F-4BJ Phantom II

337 Pages·2016·17.328 MB·English

by  Lou Drendel

Front Cover: “Weigand To The Rescue” depicts the engagement of 6 March 1972 in which Gary Weigand and Bill
Freckleton shot down a MiG-17 that was intent on shooting Weigand’s flight lead.
Rear Cover: F-4J of VF-143 overhead USS Enterprise (CVN-65) prior to entering the landing pattern.
ISBN: 978-0-9860093-4-1
Copyright 2016 Aviation Art, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by means electrical, mechanical, or otherwise, without written permission
of the publisher.
Aviation Art, Inc
www.aviation-art.net
429 Nassau St S
Venice, FL 34285
941-408-5347
[email protected]
[email protected]
Acknowledgements
I am particularly indebted to my good friend Roy “Shadow” Stafford, who provided a great deal of the first-person
narrative in this book. Roy also introduced me to several of his experienced fellow F-4 pilots, whose stories so enriched
this writing and painting experience for me. Captain Lonny “Eagle” McClung, USN (ret) provided some great insight
into the flying qualities of the Phantom. Dave Lovelady explained the intricacies of carrier landings, and Bruce
Martin, Mike Sullivan, Larry Karch, Jerry Watson, Rick Walker, Lon Getlin, Jack Young, Jack Sharkey and Bob
Foley provided some great anecdotes, while John Cummings, Gene Tucker, Gary Weigand and Roy Cash gave me
terrific narratives of their MiG kills. Cash followed his MiG engagement story with a story about being on the wrong
end of a shoot-down, and John Cummings added to Stafford’s recollections about one of the most iconic combat
commanders to ever strap on a Phantom, John M. Verdi. Verdi became more than just a CO to Jack Mcencroe, who
provided a heartfelt tribute. A very accomplished novelist, Gary M. Watts, gave me three great stories about his
experiences as a Phantom pilot over Vietnam. Like most of my books, this one is heavy on pictures, and I reached deep
into my archives to come up with great photos from Jan Jacobs, Jim Sullivan, Peter Mancus, Jim Hurley, Peter B.
Lewis, Dallas Mills, Ted Carlson, Norm Taylor, Charles Howes, John Santucci, Jeff Hohlstein, Skip Meinhold, Scott
Brown, Bill Bowers and Harry Gann via McDonnell Douglas. Many of the official photos from government sources
predate the current practice of crediting the photographer. To all those unamed photographers, I add my thanks.
1
Foreword
Over the past couple of years, I have created or recreated several of my print books
as e-books, so it seemed logical that I should do yet another F-4 Phantom II book.
(This would be my sixth.) That said, I asked myself; “Self…..does the world need
another Phantom book?” I thought about that for awhile before deciding that the
answer was; “Probably not another look at the details.” (There are plenty of those
out there.) So…..what then? What there is plenty of, that have not been published,
are what are euphemistically called “TINS” stories. (Flying stories that are exciting
and are usually prefaced with “This Is No Shit!......”, or more politely referred to as
“There I was…….”) There are a lot of these stories in this book. There are also a
couple of stories that were printed in the McDonnell PR magazines. Since these did
not get widespread circulation at the time, I think they are worth including.
Also included in this volume are all the color photos that, because of print costs,
could not be published in color in previous books. Also included are many private
contributions that continue to surface on various social media sites. All in all, it
makes for a very interesting, if not exactly “never seen before” collection.
The oil painting at right was done as a sunrise/sunset study. The Phantoms were added later, and I
didn’t have to think too hard about which airplane I wanted in the picture!
F-4B/J/N Phantom II Illustrated Introduction
Unless it is supplanted by the F-16, the F-4 Phantom II will remain the most heavily produced jet fighter
of the free world. (The MiG21 holds the world record for most-produced supersonic fighters at 11,496
rolling off assembly lines in Russia, Czechoslovakia and India.) 5,195 Phantoms were built by
McDonnell Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas. The U.S. Navy/Marine Corps got 649 F-4Bs, 522 F-4Js
and 46 RF-4Bs. The Phantom was a principal combat aircraft during the Vietnam War and the Navy and
Marines lost a combined total of 237 of their F-4s to combat and accidents during this period.
