My favourite F4 story
In early 1974, I was the pilot of one of a pair of aircraft (not F4s) going on detachment to Tengah, Singapore. The old Tengah, with Singapore AF Hunters, RAAF Mirages, and RNZAF Bristol Freighters!
At Masira, in the Gulf, we met up with a formation of 4 aircraft also travelling to Tengah, a Nimrod and two Victor tankers supporting an F4 Phantom. We all arrived in Tengah on the same day. Later, during conversation over a pint in the ‘Swill’, we found out that the Phantom was from Boscombe Down, and it was there to carry out paint trials at high speed, for the Concorde.
After a couple of days, the Phantom appeared on the Flight Line but minus the normal pointed underwing tanks that it had flown in with. In their place were two specially prepared underwing tanks, that instead of having the pointed fronts, had chisel shaped upper and lower frontal surfaces, with about 6 facets, each at a slight angle to the other. These modified tanks were painted white, with Concorde paint, but because they were modified, they could not carry fuel.
The pilot of the Phantom was Commander in the Fleet Air Arm, going slightly grey, and the navigator was a youngish RAF Flight Lieutenant. For a few days they flew up over Malasia, but with only internal fuel, their sortie lengths were limited. After a couple of days, they came to our detachment and asked if we could help. It seemed that they really wanted to fly these tanks through quite heavy rain, and at quite a speed.
The next morning, my navigator and I were off the west coast of Malasia, when we saw a really big cumulous formation (it really was abig b****r), so, as arranged, we called up Singapore Flight Watch on the HF. They advised us that the Phantom would be getting airborne shortly, and could we keep an eye on the Cu and update the crew as they approached us. This we did.
After a short time the Phantom crew radioed us to say they were at FL410 and about to enter the Cu. We could almost hear the 'banzai' as the phantom pitched in and accelerated. After a minute or so we heard a faint voice calling to say they were recovering to Tengah, and could we follow them.
The Phantom landed at Tengah before us, but we parked on the pan adjacent to it. When we looked at it, we thought it looked a little ragged.
The front of both underwing tanks had split open, assuming the look of a pair of large forward facing white daffodils, and the perspex radome was missing from the front of the fuselage, so was most of the radar. The front of the fuselage was very plate shaped.
My nav and adjourned to the Swill, where we met up with the Phantom crew. The Commander had a gin in his hand and was admiring the aviation cartoons on the ceiling of the bar; the Flight Lieutenant was drinking a Tiger beer, but about a quarter of it had been spilt due to his rather shaky hand. He also had rather a glazed expression on his face. The Commander said that today’s sortie was a bit of a setback, but not to worry, they had some spare modified tanks, and had signalled Boscombe to send out a 'tin' nose for the Phantom. A little more beer was spilt.
The ‘tin nose’ duly arrived on the next VC10, and was fitted, along with some new ‘modified’ tanks. After a couple of days, the F4 was airborne again, following directions for another big Cu. The result was predictably similar. By now, we thought the pilot was definitely greyer, and we thought the navigator must be getting very thirsty, as most of his beer was going on the floor. Also his eyes were getting rather large and staring. They did a few more sorties, until they ran out of modified tanks, and then gave up. The entourage duly disappeared off to the west.