The McDonnell Banshee was a conservative and significantly larger derivative of the Phantom with much larger and more reliable jet engines. This photo is of the first prototype on January 10, 1947. It carried the old-style designation of XF2D-1.
The second experimental Banshee on May 27, 1949 had the new designation of XF2H-1.
An example of the first production Banshee, the F2H-1 on January 7, 1949 is shown below. The horizontal stabilizer had no dihedral in the producton version.
The Banshee was used as fighter-bomber and reconaissance aircraft in Korea. In all 892 were built. Wing Span: 12.73m Length: 14.68m Height: 4.42m Wing Area: 27.31m2 Empty Weight: 5980kg Max.Weight: 11437kg Max. Speed: 933km/h Ceiling: 14200m Max. Range: 1880km Armament: 4*g 20mm 454kg
Finally, the refined producton version, F2H-2 in April, 1948, powered by two 1480kg thrust Westinghouse J34-WE-34 eniges
Still unsatisfied with the horizontal stabilizer, an "aerodynamic prototpe" was developed, shown below with a production aircraft.
The Banshee production lasted a long time and was spurred by the Korean war. The film "The Bridges at Toko Ri" used Grumman F9's but the book had the Banshee, known as the "Banjo" to aircrew. Here a radar-nosed version, the F2H-2N -- for "night fighter".
Finally, the ultimate version takeing off on acceptance test, the F2H-4.
