Re: F4 Phantom - Flying Bus???
[What were the differences between the FG1 and the FGR2?? Anything significant? Anything obviously physically different? Were they both carrier capable?[/quote]
Internal differences, the FG1 had no battery, no inertial, no HF so was well equipped to get lost & incommunicado. Externally the ailerons drooped when flaps were lowered so as to reduce final approach speed to something that the Mighty Ark's 840 odd feet of runway could handle; the FG1 stabilator had a fixed slat (upside down) to maintain adequate pitch control at the lower speed. To enable less traumatic s/e go-arounds, the RN FG! engines were modified, I believe, to enable "rapid" reheat selction our Fighting Cocks machinery didn't go for this one. Without the droopaileron & slotted stabilator the FGR2 might have been uncomfortable going to a deck smaller than the USN boats.