The first fleet Phantom squadrons stood up in 1961, and the Vietnam Phantom experience lasted from
1964 to 1975. The Navy and Marines continued their Phantom operations until 1987 and 1992,
respectively. Those 1,217 airplanes provided memorable experiences for hundreds of Naval Aviators
over the 30 year career of the Phantom. This book is as much about the people who flew the Phantom as
it is about the airplane. There were plenty of interesting experiences that had nothing to do with combat,
though there are a few combat narratives herein. Some of the narrative is about flying the airplane, and a
lot of that could be considered “inside baseball” stuff…..technical and technique, but it is all entertaining
at least, educational at best, and above all, Phasinating.
This makes this book an outlier in “The Illustrated Series”. These personal narratives are about the
history of the Phantom. There is very little in the way of aircraft detail, but a great deal about how it
looked and flew in squadron service.
Beginnings
The Phantom was not born in the traditional way. In 1953 McDonnell Aircraft Corporation lost a
competition for a carrier-based fighter. The competition, which ultimately produced the F8U Crusader,
was won by Chance Vought. Chance Vought had plenty of experience in producing fighters for the Navy
and Marines, having produced the most successful air-to-air fighter of World War II, the F-4U Corsair,
followed by the less successful XTBU-I Sea Wolf, XF5U-l "Flying Pancake”, F6U Pirate and the F-7U
Cutlass. The Crusader would be another successful fighter, but was not exactly what the Navy wanted as
they entered the air-to-air missile age.
McDonnell was the designer and producer of the first jetpowered, carrier-based aircraft for the U.S.
Navy, the Phantom I, and had produced more than a thousand carrier-based jet aircraft prior to 1953,
including the Phantom I, the Banshee -1,-2,-3,-4, and -5, and the F-3H Demon. McDonnell was not
sanguine about losing a completion for a Navy fighter, and they were determined to continue the design
and production of carrier-based aircraft. After having been notibelieved to most nearly represent the
desires of the majority of Navy operations personnel.
Invitations were sent to numerous Navy operating commands, Overhaul and Repair facilities (O&R's),
BuAer and CNO, requesting that they visit McDonnell and offer their criticism or recommendations on
the mock-up. McDonnell’s persistence was rewarded in November 1954 when the Bureau of
Aeronautics gave McDonnell a letter of intent to design and build two aircraft similar to the mock-up
display. Vindication was tempered with the realization that this might just be a consolation prize for
having lost the F8U production contract.
Following receipt of the letter of intent for an aircraft designated as the AH-I (Phantom II), McDonnell
engineering proceeded with the design of the aircraft while negotiations with the Bureau of Aeronautics
continued in an attempt to prepare a detail specification for the AH-1. This was not easy, since there was
no military requirement for the aircraft. The Navy project officer worked diligently with the CNO and
other divisions of the Bureau of Aeronautics during the same period in an attempt to finalize
requirements. Finally, in April 1955, two CNO offi- cers and two Bureau of Aeronautics officers came
to St. Louis and
fied of the loss in the com
petition with the F8U,
McDonnell engineers can
vassed numerous Navy
operations personnel , the
Bureau of Aeronautics
(BuAer), and the Chief of
Naval Operations (CNO).
They didn’t stop with offi-
cial offices, going so far
as to contact any Navy
personnel willing to listen
and return questionnaires
in an effort to get their
wish lists for the next ver
sion of carrier-based air
craft. Numerous studies
and layouts were made
during the next year, and
a full-scale mock-up was
constructed which was
w i t h i n a n h o u r
sketched on a blackb o a r d a n d d escribed the military mission desired for the Phantom.
