101 pilot in Vietnam. I asked him why the Air Force kept using the RF-101 for so long after the RF-4C came out.

He said that the best cameras in both the RF-4C and the RF-101 were not those located so visibly in the nose but the cameras that were located in the aft fuselage, between the engines. Both the RF-4C and the RF-101 had those cameras installed, but while the RF-4C was much higher performance aircraft, the Phantom's cameras suffered from vibrations that degraded those photographs. In contrast, the RF-101's aft mounted cameras had less vibration problems and thus provided superior results.

By the way, the Air Force even modded some F-101B's into RF-101 configuration. Monogram issued a RF-101G/H version of its F-101B kit.
Interesting comment by a recce pilot (But NOT surprising). In the 13 years I worked on the camera systems on the RF-4C Phantom II, I NEVER saw any cameras that were located anywhere else but in the forward camera bay.
On the RF-101C, the only cameras NOT installed in the nose were 2 long-focal-length split vertical cameras that were mounted in a bay behind the nose wheel well.
Finally, the USAF did indeed modify 22 Canadian CF-101B Voodoos into RF-101Bs, which only served with the 192nd TRS of the Nevada Air National Guard. Monogram NEVER issued an RF-101G/H, which were conversions of the F-101A & C. What Monogram issued was the RF-101B Voodoo.
Kitty Hawk however, did come out with an RF-101C & G/H kit, kit # KH80116, which gave you the options to make either the RF-101C, RF-101G or RF-101H.
Larry Engesath
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back