Discussion
dukeboy749r said:
Wow - I always imagined they had been retired some many years since.
They were.....the US retired them from 'front line' service back in 1996, but for a decade or so, they retained a training squadron at Holloman, as part of the contract to train the German airforce who were still operating the mighty beast. The same year they were retired from front line service (1996) was also the last year they finished flying the QF-106 as by then they had used up all of those in the drone target progamme and had already started conversion of the massive stock of F-4 that had already been retired.So, it's taken 20 years to get through the pile of F-4's sat in storage.
They've now started on the stock of F-16's sitting in storage.
aeropilot said:
They were.....the US retired them from 'front line' service back in 1996, but for a decade or so, they retained a training squadron at Holloman, as part of the contract to train the German airforce who were still operating the mighty beast. The same year they were retired from front line service (1996) was also the last year they finished flying the QF-106 as by then they had used up all of those in the drone target progamme and had already started conversion of the massive stock of F-4 that had already been retired.
So, it's taken 20 years to get through the pile of F-4's sat in storage.
They've now started on the stock of F-16's sitting in storage.
Aww, sad to think they've destroyed all those mighty Phantoms, it is such a bad-ass jet.So, it's taken 20 years to get through the pile of F-4's sat in storage.
They've now started on the stock of F-16's sitting in storage.
I feel kind of bad for those F-16 awaiting a lobotomy and target-practice duty
Vitorio said:
..Aww, sad to think they've destroyed all those mighty Phantoms, it is such a bad-ass jet........
True but as the Klingons would say 'a noble death dying in battle.Sadly we (UK) were part of this carnage.
During development of Skyflash we commissioned the US to carry out air to air firing trials as they have the large firing ranges that we lack.
They made the mistake of thinking it was just an AIM7 with some 'aftermarket' guidance fitted. Their mistake was using their AIM7 hit rate of 1 in 10 during Vietam as the basis for costing the contract.
Of the ten firings only one drone survived despite these being inert rounds.
The one that did make it back to base was 'attack on a crossing target' this meant that the missile arrived from the side of the target at about the same angle as the sweep of the wing. One of the missile fins cut a groove through the upper wing skin for almost the whole length of the wing. The missile then passed through the fuselage without doing enough damage to bring the aircraft down.
Costly methinks
Steve
Eric Mc said:
There is at least one F-4 flying in civilian hands in the US too. It's in USAF Vietnam era colours.
The 53rd Wing Aerial Target Sqn have been displaying the QF-4's at airshows around the USA for the past decade or so with the display aircraft painted up un Vietnam SE Asia camo schemes.
McDonnell in 1958 said:
We might build a couple but the Navy will order something more advanced
After nearly 5200 airframes McDonnell Douglas in 1979 said:
Stop building the bloody things, Air Forces are buying them instead of the F-15
The F-4 wasn't perfect, the wings were bent where somebody closed the hanger doors on the prototype and it didn't have a gun because an F-8 pilot sabotaged the blueprints...You can tell a classic design not by how good it is at it's original role but how much you can abuse the design and still have it perform.
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