It was the height of the cold war, and U.S. power projection was the aircraft carrier. The fear was that
hordes of Russian bombers could blunt the spear of American power by sinking those carriers. Fleet air
defense suddenly became a critical component of American strategic planning. The Navy wanted a
carrier-based aircraft which could cruise out to a radius of 250 nautical miles, stay on a combat air patrol
(CAP) station with a total deck cycle time of 3 hours…..and they wanted that interceptor to be armed
with the latest air-to-air missiles, never mind the guns of previous fighters.
Up to now, the AH-I had been contemplated as a single-place, twin-jet aircraft equipped with guns,
radar, and the necessary fire control system. It had 11 external stations for carrying bombs, rockets or
practically any armament in the Navy arsenal.
Within two weeks after receiving the mission requirements for the AH-I, the airplane design was
reconfigured by removing the guns, changing the fire control system to be compatible with air-to-air
missiles, and removing all external armament stations except one at the centerline, which was retained
for a large external fuel tank. Within two weeks the detail specification was revised and approved by
both contractor and customer. At this time the Sparrow I, II, and III missiles were in the development
phase, and the Phantom was configured to carry four of these missiles semi-submerged in the bottom of
the fuselage. This was the first semi-submerged installation of missiles in a fighter aircraft, and all speed
records set by the Phantom were with missiles installed.
The AH-I was to be powered by two J-65 engines, which gave it an estimated top speed of 1.5 Mach.
When the Phantom was reconfigured to the missile version, the newer, more powerful J-79 engines were
substituted for the J-65s with corresponding changes in duct area, and other features which gave the
AH-1 a Vmax well in excess of Mach 2. The Phantom II became the first Mach 2-plus carrier-based
aircraft for the U.S. Navy.
At the time, there were two schools of thought as to whether Navy aircraft of this type should be single-
place or two-place. So McDonnell prepared both single and two-place configurations, identical except
that the twoplace version had a 150 gallon fuel cell removed from the forward fuselage to provide space
for the second crewman. This fuel was replaced by expanding the external centerline tank by
approximately the same volume. Both versions were shown to the Bureau of Aeronautics and CNO. The
Navy selected the two-place version and advised the contractor of its choice within 36 hours. After the
CNO established the mission for the AH-I and it appeared that the program might go beyond the
research and development effort, the Bureau of Aeronautics invited Chance Vought to build a competing
aircraft for the same mission, apparently to keep McDonnell honest. Chance Vought designed and built
prototypes of the F8U-3, a single-engine, single-place, interceptor. Although externally similar to the
Crusader, the F8U-3 was larger and was powered by the Pratt & Whitney J75-P-5A engine generating
29,500lbf of afterburning thrust. To deal with Mach 2+ flight conditions it was fitted with large vertical
ventral fins under the tail which rotated to the horizontal position for landing. To ensure sufficient
performance, Vought made provisions for a Rocketdyne XLF-40 liquidfueled rocket motor with
8,000lbf of thrust in addition to the turbojet. Avionics included the AN/AWG-7 fire control computer,
AN/APG-74 radar, and AN/ASQ-19 datalink. The system was expected to simultane
The Chance Vought F8U-3, aka “Crusader III”
ously track six and engage two targets. Five test aircraft were built, and 3 of these took part in the
subsequent fly-off against the Phantom. John Konrad, Vought's chief test pilot, later stated that the
Crusader III could fly circles around the Phantom II in a maneuvering fight, but at the dawn of the
missile age, most planners thought that traditional dogfighting was over, and the single pilot of the
Crusader would not be able to keep up with the demands of managing the fire control of the Sparrow
missile, which required continuous illumination of the target.
In 1958 the F4H-l and the F8U-3 flew a hard-fought, side-byside competition during the Navy
Preliminary Evaluation (NPE) at Edwards AFB. The NPE pilots flew both aircraft and were able to
make a direct comparison. After this competition, the Bureau of Aeronautics awarded McDonnell a
limited production contract for the F-4 Phantom II.
