During USAF test pilot school in April/May of 1979 I flew one flight in the F-101 which was a Canadian version as there were no active USAF F-101s at the time.
The F-101 had engines with “hard burner lights”; that is there afterburner (reheat) did not have stages where fuel was gradually added as is done on modern burners, rather the fuel was dumped into the afterburner at one time resulting in a fairly interesting controlled explosion. For those who have not had the opportunity to hear this, the resulting “bang” was very “manly” in nature and from the cockpit there was no doubt that the burners had lit. The F-101 had a really great rate of climb for its time and that was the most memorable thing about the performance. In the cockpit you could see the heritage that it passed on to the F-4 in terms of layout and controls.
The T-tail also had the characteristic of becoming effective much sooner that the stabilator on the F-4. With the F-4 you held the stick full back during the takeoff run and the aircraft slowly rotated as the speed approached takeoff speed. We had a Canadian pilot (flew with the Snow Birds before TPS) who tried full aft stick with the 101 and the aircraft over-rotated and scraped the engine burner cans on the runway. Realize that these aircraft had been fitted with the P&W J57-P-55 engines which had afterburners extending almost 8’ from the fuselage. Fortunately it was decided that it was just cosmetic damage or I would not have gotten my flight.