Air & Space Magazine F-4 Phantom
 

Very nice writeup in the latest Smithsonian Air & Space magazine on the history of the F-4 Phantom.

History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Air & Space Magazine

Enjoy :ok:

Thanks td, excellent read.

Fascinating. I'd love to see the images of the Titan launch.

Thank you, to. Really enjoyed the article.

Very good article, nice photo gallery too! Thanks for the heads up!

Thanks for that!! I really enjoyed the article.

When I was reading that, I kept thinking how, ah, interesting :O it could become if there was a catastrophic failure of the Titan. Now I know that the Titan II missiles were quite reliable, and due to the nature of their fuel, a Titan "CATO" (rocketeer slang for "blow up" :E) is not as dramatic as those for O2/Kerosene and O2/H2 powered rockets, they can still pretty dramatic :eek:.
I suspect they would be more reluctant to try that maneuver on an Atlas I launch (roughly a third of all Atlas I launches CATO'ed :=)

We know them to be reliable now, but I imagine it was a relatively unknown quantity back then. Basically, it was a ballsy bit of flying in anyone's book!

Nice article, it was the RAF aircraft of my childhood days, and I read this book avidly:







.... but don't worry anyone, some Mig 21 driver will be along shortly to say how rubbish the Phantom was!! ;)

Designed less than 15 years after the end of the war with for the time unbelievable performance. What a jet.