AIR FAN 68 F-94C STARFIRE USAF ADC ANG /
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LOCKHEED F-94C STARFIRE ALL-WEATHER FIGHTER USAF (PART 3)
(INCLUDES 6-VIEW SCALE DRAWINGS)
PHOTOSCOPE: GENERAL DYNAMICS F-16A FIGHTING FALCON
---------------------------
Additional Information from
Internet Encyclopedia
The Lockheed F-94 Starfire was a
first-generation jet aircraft of the United States Air Force. It was developed
from the twin-seat Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star in the late 1940s as an
all-weather, day/night interceptor. The aircraft reached operational service in
May 1950 with Air Defense Command, replacing the piston-engined North American
F-82 Twin Mustang in the all-weather interceptor role.
The F-94 was the first
operational USAF fighter equipped with an afterburner and was the first
jet-powered all-weather fighter to enter combat during the Korean War in
January 1953. It had a relatively brief operational life, being replaced in the
mid-1950s by the Northrop F-89 Scorpion and North American F-86D Sabre. The
last aircraft left active-duty service in 1958 and Air National Guard service
in 1959.
Design and development
Built to a 1948 USAF
specification for a radar-equipped interceptor to replace the aging F-61 Black
Widow and North American F-82 Twin Mustang, it was specifically designed to
counter the threat of the USSR's new Tupolev Tu-4 bombers (reverse-engineered
Boeing B-29). The Curtiss-Wright XF-87 Blackhawk had been designated to be the
USAF first jet night fighter, but its performance was subpar, and Lockheed was
asked to design a jet night fighter on a crash program basis.[1] The F-94 was
derived from the TF-80C (later T-33A Shooting Star) which was a two-seat
trainer version of the F-80 Shooting Star. A lengthened nose area with guns,
radar, and automatic fire control system was added. Since the conversion seemed
so simple, a contract was awarded to Lockheed in early 1949, with the first
flight on 16 April 1949. The early test YF-94s used 75% of the parts used in
the earlier F-80 and T-33As.
The fire control system was the
Hughes E-1, which incorporated an AN/APG-33 radar (derived from the AN/APG-3,
which directed the Convair B-36's tail guns) and a Sperry A-1C computing
gunsight.[3] This short-range radar system was useful only in the terminal
phases of the interception. Most of the operation would be directed using
ground-controlled interception, as was the case with the earlier aircraft it
replaced.
The added weight of the
electronic equipment required a more powerful engine, so the standard Allison
J33A-35 centrifugal turbojet engine, which had been fitted to the T-33A, was
replaced with a more powerful afterburning version, the J-33-A-33. The
combination reduced the internal fuel capacity. The F-94 was to be the first US
production jet with an afterburner. The J33-A-33 had standard thrust of 4,000
pounds-force (18 kN), and with water injection this was increased to 5,400 lbf
(24 kN) and with afterburning a maximum of 6,000 lbf (27 kN) thrust.[2] The YF-94A's
afterburner had many teething problems with its igniter and the flame
stabilization system.
Production versions
F-94A
The initial production model was
the F-94A, which entered operational service in May 1950. Its armament was four
0.50 in (12.7 mm) M3 Browning machine guns mounted in the fuselage with the
muzzles exiting just behind the radome. Two 165-US-gallon (620 l) drop tanks,
as carried by the F-80 and T-33, could be carried beneath the wingtips.
Alternatively, these could be replaced by 1,000-pound (450 kg) bombs, giving
the aircraft a secondary fighter bomber role.[3][4] 109 were produced. The
F-94A was in operational service for only a brief time as it was originally
built, and was not received well by its aircrews. Primarily, this was due to
the unreliability of its J33 engine, which caused many ground aborts and was
deemed by the crews to be unsafe. The aircraft was judged as unstable and hard
to maneuver at high altitude by its pilots. The pilot and radar operator found
that the cockpit was too narrow for them to be able to get in and out of the
aircraft quickly during alerts and scrambles. The clearance for the ejection
seats was too small, resulting in several tragic accidents during emergency
ejections.
