F-4 Phantom

The F-4 Phantom is one of the most legendary fighter jets ever produced, and was used by the US Air Force and US Navy in the Vietnam War.

The Phantom was originally developed as a twin-engine two-seat long-range all-weather attack fighter for the US Navy. Two prototypes were ordered in October 1954. At this time, the aircraft was designated AH-1.

The designation changed to F4H-1 in May 1955, and its primary role was changed to an air-to-air combat fighter. The prototype flew for the first time on 27 May 1958.

The first production F-4 was delivered to the US Navy in December 1960. Trials in ground attack role led to US Air Force orders, and the basic Navy and Air Force versions became the F-4 Phantom B and F-4 Phantom C.

The F-4D, a version of the Phantom with increased weapon accuracy, was delivered to the Air Force in 1966. The F-4E was delivered to the Air Force in 1967. The F-4E had an additional fuselage fuel tank, leading-edge slats for better manouverability, an improved engine and an internal 20mm multi-barrel gun.

The F-4 was one of the first aircraft to utilise the air-to-air missile, which was a reliatively recent weapon. The only problem with the plane was that (apart from the F-4E version) every version of the Phantom relied on missiles and had no guns. Air-to-air missiles cannot be used at close range.

The MiG-21 fighters which the NVA flew in the Vietnam War were equipped with both guns and missiles, and were a lot smaller and more manouverable than the Phantoms. Since the F-4 had no guns and was very large and not very manouverable, it didn't do very well in dogfights against the Vietnamese fighters. Still, the F-4 managed to shoot down 3 enemy jets for every one of its losses.

Production of the F-4 ended in 1979. A total of over 5,000 F-4s were built - over 2,600 for the US Air Force, 1,200 for the US Navy and Marine Corps and the rest for allied nations of the United States, such as Great Britain, West Germany, South Korea, Japan, Spain, Greece, Israel, Iran, Australia and Turkey. They remained in service with the US well into the 1990s, and are still flying with some nations today.

Armament: Four AIM-7 Sparrow and four AIM-9M Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, AGM-65 Maverick missiles, AGM-88 HARM missile capability, one fuselage centreline bomb rack and four pylon bomb racks capable of carrying 12,500 pounds (5,625 kilograms) of general purpose bombs