Posted on 06/28/2016 11:21:20 AM PDT by C19fan
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a legendary aircraft — an icon of the Vietnam War and the archetype of the third-generation jet fighter designs that entered service in the 1960s. More than 5,000 of these heavy supersonic fighters were built, and hundreds continue to serve and even see combat in several air forces today. But the Phantom’s record in air-to-air combat over Vietnam — especially when compared to its successor, the F-15 Eagle, which has never been shot down in air-to-air combat — has left it with a reputation of being a clumsy bruiser reliant on brute engine power and obsolete weapons technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...
During Korea our air to air superiority was like 19:1 - in Vietnam it dropped like 2:1 - that’s when the AF started their air superiority school and towards the end of Vietnam it climbed back to a respectable figure - but then the NVN didn’t send up fighters all that often since their ground to air rockets were so successful. (as told to me by my Marine pilot dad who flew there).
I spent nearly 4 years as a WSO in the F-4. Loved it!
Like another F4 (Corsair) from a previous generation, I always like the plane’s silhouette . Both: Classics
I grew up in Valdosta GA, home of Moody Air Force Base. Loved seeing the Phantoms fly overhead. Saw the Thunderbirds flying T-38s. Moody now has A-10s, last I heard.
“I hears freepers describe the Phantom as proof you can make a brick fly if you put powerful enough engines on it. The Muscle Car of the skies.”
Yet another FReeper said that the F-4 was proof positive that one could bet a coke machine to fly if one put powerful enough engines on it! ROFL
From my point of view, the F-4 was not very maneuverable in a dogfight. The only ‘advantage’ it had was brute-force speed but no gun.
Most folks don’t realize how BIG an F-4 is,
or how LOUD. When I was stationed at Chu Lai
we would make tapes to send home but didn’t
realize that we were so used to hearing them
in afterburner that our conversations would just
stop until they had taken off and would then continue
as though nothing had happened. We were flying A-4s
off of matting which for the scooters was no big deal
but the Phantoms were big and heavy and didn’t do well
with the unevenness. Saw several lose their bombracks
from the vibration and roughness, most of them didn’t arm
but on occasion they would lose a single bomb or two then
BOOM.
Great bird, just sitting there it looked fast!
My first tour was in the F-4S after flying the F-4J in the RAG. When I was a little kid I told myself I was gonna fly that airplane. Glad I got the chance before they were retired.
VMFA 235 ‘69-’72..
My father worked on the flight line at McDonnell Aircraft. He was with the F4 from start to finish there.
Fuel spilling, hydraulic leaking, soot spewing, dirty, scrape your back, ruin your knees, hit your head, maintenance nightmaring, bent wing trashcan.
From a former F-4C/D/E/G (pig) Phantom crew chief.
My wife use to do NDI for F-4s in the early 80s.
They couldn’t fly until she signed off on them, so, she would nap in the intake of the F-4 until the pilots would come back from lunch.
They are big!
The 191st converted to F-16’s in the early 90’s. Hated to see the F-4 go. Loved that jet! Launching the fleet out of the training center in Alpena was a sight (and sound) to behold. Little did we know that later we would lose the fighter mission entirely and convert first to C-130’s and now to the KC-135.
The unit was also combined with the 127th, which converted to the A-10 and is fighting to keep those. The 127th stepped up on 9-11 with their F-16’s and performed the Air Sovereignty alert mission until 2008.
My first assignment as an Air Force intel officer was at Moody, at the end of the F-4 era. Our birds were equipped with an EO/laser designator bombing system called Pave Spike—essentially a laser bore-sighted to a TV camera. The WSO kept his camera focused on the target, and the laser would stay locked (in theory) on the same thing. In the hands of an experienced crew, it worked fairly well, but it took some time to gain proficiency.
While I was there, the wing actually failed an Operational Readiness Inspection because our wing commander assigned some of our best crews to the mission planning cell. Our bomb scores were horrible and we got a do-over three months later, thanks to the intervention of the 9th AF/CC (the wing commander at Moody was one of his fair-haired boys). Second time around, the best crews were in the cockpit and we passed with ease.
Thoroughly enjoyed my time at “Moody by the Swamp” and supporting old double-ugly. There were some amazing moments, like the time an eight-foot gator crawled onto the ramp and under the wing of an F-4 that was ready for a mission. Probably only time in Air Force history that a sortie was cancelled because a gator didn’t want to give up his shady spot. Or the time our Assistant Deputy Commander for Operations got fired for using an unauthorized swizzle stick at the bar.
Nothing like the rumble of a Phantom two-ship lighting the burners and rolling down the runway.
Guns were retro-fitted on the F-4. Two many problems with the early model of the AIM-7, so plans to kill the bad guys at long range didn’t work out. The need for a gun became very apparent in Vietnam.
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