THE F-4 PHANTOM
(a very short history)
During the design and development phase of the Phantom, numerous performance improvements and
capabilities were added after analysis and discussions between the contractor and customer. The
diameter of the radar dish was increased which substantially increased the target acquisition and lock-on
range of the radar, the missiles were changed from rail launch to ejection launch, boundary layer control
was added to the leading edge, as well as the trailing edge flaps of the wing, dual controls were added
for the rear crew member as an option, and the engine air flow was increased to accommodate a larger,
more powerful version of the J-79. Typical guaranteed items on the F-4 shown in Figure I are weight
empty, Ymax, rate of climb, ceiling, time to accelerate and stall speed. The sum of the percentages by
which the first model of the Phantom, the F-4A, exceeded its guarantees amounted to 75 percent.
F-4A
System Parameters Units
Required Demonstrated Capability
Mmax-Maximum Power m 2.04 2.03
Mmax - Military Power m 0.99 1.01
Rate of Climb at 35,000 ft
Maximum Power ft/min 12,258 17,500 Time to Climb from S.L. to
35,000 ft Maximum Power min 1.30 1.13
Time to Accelerate from
MRT Vmax to Mmax at 35,000 ft min 0.81 0.59
Supersonic Combat Ceiling withft 55,430 56,900Max Power
The F-4A was updated to the F-4B by a number of improvements, including a change from the J-79-2 to
the J-79-8 engine with a comparable inlet duct enlargement; improved longer range radar; Sparrow III
missiles, and fire control improvements. The F-4C model was designed and produced for the U.S. Air
Force based upon the philosophy of minimum change from the F-4B Navy version to meet the
requirements of the Tactical Air Command. The principal changes were the addition of an anti-skid
system; J-79-15 engines; enlarged wheels, brakes and tires for softer runway surfaces; new radar and
bombing systems; provisions for boom type air-to-air refueling in place of probe refueling; cartridge
starters for engines instead of compressed air turbine impingement starting used by the Navy; more
extensive dual controls, because the guy in back (GIB) in USAF Phantoms was a pilot, as opposed to a
weapons system operator or navigator. (USAF later adopted the Navy system of putting a dedicated
weapons system operator (WSO, aka “Whizzo”) in the back seat, thereby further validating the Navy
philosophy of having what the Navy designated as a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) as the second
crewmember.
A reconnaissance version for the Air Force known as the RF-4C was the next Phantom II model. It was
primarily an F-4C with the reconnaissance equipment installed in a new nose. The RF-4B designed for
the U.S. Marine Corps essentially was an F-4B with the RF-4C nose and reconnaissance equipment. The
F-4C was followed by the F4D for the U.S. Air Force. The F-4D had an improved radar, improved
inertial navigation system, and launch provisions for the Falcon missile in place of the Sidewinders. The
F-4D for the Iranian Air Force was known as the (IR)F-4D. The Air Force's latest Phantom fighter, the
F4E had an improved radar , additional internal fuel, J-79-17 engines, and an internally mounted, rapid-
firing 20mm cannon and Sidewinder missiles in addition to the Sparrow missiles. The F-4E, designated
(IR)F-4E also is being produced for the Iranian Air Force, for the Israeli Air Force known as (IS)F-4E,
and for Japanese Self Defense Force known as the (JA)F-4E. A reconnaissance version of the F4E was
produced for the German Air Force designated (GY)RF-4E and for the Israeli Air Force designated as
the (IS)RF-4E. Aircraft produced for foreign nations have certain classified equipment deleted. Early in
production, as much as 55 percent of the airframe by weight was fabricated by other U.S. aircraft
contractors. In the case of the F-4K/M, 45 percent of the dollar value of the airframe and equipment was
produced in the United Kingdom . In the case of the German (GY)RF-4E, a substantial number of
subassemblies are produced in Germany. Major airframe contractors that produced F-4 assemblies are:
Northrop, Republic, Beech, Rohr, Aeronca, Short Brothers, Messerschmidt, Dornier, Mitsubishi, and
Kawasaki. The F-4 Phantom established numerous flight records, and it should be particularly noted that
these records were set by the standard combat aircraft configuration with standard armament carried.
