What Couldn’t the F-4 Phantom Do?

Air & Space Magazine ^ | March, 2015 | Stephen Joiner

[Afterguard]

Actually McLame was a light attack guy. He was in a A-4 Skyhawk when shot down.

[BwanaNdege]

Except one: dogfighting. In that scenario, it was a miserable failure.

Yom Kippur War "Israeli Phantoms shot down 85 Arab combat aircraft, mostly MiG-21s, for a kill-loss ratio in aerial combat of 17-1 during the war."

http://www.conservapedia.com/F-4_Phantom

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Yom Kippur War "Israeli Phantoms shot down 85 Arab combat aircraft, mostly MiG-21s, for a kill-loss ratio in aerial combat of 17-1 during the war."

What tactics were used? Air-to-Air missiles or close-in dogfighting?

[woodenickel]

VMFA 314 ping

[Loud Mime]

One of our congressmen, Sam Johnson, was an F4 pilot in Vietnam. After taking a missile strike, he ejected a near Mach, dislocating his shoulder from the wind blast.

He spent 6 years as a captive in Hanoi.

[Yardstick]

I’ve always thought F4s were cool. What was the significance of the barrel rolls?

[OftheOhio]

Victory rolls I suspect. Our squadron once had an air show for all the Marines and their families. We were all close up to the flight line and Capt. Savio ripped his Phantom up the flight line just barely off the deck at high speed. After he passed us he kicked it up at 45 degrees and did a couple of barrel rolls. I can’t imagine how many G’s he pulled with stunt.

[oh8eleven]

What was the significance of the barrel rolls?
Enemy plane shot down.

[Loud Mime]

When in a Cessna 182 awaiting takeoff in Colorado Springs, I saw an F-4 hitting the AB’s as he started his takeoff. We were 4th in line, on a taxiway paralleling the runway, about 300 meters from him. As he went by us the noise was deafening. I loved it.

We then put-put-putted toward our takeoff.

[GBA]

Yes and no. It depends upon the model. If you are referring to the early models, you are correct. However the F-4E had the nose mounted Vulcan cannon.

You might enjoy this website. Here's a quote:

The F-4E was the major USAF variant with 959 aircraft produced for the USAF and 428 produced for export. Although the original Model 98B proposed four 20-mm cannons, a design change in 1954 called for a long-range high-altitude Mach 2 interceptor of which only missiles would be required.

However, experience in Vietnam with air-to-air encounters showed that this arrangement was inadequate since the earlier Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles did not perform up to expectations. They frequently missed their targets and were subject to countermeasures.

SUU-16 gun pods were installed on the F-4C but the extra drag degraded performance and took the place of ordinance or fuel pods.

To correct this, an internal General Electric Vulcan (M61A) 20 mm, six-barrel, rotary-cannon with 639 rounds was installed on the F-4E.

Due to limited space, a new nose configuration was adopted from the RF-4C reconnaissance version, housing an AN/APQ-120 radar set with a smaller 24.5" x 27.4" antenna and an external pod below the nose housed the cannon.

[hattend]

BTTT