Phantom Friday
It could be this accident:
30 August 1970 – Lt. Ernie Christensen belly-landed his F-4J Phantom at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids with one engine stuck in afterburner. He ejected safely, while the aircraft ran off the runway.
30 August 1970 – Lt. Ernie Christensen belly-landed his F-4J Phantom at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids with one engine stuck in afterburner. He ejected safely, while the aircraft ran off the runway.
at the phantomshrine, memories!
Lovely shockwaves which reminds me. Place RR Hucknall. A/C Spare F4 left lying around by the RN Date just before the company went bust. (RR not the RN). Boss man. 'Take e this fine noise meter, set it up in the middle of the runway then rfl back to the tower' Arrives at tower just as the spare F4 howls down the runway and pulls the noisiest vertical I've ever heard. Noise research dept then submitted the readings to Nottingham City Council as average readings of peak jet noise. The blighters were planning to build what else but a housing development just off the western edge of the runway. Guess what? They just won the battle all these years on. Hucknall closed for flying this very month so that the long planned housing can now be built. Proud to have played a very small part in the holding battle. The pilot I think was Dennis Witham
Never phlew the Phantom - but spent a few happy years visiting the very impressive McD Douglas facility in St Louis at the end of its production line. I was invited to visit the last phew phantoms being built - one Greek, one Turkish! They said that every morning when they returned to the production line, they found that the two phantoms had started to point inwards towards each other and they had to straighten them out!! Win/win for McD D!!
Great aircraft with some amazing capabilities.
Please keep this thread going for many phantom phridays to come!!
Great piccies!!
Great aircraft with some amazing capabilities.
Please keep this thread going for many phantom phridays to come!!
Great piccies!!
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The aircraft are:
F-106A of 102 FIW Massachusetts ANG between Jun 72 and Jan 88.
RF-4E of AG51 Luftwaffe.
Tornado GR1 of TWCU (1981 onwards).
The F-106 rarely visited Europe and none of the dates I can find match up.
The 102 FIW did deploy to Goose Bay for Ex FERTILE BRAVE in 1981 but this was before the first Tornado Det there in 1983. I was wondering if the TWCU Tornado was staging through for trials in the USA but I cannot imagine why they would have an old RAF Douglas tractor with them given the paucity of Hercules airlift allocations for minor dets in those days.
The USAF style security notice is not aligned with a permanent Restricted Area red line so it is probably an exercise / airshow somewhere with the aircraft parked in areas not used on a regular basis. I did consider IATs at Greenham Common - perhaps someone on the F-106A unit managed to secure a transatlantic trip as 102 FIW was starting to get into the deployed ops game in preparation for receiving the F-15A.
F-106A of 102 FIW Massachusetts ANG between Jun 72 and Jan 88.
RF-4E of AG51 Luftwaffe.
Tornado GR1 of TWCU (1981 onwards).
The F-106 rarely visited Europe and none of the dates I can find match up.
The 102 FIW did deploy to Goose Bay for Ex FERTILE BRAVE in 1981 but this was before the first Tornado Det there in 1983. I was wondering if the TWCU Tornado was staging through for trials in the USA but I cannot imagine why they would have an old RAF Douglas tractor with them given the paucity of Hercules airlift allocations for minor dets in those days.
The USAF style security notice is not aligned with a permanent Restricted Area red line so it is probably an exercise / airshow somewhere with the aircraft parked in areas not used on a regular basis. I did consider IATs at Greenham Common - perhaps someone on the F-106A unit managed to secure a transatlantic trip as 102 FIW was starting to get into the deployed ops game in preparation for receiving the F-15A.
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Three TWCU Tornados went to the USA in 83 at about the same time the Reds did the USA trip over the pond.
I remember seeing a shot on Air Pictorial of the 3 Tornados with the Reds, possibly in the USA.
V1
I remember seeing a shot on Air Pictorial of the 3 Tornados with the Reds, possibly in the USA.
V1
The Red Arrows and 3 x TWCU Tornado GR1 visited the USA in May 83 and gave a number of display. The TWCU aircraft also flew low-level missions from Andrews AFB and Goose Bay, and appeared at the Andrews AFB Open House that year.
A teenage Flap Track 6 being checked out in RF-4C 72-0146 at Alconbury in the early eighties.
They wouldn't let me take it for a spin, though, and unfortunately this was the closest I ever got to actually flying the mighty Toom.
They wouldn't let me take it for a spin, though, and unfortunately this was the closest I ever got to actually flying the mighty Toom.
