“You have to fly the F-4.” It has none of the bells and whistles of next-generation fighters. “The F-4 is the last of the fighter pilot’s fighters,” says BAE’s Bob Kay. With all its peculiarities and faults, legions have had love/hate relationships with the aircraft. At above Mach 2, on the other hand, the shock wave that is created moves the center of lift so far aft that pulling the stick all the way back produces only about 2 Gs. It takes full aft stick to raise the nose for takeoff, yet at certain fuel loadings and at speeds just above Mach 0.9 at low altitude, moving the stick only one inch can produce 6 Gs on the airframe. (A later attempt succeeded.)Ĭontrol sensitivity varies widely. Both engines were ripped from the airframe and Felsman was killed. The resulting pilot-induced oscillation generated over 12 Gs. Felsman flew below 125 feet over a three-mile course, his F-4 experienced pitch damper failure. When an engineer looks it over, the first thing that probably comes to mind is “stability and control problems.” A brutal example of that weakness occurred during a speed record attempt. The outer wing sections tilt upward 12 degrees. The horizontal stabilizers droop 23.25 degrees. The design does have its share of ungainly bends and angles. The Phantom has been called “double ugly,” “rhino,” “old smokey,” and monikers even less flattering. He thinks for a moment, then says, “What better way is there for a warrior to end its life than to go down in a blaze of glory?” I ask if he has any second thoughts about being part of a system that destroys an airplane he loves, an aviation legend. “That’s all I remember of that airshow, but I knew I wanted to fly that fighter.” “I saw a Navy A-3 refueling two Phantoms as they flew over so low and with that noise,” he says. Kay has been captivated by the F-4 since the age of seven, when his father took him to an airshow. QF-4 production test pilot Bob Kay is responsible for testing the converted aircraft, then flying them from Mojave to Tyndall and Holloman. There, BAE Systems turns the aircraft into remote-controlled drones, installing radio antennas and modifying the flight controls, throttles, landing gear, and flaps. The airframe is given refurbished engines and instruments, then sent to Mojave Airport in California. When an airframe is needed for target duty, one is pulled from storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in the Arizona desert. The use of F-4 drones (designated QF-4s) is expected to continue until 2014. Since 1991, 254 Phantoms have served as unpiloted flying targets for missile and gun tests conducted near Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. But the venerable McDonnell design has one last mission to perform for the military: to go down in flames. In 1996 the aircraft was retired from the U.S. Two decades later, it flew combat missions in Desert Storm. It downed more adversaries (280 claimed victories) than any other U.S. In four decades of active service to the United States, the aircraft set 16 world performance records. Eventually the Phantom ended up even in the U.S. ![]() After studying its potential for close air support, interdiction, and counter-air operations, the Air Force added the F-4 to its fleet in 1963. The F-4 entered service in 1960, flying for the U.S. Mostly, you’ll find these F-4s either sitting in the desert or lying at the bottom of the sea. Its mission is weapons testing, but no pilot flies it. It’s a warplane, but it no longer fights. But in the United States, it leads a twilight existence. It still flies in other countries in northern Iraq, for example, the Turks use it in combat with the Kurds. ![]() But the life it leads today is an odd one.
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