Museum Day 2015: Part 1

This past Saturday, February 7th, was International Museum Day.  We at the Aerospace Museum of California expected that the heavy rains the previous day would continue.  Having a previous commitment for the morning, I arrived to sunshine and a dry Voodoo a bit before 1 PM.

My major goal for the day had been to set up a book table with the few advance copies of the new book that I had available and try to gather some numbers to guide me in purchasing books to support a book tour.  However, I also had some cleaned and refurbished instruments to reinstall in the rear cockpit, which meant that we had to open the cockpit first--no small task, even with the aid of a forklift.  The weather was good, and I decided to leave it open for visitors.  It wasn't until an hour before closing that I had everything set up but by then, there had been a steady trickle of visitors who had braved the anticipated rain to come out and visit us.  I could concentrate on selling books or greet my guests and talk up my old bird--the choice is a no-brainer so I stood available by my plane and answered questions!  As always, we on the Restoration side had a wonderful time and loved the opportunity to show off our collection.

One young lady came up and asked if "Chappie" had flown the Voodoo.  I have to admit to a very serious brain fart at that point.  Of course, I was familiar with Daniel "Chappie" James: Tuskegee Airman, F-94 pilot and commander of the 437th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, and part of aviation legend with Robin Olds as "Blackman and Robin" with the 8th TFW "Wolfpack" in Vietnam, and finally commanding general of North American Air Defense Command where his personal aircraft was a two-seat F-106B.  However, I had completely forgotten about where Col. Olds first met him: with the 81st TFW, flying F-101A and F-101C fighters out of Suffolk, England.  I will tell his story in my next post.  Stay tuned!

This is the left side of the nose avionics bay of my bird, 57-0427, showing the heart of the Hughes MG-13 fire control system of the F-101B.  Note the two cylinders on the left of the frame.  The smaller, upper cylinder contains the receiver for the radar system, while the larger, lower cylinder contains a fairly substantial magnetron used to produce the radar signal pulse.  Vacuum-tube magnetrons are still used in microwave ovens and produce the electromagnetic radiation used to heat up your Hot Pockets or frozen burritos (transmitting in E-band, for those interested!)  Open the door of your microwave oven to see how many watts your own personal magnetron produces, it should be somewhere around 1000 Watts or 1 kilowatt (kW).  This bad boy produced 250 kW per pulse.  You didn't want to stand anywhere in front of it while it was being tested....  Operating in the I-band, the pulse generated by the SFD-304 magnetron tube gave the MG-13 a maximum search range of 200 miles and a tracking range of up to 40 miles.  Even for 1959, it was old technology but it was proven, able to be upgraded through the course of the early 1960s, and compared to its contemporaries pretty reliable--just what was needed for a long-range all-weather interceptor.

Photo Credit: Ronald Easley