The design itself was a good one. The israelis did a fun F4 project called the Heavy Hammer. Made it fly by wire instead of hydraulic control. Saved a few tons of weight with that alone. Pratt and Witney developed the PW1120 engine for it, producing almost as much thrust as the F100 engines found in the F15z. New radar and pilot interface resulted in a fighter with 85% of the F15’s performance and capability for like 50% of the cost. The thing is nobody wanted to refurb an old design, they all wanted the new hotness and so only the Turks went through with the proposed upgrades.
Don't forget that the US didn't want something to compete against the their next generation stuff, a Mach 3 capable F-4 would have been horrible for the F-15. If Congress heard "We can make a F-4 almost as good as a F-15 with less costs" they would have taken it in a heartbeat.
Because none of Iran’s indigenous aerospace programs can make an engine powerful enough to be suitable for anything heavier than yet another F-5 clone.
The United States put remote control pilot controls in them and had current pilots shoots them down as practice. They said pilots needed the actual experience of an air to air kill.
Oh, and an f-14 shot one down when he wasn't supposed to, by accident.
It was the best fighter on the planet for over a decade. Just because the USAF bungled its employment through retarded tactics and RoE, allowing themselves to be jumped and/or get stuck in turnfights with far slower planes doesn't invalidate its raw capabilities.
A trained pilot in the F-4 could more or less engage and disengage at will no matter what he was up against until the introduction of the MiG-23 - at which point the US already had F-14s/15s.
"NASA pilots started intercepting Navy F-4s and embarrassing them in mock dogfights, causing the Navy to complain to military top brass. The Pentagon had to request that NASA stop the harassment officially.." Source MiG Master by Barrett Tillman
They literally had to cut weight from the crusader to compete. No co pilot half payload. You sacrificed any guided arms to keep up. The f-106 did better and sacrificed less.
Here is Soviet interoceptor of this time.
Phantom is faster, more range, x2 more rockets, can dogfight and works as strike aircraft carrying tons of bombs. Can take off and land from the carrier.
Soviet radar+missiles interceptor? Flying behemoth made from the bomber.
Too good for its own good
the heatblur F-4 is lookin good
It fucking does.
Pure sex
agreed
it's satisfying to say F-4 out loud which is the only metric I use to assess military hardware
F-4 and f-101 are peak sex.
Pierre didn't like it.
Phantom is top name.
Spectre because it technically has two names
It was known as the black smoke brick by Nam pilots.
An excellent plane whose reputation was almost entirely ruined by the History Channel
And the US Air Force
no plane should have the USAF's record counted against it.
the air force was happy to reach 1.8:1 over Vietnam while the navy's kill ratio was something like 12:1
it go fast
The design itself was a good one. The israelis did a fun F4 project called the Heavy Hammer. Made it fly by wire instead of hydraulic control. Saved a few tons of weight with that alone. Pratt and Witney developed the PW1120 engine for it, producing almost as much thrust as the F100 engines found in the F15z. New radar and pilot interface resulted in a fighter with 85% of the F15’s performance and capability for like 50% of the cost. The thing is nobody wanted to refurb an old design, they all wanted the new hotness and so only the Turks went through with the proposed upgrades.
Israeli RF-4s were pretty neat
Don't forget that the US didn't want something to compete against the their next generation stuff, a Mach 3 capable F-4 would have been horrible for the F-15. If Congress heard "We can make a F-4 almost as good as a F-15 with less costs" they would have taken it in a heartbeat.
If the latest version of it is almost comparable to F-15, why don't Iran produce unlicensed copy of F-4s? It's practically 50's tech.
Do you really need to ask?
Because none of Iran’s indigenous aerospace programs can make an engine powerful enough to be suitable for anything heavier than yet another F-5 clone.
Good for its time but the F-15 is miles ahead
they got fucked by stupid ROE in nam'
I should play through the whole AC7 campaign with only an F-4
I love that the F4 gets UGB's in AC7
An excellent plane whose reputation was tarnished by morons and bad tactics.
I'm pissed it doesn't get FAEB
>WW
>Wild Weasel
I believe this F-4G was part of the 37th TFW stationed at George AFB when I was a teenager.
The United States put remote control pilot controls in them and had current pilots shoots them down as practice. They said pilots needed the actual experience of an air to air kill.
Oh, and an f-14 shot one down when he wasn't supposed to, by accident.
>tfw too poor to buy a used F-4 from Cal Worthington
yeah
It's performance at the time was pretty mediocre.
It was the best fighter on the planet for over a decade. Just because the USAF bungled its employment through retarded tactics and RoE, allowing themselves to be jumped and/or get stuck in turnfights with far slower planes doesn't invalidate its raw capabilities.
A trained pilot in the F-4 could more or less engage and disengage at will no matter what he was up against until the introduction of the MiG-23 - at which point the US already had F-14s/15s.
Even then, I’d bet on an up to date phantom over a MIG23 on most occasions.
Pic related was a cool project.
Buck Broken by the Crusader III
"NASA pilots started intercepting Navy F-4s and embarrassing them in mock dogfights, causing the Navy to complain to military top brass. The Pentagon had to request that NASA stop the harassment officially.." Source MiG Master by Barrett Tillman
They literally had to cut weight from the crusader to compete. No co pilot half payload. You sacrificed any guided arms to keep up. The f-106 did better and sacrificed less.
Here is Soviet interoceptor of this time.
Phantom is faster, more range, x2 more rockets, can dogfight and works as strike aircraft carrying tons of bombs. Can take off and land from the carrier.
Soviet radar+missiles interceptor? Flying behemoth made from the bomber.
This is good but I prefer this.
Okay for it's time, but dogshit compared to anything that came after. Even the F-14 would mop the floor with the F-4.
No internal gun. Missiles dodgey firing downwards.
It had its day. Bye.
It's cool