F-94B
The subsequent F-94B, which entered
service in January 1951, was outwardly virtually identical to the F-94A. The
Allison J33 turbojet had a number of modifications made, which made it a very
reliable engine; the pilot was provided with a more roomy cockpit and the
canopy was replaced by a canopy with a bow frame in the center between the two
crew members, as well as a new Instrument Landing System (ILS). 356 of these
were built. It proved in service to be a very reliable aircraft with relatively
few problems. As they replaced the F-94As in service with the active-duty
squadrons, the older models were sent to Lockheed to be re-engined and modified
to F-94B standards. These upgraded F-94A/B aircraft were also modified with a
twin-gun pod under each wing for two additional 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns
each, bringing the total to eight. These aircraft were then passed along to Air
National Guard units where they served until the end of the 1950s.
F-94C
The F-94C Starfire was
extensively modified from the early F-94 variants. In fact, it was initially
designated F-97, but it was ultimately decided to treat it as a new version of
the F-94. USAF interest was lukewarm, so Lockheed funded development
themselves, converting two F-94B airframes to YF-94C prototypes for evaluation.
To improve performance, a completely new, much thinner wing was designed, along
with a swept tail surface. The J33 engine was replaced with a more powerful
Pratt & Whitney J48, a license-built version of the afterburning
Rolls-Royce Tay, which dramatically increased power, producing a dry thrust of
6,350 pounds-force (28.2 kN) and approximately 8,750 lbf (38.9 kN) with
afterburning.[2] The fire control system was upgraded to the new Hughes E-5
with an AN/APG-40 radar in a much larger nose. The guns were removed and replaced
with all-rocket armament consisting of four groups of six rockets in a ring
around the nose. The rockets were carried in four panels that could be hinged
upwards and outwards for ground reloading. In flight these rockets were
normally hidden aft of four inwards-folding doors that surrounded the nose
cone. According to Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier, the F-94C was capable of
supersonic flight in a steep dive with afterburner engaged.
The F-94C was the only variant
to be officially named Starfire.[citation needed] With time, the entire F-94
family has adopted the name. The first production F-94C aircraft were delivered
in July 1951, 387 examples being delivered before May 1954. The largest problem
discovered in service was the nose-mounted rockets, which blinded the crew with
their smoke and fire. The most severe problem associated with firing the
nose-mounted rockets was that the exhaust could cause a flameout of the jet
engine, which could lead to loss of the aircraft. After the 100th aircraft,
mid-wing rocket pods were added to the leading edges, similar in concept to the
previous gun pods, holding 12 rockets apiece and fitted with a frangible
aerodynamic nose cap which was discarded when firing the rockets.[7] Most of
the time, the nose rockets were not fitted, and the mid-wing pod rockets were
the sole armament. This version of the aircraft was extensively used within the
Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense system.
F-94D
An F-94D model was proposed as a
single-seat fighter bomber, with bombs and rockets under the wings. A single
prototype was built, but the model was not accepted for production. The
prototype was later used as a testbed for the 20 mm (0.79 in) M61 Vulcan cannon
subsequently used on the F-104 Starfighter and many others.
Operational history
Air Defense Command
The primary users of the F-94
were the squadrons of Air Defense Command (ADC), eventually equipping 26
squadrons of interceptors. The first F-94As were assigned to the 325th
Fighter-All Weather Group at McChord AFB and Moses Lake AFB, Washington.[8] It
replaced the propeller-driven F-82F Twin Mustangs that were in use by its
317th, 318th, and 319th squadrons. The F-82s had been pressed into interceptor
service in 1949 after the Soviet Union displayed the Tupolev Tu-4 strategic
bomber, a reversed-engineered version of the B-29 Superfortress, some of which
had landed and were impounded in the Soviet Far East during World War II. The
F-82Fs proved to be an excellent day/night all-weather interceptor, with long
range, but it lacked any logistics support which resulted in a chronic shortage
of parts. The jet-powered F-94As, however, had shorter legs than the F-82s and
relied more on Ground Control Interception Radar (GCI) sites to vector them to
intruding aircraft.
