Overview
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a two seater, twin engine, long range supersonic jet interceptor, and fighter bomber. It was originally built for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. Its first days of service was in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. With its outstanding performance, it was adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Air Force, and by the mid 1960s it had become a major part of their respective air wings.
The Phantom is a large fighter with top speed of over Mach 2.2 or about 750 mph. It can carry more than 18,000 pounds of weapons. The F-4 was designed without an internal cannon. Later models developed a M61 Vulcan rotary cannon. Beginning in 1959, it set 15 world records for in flight performance, fastest speed, and an altitude record.
During the Vietnam War, the F-4 was used all the time. It became important in the ground attacks and aerial strikes during the war. …show more content…
The massive aircraft is designed to fire radar guided missiles from out of site, lacked the agility of the soviets. It is able to recover irrecoverable spins, pilots reported the aircraft to be very communicative and easy to fly. In 1972, the F-4E model was upgraded with leading edge slats on the wing, greatly improving high angle of attack at top speed.
The F-4's biggest downside was its designed, and it didn’t have a internal cannon. Furthermore, the new heat seeking and radar guided missiles at the time were frequently reported as unreliable and pilots had to use multiple shots, just to hit one enemy fighter. Now the bigger problem, rules of engagement in Vietnam precluded long range missile attacks in most instances. Many pilots found themselves on the tail of an enemy aircraft but too close to fire short-range Falcons or