F-101 speed records film (Read 571 times)

This is a film covering both Operation Sun-Run and Operation Firewall, courtesy of Mark Nankivil, the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum, and SDASM.

With Operation Sun-Run, the RF-101C retook the transcontinental speed record from the navy and Maj. John Glenn's Project Bullet, as well as setting new round-trip records that would stand for several years.  The second part of the film covers Operation Firewall, which broke the absolute speed record then help by the British with the Fairey Delta 2.  Although flown by the USAF with former SAC project pilot and then-current CO of the 481st TFS Major Adrian Drew, the aircraft used had been on bailment to Pratt & Whitney since the fall of 1955 for engine development.  P&W's test pilot at the time was Harry Schmidt who had related to me first-hand stories of testing.  At least four different types of J57 engines were flown in the aircraft, including P&W's first convergent-divergent nozzle designs: the J57-P-35 and J57-P-45.  Both were advanced designs using variable-area exhaust nozzles and were ultimately unsuccessful, but by early 1956 they had reached speeds approaching Mach 2 in the modified F-101A airplane.  By the time of Firewall, they had moved on to the J57-P-55 engine that was destined for operational F-101B interceptors.  It had a fixed-geometry nozzle optimized to produce an exhaust velocity of about Mach 1.4, sacrificing weight and off-design performance for extreme reliability.  Available in time for USAF Phase II evaluation of the F-101B, this replaced the earlier J57-P-53 engine that equipped most of the first 15 production aircraft.  The Dash-53 engine used a longer "standard" afterburner assembly borrowed from the J57-P-23 engine of the F-102A.  The longer afterburner provided an extra 1000 pounds of thrust to 16,000 pounds per engine, but since it used a convergent exhaust nozzle its exhaust velocity was limited to Mach 1 yielding reduced thrust compared to advanced C-D nozzles that could exceed that velocity limit and provide greater thrust for the same size and weight of engine.

Anyway, here is the good stuff--enjoy!