Once the 317th was equipped in
the Pacific Northwest, ADC then re-equipped its 52d Fighter-All Weather Group
at McGuire AFB, New Jersey[8] which also flew F-82Fs and provided air defense
of the Northeastern United States. However, it was during this period that Air
Defense Command began dispersing its Fighter-Interceptor squadrons away from
their parent groups to individual bases. During 1950 and 1951, ADC sent F-94As
to squadrons of the 56th Fighter Group in the upper Midwest to replace its
obsolete F-47 Thunderbolts, F-51 Mustangs, as well as F-80 Shooting Star and
F-86A Sabre day jet interceptors.
In March 1951, upgraded F-94Bs
were received from Lockheed by the 33d Fighter Wing at Otis AFB, Massachusetts,
replacing their F-86A Sabres,[9] although the last squadron of the wing didn't
replace its Sabres until May 1952. Three Federalized Air National Guard units,
the 121st FIS (DC ANG), 142nd FIS (Maine ANG), and 148th FIS (Pennsylvania
ANG), received F-94Bs while they served on active duty during the Korean War
call-up to defend the airspace over Washington, D.C. However, these F-94s were
retained by the USAF when these ANG squadrons returned to State control in
1952. Also seven more squadrons received F-94Bs as part of the roll out from
Lockheed.
Three additional squadrons
(84th, 436th, and 479th FIS) received F-94Bs in 1953, although these were
passed down from squadrons receiving F-94Cs.[9] Beginning in the summer of
1951, the F-94Cs began coming off the production line, with six squadrons being
equipped by May 1954. Five more squadrons were equipped in FY 54-55 which ended
the production run for the interceptor by Lockheed.
Far East Air Force
In the Pacific, Far East Air
Force (FEAF) equipped three squadrons with F-94Bs, and Air Defense Command
deployed the 319th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron to South Korea to provide a jet
air-defense umbrella over the Seoul area.
The first shipment of F-94Bs
arrived in Japan in March 1951, being assigned to the 339th Fighter-All Weather
Squadron at Johnson Air Base. Also arriving was a mobile training unit from
Chanute AFB, Illinois to provide transition training for the F-82G Twin Mustang
pilots into the new jet interceptor. In May, F-94Bs began to re-equip the 68th
FAWS at Itazuke Air Base, while rotating pilots and radar operators to Suwon
Air Base in South Korea where they flew combat missions over North Korea with
the F-82Gs as well as air defense alert over Seoul. In July, the 4th FAWS began
receiving the F-94As at Naha Air Base, Okinawa. Training for the squadrons
proceeded through the summer and in August, the first Fifth Air Force
Operational Readiness Test was held by the 339th FAWS with the F-94. Various
issues with the aircraft, as well as issues with the Ground Control
Interception radar graded the test as "fair".
In early December 1951 the
appearance of Communist MiG-15 jets over Seoul raised alarm bells at FEAF
Headquarters. The only interceptors over Seoul were about six F-82Gs along with
some Marine Grumman F7F Tigercats. FEAF ordered the 68th to move two F-94Bs to
Suwon to supplement the F-82Fs. The Twin Mustangs along with the F7Fs would
continue their armed reconnaissance and weather missions against North Korean
targets, while the F-94s would fly interception missions over South Korea and
the Yellow Sea. Care was taken to not fly the Starfires anywhere that a crash
would allow the communists access to the wreck if it were shot down.
In January 1952, ADC was ordered
to deploy the 319th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron from the 25th Air Division at
Larson AFB, Washington to Japan, and to relieve the 68th FIS at Itazuke. A
detachment of the ADC squadron was sent to Misawa AB to fly air defense
missions over Northern Honshu and Hokkaido against any intruding Soviet
aircraft from Sakhalin Island or the Vladivostok area. At Suwon, the 68th had a
total of fifty-eight interceptions during February during nighttime hours. It
was in February 1952 that the first F-94 was lost in a night interception while
pursuing an unknown aircraft over the Yellow Sea. The cause of the loss was unknown.
