In Vietnam, the U.S. Navy used the F-4 for ground attack. (US Navy via D. Sheley)
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If they rebuild it (or the F-14) with composites and carbon-carbon and stealthy radar absorbent material... nah, they would still cut it off for the F-35 Blunderbuss
It couldn’t fire guns because it had none?
Glide ratio of a pair of pliers. It proves that if you strap a jet engine to just about anything then it will fly.
What couldn’t it do?
They weren’t much of a glider.
The Marines had plenty of them.
Salute VMFAT-201.
Sneak up on anything. The F-4 was originally an experiment to turn jet fuel into noise and smoke. Flight was an unexpected but useful side effect.
Glide?
The F-4s could deal with the MiGs, so my dad and his fellow Thud pilots had a better chance of completing their missions and making it home.
I’ll bet a JDAM has a better glide ratio. Just a guess.
I grew up in the early 70’s on a farm that was on a common flight path for F-4’s. This was before supersonic flight was banned. They were loud and would scare the poo out of you when they would make low level supersonic flights over our house. Had more than our fair share of broken windows.
Bump for napalm....
In 1969 or 1970 I was standing just off the flight line having a last smoke while we finished up pre-flight. There was an F4 that had been there for a few days waiting on repairs, the pilot had been in all the bars talking about how bad he wanted to get home to Udorn. He left for home while we watched. After gear up he circled back and made a low level pass over the runway at full afterburner. At the end of the runway he pointed the nose sfraight up and disappeared in a slow spiral, almost wet myself. Then we climbed aboard our Goonie Bird. The most unimpressive takeoff ever, I almost cried.
We had these at Spangdahlem AB, Germany while I was there (1984-86). I was in telecommunications and I don’t know much about (or care to research) the specs on any of the aircraft we had on base. One thing I do know is that the F4 was terribly loud.
Just seeing the pictures here brings back a ton of memories for me.
They need to junk the F-35 and bring back the F-4 and F-14 with some avionics updates. I’d love to see some F-5’s or F-20’s too.
My first plane. Like first loves of another sort, one never forgets. Last flew Double Ugly in March of 1989. Still miss it.
Except one: dogfighting. In that scenario, it was a miserable failure.
VMFA 314 ping
BTTT