15/25 Kilometer Straightaway . . ..........1606 mph
3 Kilometer Low Altitude .... ...... ... . . ..902 mph
100 Kilometer Closed Course ........ ....... 1390 mph
500 Kilometer Closed Course ...... .. ....1216 mph Los Angeles to New York . ..... ..... .. .... 170 minutes
Sustained Altitude(Level Flight)...........66,443 feet Altitude .
TIME TO CLIMB
METERS FEET SECONDS 3,000 34.52 6,000 9,842 48.78 9,000 29,527 61.62 12,000 39,370 77.15 15,000 49,212 114.54
20,000 65,617 178.50 25,000 82,021 230.44 30,000 98,425 371.43
Although not shown in these records, an F-4 aircraft with precompressor cooling installed attained a
speed of 2.62 Mach number and was still accelerating during a trial. The speed run was discontinued for
fear of the consequences if the water supply was exhausted at that speed.
Record-Breaking Projects
The F-4 became the dominant military aircraft of its era. That dominance was foretold in the records it
set at the very beginning of the Phantom’s operational life. During a two-year period early in its career
the F-4 was used to establish fifteen performance records. The record-breaking attempts were each
assigned operational titles.
TOP FLIGHT
The existing world record of 94,658 feet was held by the Soviet Union, but the Phantom’s designers
thought they could beat that record, and Cdr. Lawrence E. Flint, Jr. was assigned to Project Top Flight.
The attempt at the record marked the last phase of a rugged test program leading to fleet trials. Taking
place at Edwards AFB, the attempt at the record was scheduled for December 6, 1959. The flight took
40 minutes from takeoff to landing, during which the aircraft assumed a ballistic trajectory near its peak
altitude. With aircraft speed only 45 miles per hour at the top of the trajectory, Cdr. Flint experienced
about a minute and a half of weightlessness. When the flight was done, a new record of 98,557 feet had
been established. This flight was as much testament to the skill of Flint as it was the power of the
Phantom. The air at the record-breaking altitude was too thin to make conventional controls effective, so
the Phantom really was ballistic as it went over the top. Four years later, the USAF Test Pilot School
initiated flights with the NF-104 which was equipped with reaction control jets in the nose and wingtips
to control roll, pitch, and yaw in the thin air above 100,000 feet as the jet shot over the apogee of a
ballistic flight path. The NF-104 was powered by a single J-79 engine, augmented by a Rocketdyne
AR2-3 rocket engine. The NF-104 eventually reached an altitude of 120,000 feet.
500 Km CLOSED COURSE
The maneuverability, speed, and long range of the Phantom II was proven on 5 September 1960, when a
new 500 kilometer closed course record was set. The principal flight requirement was that the contest
aircraft must depart the 311 mile triangular course on California's Mojave Desert at the same (or higher)
altitude than the entry altitude while maintaining optimum speed. Marine Lt Col Thomas H. Miller flew
the course in 15 minutes 19.2 seconds while covering an actual distance of 334 miles. The official speed
credited was 1216.76 mph; total afterburner time was 25 minutes 30 seconds; and total flight path
distance (takeoff to touchdown) was approximately 776 miles.
100 Km CLOSED COURSE
The Edwards AFB 100 kilometer closed course is laid out as a 12-point circle approximately 20.2 miles
in diameter, but because distance is actually measured as straight lines between points (or pylons), the
actual distance is 102 kilometers. Maintaining a constant circle of only 102 kilometers circumference at
very high speed represents a severe test of aircraft and maneuverability and pilot skill. In setting a new
world record of 1390.24 mph on 25 September 1960, the Phantom II averaged about 70 degrees of bank
and 3g throughout the turn. Meeting Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) rules, Cdr. John F.
Davis climbed and accelerated for 100 miles prior to entering the course at 45,000 feet and Mach 2.31.
The circular course was completed in two minutes 40.9 seconds with an exit speed of Mach 2.21 at an
altitude of 47,000 feet.
Project LANA
On 24 May 1961, five Phantom II's took off from Los Angeles at timed intervals to set a new west-to-
east transcontinental speed record. Using aerial refueling at three points in the flight, the first three
aircraft proceeded to set successive records.