However, a B-26 pilot observed an explosion in the air between the island of
Taeyonp'yong-do and the city of Haeju in North Korea. A search was made for the
aircraft and crew, which continued for almost three months. It was finally
concluded the aircraft had crashed and broken up over the Yellow Sea, with the
wreckage settling in deep water with the classified equipment lost at sea.
In March 1952 the 319th FIS
began flying operational missions at Suwon, providing Combat Air Patrols (CAPs)
for B-29 Superfortress missions at night. The 68th was relieved and reassigned
to Japan, but would remain on one-hour alert for possible combat duty over
Korea. In June, the first F-94 contacts against enemy jets was made and the
interceptor crews believed at the time that the communists were testing
radar-warning equipment. On several occasions just when they were ready to fire
on the enemy aircraft, it would start evasive action that indicated the MiGs
were equipped with a form of warning radar (as the F-94s were).[5] Other
intercepts would take place over North Korea and the F-94 was credited with
several air-to-air victories, including the first jet-vs.-jet night victory
against a MiG-15. One F-94 was listed as lost due to enemy action, six more to
non-enemy causes on combat missions, two were declared as missing on a combat
mission and three were lost in accidents.[11] One F-94 was lost when it slowed
to 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) during pursuit of a Po-2 biplane.
After the Armistice in Korea in
June 1953, the F-94s continued to fly air defense missions over Japan and South
Korea. Beginning in 1954, the F-86D Sabre began replacing it in operational
service. By the end of 1954, the Starfires had been returned to the United
States for Air National Guard duty.
Alaskan Air Command
Immediately after World War II
ended, most of the Eleventh Air Force in Alaska was withdrawn, and its assets
were concentrated at two bases, Ladd AFB near Fairbanks and Elmendorf AFB near
Anchorage. With the advent of the Soviet Tu-4 and its possessing the Atomic
Bomb, US air defense assets were sent to Alaska to guard against a Soviet
attack on the United States coming from Siberia. Chains of Ground Control Radar
sites were established under Alaskan Air Command (AAC), the postwar successor
to Eleventh Air Force, and P-61 Black Widows were sent in 1948 as long distance
interceptor aircraft. The F-82H Twin Mustang replaced the war-weary P-61s in
1949.
These propeller-driven
interceptors were augmented in 1950 when the 449th Fighter-All Weather Squadron
at Ladd AFB began receiving F-94As in mid-1950s.[5] The squadron was divided
into the F-82 flight and the F-94 flight as the jet interceptors doubled the
squadron in size.[14] In Anchorage, the 57th Fighter Group at Elmendorf AFB
began sending its F-80C Shooting Stars back to the Continental United States in
batches of four or five as they were replaced by the F-94As.[5] Elmendorf AFB,
being located close to the Gulf of Alaska in the south had much more moderate
weather than Ladd AFB, located in Central Alaska where winter temperatures
often fell below −40 °F (−40 °C). Hydraulic fluids would turn to jelly, and the
engines in the jets would have starting problems. Extreme cold weather training
for Air Force personnel assigned to Ladd AFB was mandatory in the event of an
emergency ejection or even just being outside in the winter, losing a glove,
and dropping a wrench or tool. Skin would freeze upon touching bare metal, and
mechanics would have tools "welded" to their fingers at times.
The 449th utilized its F-82Hs as
long-range reconnaissance aircraft along the Siberian coastline and the Chukchi
Peninsula. Also the F-82s were flown in a ground support role during maneuvers
with the Army forces. They would also drop bombs on frozen rivers to break up ice
floes. For these missions, the F-94 was totally unsuitable and it also did not
have the range for the long distance reconnaissance flights necessary to
monitor the Siberian coast.[5] Alaska was divided into two areas, the northern
part under the 11th Air Division, headquartered at Ladd AFB, and had control of
the GCI sites in the northern half of the territory. The 57th Fighter Group,
based at Elmendorf AFB, was responsible for everything south. In April 1953,
the 57th FIG was inactivated and the three squadrons F-94s at Elmendorf AFB
became part of the 10th Air Division. Both the 449th FIS and the 57th FIG
deployed the F-94s to advance airfields at Marks AFB, near Nome, along with
King Salmon Airport and Galena AFB where it stood alert to respond to GCI intruder
alerts for unknown aircraft detected intruding on Alaskan airspace.
