The F-101 Voodoo was a US supersonic jet fighter aircraft which was used extensively by the US Air Force during the Cold War years, especially during the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis, as a fighter-bomber and reconnaissance aircraft respectively. The F-101 was developed by McDonnell Aircraft as a long-range bomber escort for the Strategic Air Command (SAC), but it was later reconfigured as a fighter bomber, intended to carry a single nuclear weapon for use against battlefield targets such as airfields.
The prototype, the YRF-101A, first flew on September 29, 1954, and entered into service with the USAF in the 27th Strategic Fighter Wing as the F-101A, in 1957. Extensively modified versions of the F-101 Voodoo were produced as an all-weather interceptor aircraft, serving with the Air Defense Command, later renamed the Aerospace Defense Command (ADC), the Air National Guard, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the unified Canadian Forces after 1968.
Specifications
Engine: two Pratt & Whitney J57-P-55 afterburning turbojets
Maximum speed: Mach 1.72 (1,134 mph, 1,825 km/h) at 35,000 ft (10,500 m)
Range: 1,520 mi (2,450 km)
Length: 67 ft 5 in (20.55 m)
Wingspan: 39 ft 8 in (12.09 m)
Crew: two
Armament: four AIM-4 Falcon missiles, and two AIR-2 Genie nuclear rockets
