McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom - The RAF Phantom Story | Aviation Theme
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- F-4 Phantom (UK) squadrons artwork & designs: www.aviationth...
How will we let you what we’re up to? Subscribe at www.aviationth...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Social media
Facebook: / aviationthread
Twitter: / aviationthread
Instagram: / aviationthread
Designs Store: www.redbubble....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The United Kingdom operated the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II as one of its principal combat aircraft from the 1960s to the early 1990s. The UK was the first export customer for the Phantom. The Phantom was procured to serve in both the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Air Force in several roles including air defence, close air support, low-level strike and tactical reconnaissance.
Although assembled in the United States, the UK's Phantoms were a special batch built separately and containing a significant amount of British technology as a means of easing the pressure on the domestic aerospace industry in the wake of major project cancellations.[1] Two variants were initially built for the UK. In the mid-1980sa quantity of second-hand F-4J aircraft were purchased to augment the UK's air defences following the Falklands War.
The Phantom entered service with both the Fleet Air Arm and the RAF in 1969. By the mid-1970s it had become the UK's principal interceptor, a role in which it continued until the early 1990s.
Thanks to Labour we lost our aircraft industry.
Wrong look up 1957 Defence White Paper Duncan Sandys (a Tory government).
Both parties screwed up although the present lot seem determined to cut the armed forces until we have none left 😡
"If we had to buy American, I'm glad we bought this one" might be one of the most British statements from the Cold War era.
Right behind Winston Churchill's "Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else".
As a US citizen, l can state, without hesitation, that this is imminently true.
As a 19 year-old in 1973 I was very lucky to get a summer job at the massive McDonnell Aircraft plant in St Louis. Although my assignment dealt with the very first blocks of the new F15, new F4 Phantoms were still being built for export, mostly for West Germany. It is hard to believe that after 50 years, some of the planes that I saw being built new are still in service
No mention of the fact that the modifications to help keep jobs in the U.K., the replacement of the J-79 engines with Spey’s which necessitated an actual widening of the airframe, resulted in a model of Phantom that was more expensive yet slower than any other model, yes they were good but if the U.K. had kept them with the original engines they would have been better, and cheaper.
Not exactly, as an overall aircraft yes they were inferior to the later model US phantoms but as a naval aircraft for Britain they were superior. The more powerful Spey engines were necessary to allow the British phantoms to operate off British carriers which were considerably smaller than American carriers, so in essence the GE engined phantoms would have been useless to the FAA. The UK phantoms also had superior low altitude performance, better TTA and were more fuel efficient increasing endurance. Three extremely important advantages for a naval aircraft, who's primary duties were quick reaction fleet defence, combat air patrols and close air support. The RAF phantoms on the other hand were compromised for the sake of parts commonality, but again given the state of 1960/70s British economy operating two completely different advanced combat aircraft would have been too costly, and the cheaper purchase price of the unmodified phantoms would have quickly been undone. The decision to modify the phantoms with British engines and avionics not only saved jobs at the time but also ensured the survival of the British aerospace industry which would have likely collapsed entirely relegating Britain to an aircraft importer which is cheap and easy during peacetime but with war constantly looming with the Soviets would leave Britain vulnerable.
I don't blame the British for looking out for their own people. I wish the American government would do that more often.
The choice of the Spey for UK F4 Phantoms was for the simple reason that it provided A LOT of thrust at sea level, making it ideal for taking off from the smaller RN carriers. The video does mention why the F4 was purchased, the cancelation of TSR2, but the replacement F111 also ended up being far too expensive, more than the cost of finishing the TSR2.
A fantastic aircraft and i had the pleasure of working on these with 54 SQN in the early 70`s at RAF Coningsby..Those were the days ......
Igreja católica apostólica romana a melhor salve Jesus nossa senhora Aparecida rogai por nós amém.
Think of what we lost with the TSR2 cancellation... 🤦♂️
Best jet ever
I wonder how the performance of the UK F-4 Phantoms compared to the Tornado F3 in the intended interceptor role. They even started with the same missile armament, both had aerial refueling, etc. Was the Tornado F3 really a big advancement over the F-4? (I am sure that the F3’s radar was eventually better, but in theory the F-4 could have had an upgraded radar). I wonder how the F-4 and F3 would compare in air-to-air combat, even though I recognize that the F3’s purpose was intercepting Backfire bombers, not fighters…
The F-111 wasn't 'disregarded' - it ended up vastly over budget and late into production. The big problem was that the UK economy was still in a terrible state after the second world war and the US was able to exert undue influence. Should have stuck with the TSR-2 and bought F-15s for air defence in the mid 70s. No denying though that the Phantom was a fantastic aircraft.
RAF and spanish air force, the outsiders in the Phantom family.
Only a Phantom with J-79's is a real one.
Duke Mitchell Aircraft
Yes
9:01 suu-23 gun pod
is this the same f4 from the gate at RAF boulmer?
The TSR2 looked terrible comoared with other choices
Hugely overrated and would have been terribly expensive to acquire and operate..Good decision to cancel.