The F-82Hs at Ladd were retired
in the summer of 1953 when due to lack of logistics support, the aircraft
became too unreliable to keep in the air.[14] The 449th flew the F-94A until
F-94Bs became available as hand-me-downs from Elmendorf AFB the 57th FIG was
inactivated replaced by the 10th Air Division. There, the 10th AD received new
F-86D Sabre Interceptors. The 449th at Ladd sent their F-94As back to the CONUS
and Air National Guard Service. By the end of 1954, it also was being
re-equipped with F-86Ds, with the last of the Starfires also being sent to the
Air National Guard.
Northeast Air Command
Northeast Air Command (NEAC) was
a command formed in 1950 to administer US-controlled bases in the Maritime
Provinces of Canada, that were under long-term lease going back to World War
II. It was responsible for the defense of the northern approaches to North
America and also to support transient aircraft of MATS and SAC, all of which came
under the collective command and control of the 64th Air Division.
In 1952, F-94Bs were sent to the
59th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Goose AFB, Labrador from Otis AFB,
Massachusetts, also a detachment of the 59th was sent to Thule AB, Greenland to
provide air defense of the base, although it was still under construction to
back up the DEW Line. Thule was a staging base at the time for the SAC B-36
Peacemaker intercontinental bomber, which would proceed from there in wartime
to targets in the Soviet Union using the great circle route over the North
Pole. This was both the first F-89 squadron assigned to Canada and also the
first squadron assigned to NEAC.
After the end of the Korean War,
the 319th FIS, which was deployed from ADC to Japan in 1952, was transferred to
NEAC in June 1953 and replaced the detachment of the 59th FIS at Thule.[16] The
third and last F-94 squadron assigned to NEAC was the 61st Fighter-Interceptor
Squadron, which moved from Selfridge AFB, Michigan to Ernest Harmon AFB, Newfoundland
in August 1953.[16] Beginning in 1954, and continuing until 1957, the Starfires
of NEAC were slowly replaced with versions of the F-89 Scorpion, although the
Northrop interceptor didn't fully replace the Starfires until the 318th
Fighter-Interceptor Squadron left Thule in April 1957.
Keflavik Airport, Iceland,
although controlled by Military Air Transport Service (MATS), received F-94Bs
as part of the 82d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron in April 1953 It provided air
defense of Iceland until being relieved in October 1954 when it was reassigned
to Presque Isle AFB, Maine.[16] The Starfires were replaced by the 57th FIS and
F-89C Scorpions.
Retirement
The F-94A/B models were replaced
in the active-duty inventory beginning in mid-1954 by a combination of the Northrop
F-89C/D Scorpion and the North American F-86D Sabre interceptors.[17] They were
sent to Air National Guard units where they replaced North American F-80C
Shooting Stars and F-51D/H Mustangs, which in most cases marked the end of the
line for the venerable Mustang in United States military service. When sent to
the ANG, the F-94As were sent to Lockheed for modification to F-94B standards
and then returned to the ANG as B models. Also in the late 1950s, F-94Cs were
passed along to the Air National Guard, supplementing the F-94A/B models.
Eventually 22 ANG Fighter-Interceptor squadrons were equipped with the Starfire
interceptor.
The
last F-94C was retired by the active-duty Air Force in November 1957 when the
319th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana
converted to the F-89J Scorpion interceptor. The last F-94C Starfires were
phased out of ANG service by the 179th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at the
Duluth Municipal Airport, Minnesota during the summer of 1959 when it converted
to the F-89J Scorpion; the last aircraft being sent to AMARC in December 1959.