Positioned on USS Yorktown's (CV-10) #1catapult is our F-4J Phantom (Buno 153077).
The McDonnell F-4 Phantom (eventually became McDonnell-Douglas and then bought by Boeing) was a tandem-seat fighter-bomber designed to fill the U.S. Navy’s fleet defense fighter role. The advent of Soviet jet bombers with long range anti-ship missiles dictated that the U. S. Navy acquire a fighter that could quickly climb and accelerate to intercept the Soviet bombers, before they could get their missiles launched against our carriers.
Despite the size and weight of the Phantom (maximum takeoff weight of over 60,000 lb), the jet fighter had a top speed of Mach 2.23 and an initial climb of over 41,000 ft/min. Not only fast, the Phantom could carry up to 18,650 pounds of ordnance, including air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, and unguided, guided, and nuclear bombs. This was the selling point for the initial Air Force interest in the aircraft. However, designers believed the era of guns on aircraft was over (with the advent of long/short range missiles) and the F-4 was designed without an internal cannon.
Our F-4J served as Blue Angel number 5 (lead solo position) back in its prime. The Blue’s flew Phantoms from January 1969 to August 1973 and actually performed over Charleston Harbor in May 1970. Today Blue Angel #5 sits on the starboard catapult of the USS Yorktown (CV-10).
- Blue Angel Phantoms, #5 is the Patriots Point bird, Buno. 153077.
The F-4J was the first Navy/Marine Corp fighter to have a look down, shoot down capability and was built for combat, but it also make a crowd pleasing air show bird. Watch the Blues flying the Phantom in the clip below and you’ll also catch a view of our bird, #5, flying in the 1970s.
Too bad it is not still painted in the Blue Angel paint scheme. Sure would like to see it painted this way again. That would be a prestigious honor.
If the Phantom is ever repainted, it should carry the colors and markings of the old VF-74 Squdron. This unit is the first to carrier qual the Phantom for operational duty. The BeDevilers revieved the new aircraft about the same time as a west coast unit did, but had them qualified about a week before them.
The F-4′s biggest weakness, as it was initially designed, was its lack of an internal cannon. For a brief period, doctrine held that turning combat would be impossible at supersonic speeds and little effort was made to teach pilots air combat maneuvering . In reality, engagements quickly became subsonic. Furthermore, the relatively new heat-seeking and radar-guided missiles at the time were frequently reported as unreliable and pilots had to use multiple shots (also known as ripple-firing), just to hit one enemy fighter. To compound the problem, rules of engagement in Vietnam precluded long-range missile attacks in most instances, as visual identification was normally required. Many pilots found themselves on the tail of an enemy aircraft but too close to fire short-range Falcons or Sidewinders. Although in 1967 USAF F-4Cs began carrying SUU-16 or SUU-23 external gunpods containing a 20 mm (.79 in) M61 Vulcan Gatling cannon, USAF cockpits were not equipped with lead-computing gunsights, virtually assuring a miss in a maneuvering fight. Some Marine Corps aircraft carried two pods for strafing. In addition to the loss of performance due to drag , combat showed the externally mounted cannon to be inaccurate unless frequently boresighted, yet far more cost-effective than missiles. The lack of a cannon was finally addressed by adding an internally mounted 20 mm (.79 in) M61 Vulcan on the F-4E.