BLAST from a Vodoo
Ever since I can remember, I wanted to fly. Growing up the eldest of four boys, son of an Air Force test pilot, Lt. Col. Richard Zimmerman, proved an incredible journey. I was told that my first dual instruction was on my father’s lap at the age of three months in a T-33. Today, I am a licensed pilot, but this is a story of a man, his plane and a mission, not about me.
Growing up with my father became a non-stop checklist, with special attention to detail. When I built model planes, he actually expected to be able to look through the canopy despite the massive glue deformity. In the early 1960s, my father was assigned to the 4950th Test Wing at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH. During his distinguished career he flew flight test missions on most of the Century series fighters from the F-100 to the F-111, F-84 and F-86 and later the AT-37, T-37, T-38 and T-39.
The test missions with which my dad was involved had to do with evaluating aircraft design modifications such as refueling capabilities, early FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) systems, Icing and numerous design flight evaluations. One such test program involved a modified McDonnell F-101B. This was in fact a one of a kind “Voodoo” modified to allow the pilot to safely eject a test ejection seat complete with a synthetic research “Dummy” through a variety of specialty canopies. Early fighter pilots suffered serious injuries due to glass fragmentation cuts from escaping their aircraft.
Engineers at Wright Patterson’s Flight Dynamics Labs created a new “Frangible Glass” canopy that would withstand excessive impact strikes from the outside, but turn to fine glass particles when impacted from within. Tests were conducted on both ground and in flight, at speeds between 200 knots and 600 knots. The dangers of the seat hitting the tail or fire in the front cockpit became all too real during the first test. Glass particles from the exploding canopy were blown forward as the seat departed the aircraft leaving hundreds of glass fragments embedded in back of my father’s neck. This required a clear, one inch thick, Plexiglas plate be installed between the front and back seats.
There were approximately twenty such tests made with this F-101B aircraft before it was retired to the Air Force Museum where she stood proud of her test heritage with my fathers name proudly inscribed under the left side canopy rail until 1983. The F-101B was removed from the museum and traded for another aircraft. To commemorate these tests I would later build scale replicas of the planes he flew as most were modified and never a stock model. There was only one of these aircraft ever modified for ejection seat testing and he was the only pilot who flew those tests.
Thirty-six years later in July of 2007, I was attending an air show at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, MI when I saw a photo of an F-101B on static display while on a restoration project board. Could I have possibly stumbled on the very plane I watched my father blast seats out of so long ago?
Upon further investigation, the Voodoo I found in Michigan, at the Yankee Air Museum was in fact my fathers test aircraft. A very special thanks to former Snowbirds lead Lieutenant-Colonel Darrel Shyiak, who drove me across the airport to gain access to the storage area and share in the discovery of my fathers test aircraft. The burned Plexiglas barrier, ejection seat T-Handle on the forward glare shield and the bold tail numbers 0-60235 bared witness to its heritage.
On her body the many coats of military-spec gray paint have faded and chipped, but the value she afforded countless thousands of pilots lives saved speaks loudly. Just by accident, I was reunited with my past, fond memories of a man and his plane, who will remain always as my father and hero.
Jet photo and story By Mike Zimmerman an aviation photo journalist. He is a licensed pilot and makes his home in Indiana. For more information go to www.av8r.com.