The Air Force’s secret next-gen fighter has reached development phase

breaking defense ^ | June 01, 2022 | VALERIE INSINNA

[Neverlift]

“The patches on each page are from the squadrons that I flew with.”

Now I get it.
3,000 hours, wow. Thank you for that. That is some Phabulous Phantom Phlying!

When he crashed he was already a McDonnell pilot and unofficially set the altitude record at 96,500. They were developing the flight test procedure for a military flown record. Project “Top Flight”
Here is a link to “This Day in Aviation”
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/21-october-1959/

[FtrPilot]

Thanks for the link...I see where your dad went by "Zeke". Do you know if that was a family nickname or was it his "call sign"?

In the fighter world, we used "tactical call signs" which were usually earned.

In the heat of the battle, it is easy to mix up call signs. So instead of Salter 2, break right, it would be Zeke break right.

We stayed away from first names as there could be 2 Mikes in the flight.

I had 2 tactical call signs. "Dallas", which was a squadron call sign, that I used since I grew up in Dallas. My real tactical call sign was (is) Spanky, which I earned in Thailand. It involved massive amounts of alcohol, no sleep, and waking up some of our squadron mates at 4:00 AM with a fire extinguisher.

In the Phantom, I have been mach 2 one time. Although the aircraft is advertised as Mach 2 capable, it is only possible on a cold day in a clean aircraft. My personal altitude record is 50,000 ft. I cannot imagine zooming up to 96,500. I note your dad was wearing a pressure suit, which would have been mandatory at 96,500.

I have flown all Air Force variants of the F-4...F-4C, F-4D, F-4E. F-4G (Wild Weasel), and RF-4C (Recce bird).

[Neverlift]

Hi Spanky

He was already nicknamed Zeke I believe early on but it did evolve into a callsign. He had no middle name and the story goes his brothers named him that. Youngest of thee but the biggest. The oldest was a B-25 pilot and middle on the ground WWII. Zeke was a “Red Ripper” in Korea.

Yes the suit and helmet I think were actually Mercury astronaut designs. Some of the shorter McD pilots had to wait for the astronauts to get theirs first. Because of the pressure suit there was no room for a G-suit type devise. That might have kept him conscious. The radio transcripts show he was likely out for several minutes. He did pull the blast shield on his helmet. I think that is standard Navy and test pilot training prefers eyes open to observe everything possible. It was believed he had regained or was partially conscious and acted on first instinct.

Yeh the Mach 2 was likely best case everything. Most of the first 11 prototypes and the record setters were not fully equipped and each a little unique. They were lighter had the flat turtle deck and a little cleaner tail feathers.