F-4 Phantom II -- carbon fibre?
Hello.
I've been re-reading Robert Prest's fabulous book, 'F4 Phantom: A Pilot's Story' (1981 edition) and something caught my eye.
In the early pages he writes of his training on the aircraft (in the first half of the 1970s): "The ground school lecturers have taken me beneath the duralumin and titanium skin to lay bare the metallic innards. They have rationalised the intricate collection of wire, pressed steel, carbon fibre, bakelite and vulcanised rubber that lies beneath that purposefully smooth exterior."
Of course, this was an aircraft that was designed in the 1950s and entered service in the 1960s.
Carbon fibre was still a very new concept in the 1960s and didn't have many practical applications at that time, as far as I know. I know that aerospace companies were beginning to experiment with it, but it wasn't mainstream as it is now.
So my question is: which components of the F-4 were made of carbon fibre? Perhaps by the time Prest flew the aircraft, some parts that had originally been metallic had been replaced with carbon fibre?
Thanks!