The BEST Solo Fast Jet Display!! - RAF F4 Phantom - West Malling 1988
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- Опубліковано 13 лют 2021
- One of the best Solo Fast Jet displays I have seen was the F4 Phantom (RAF) at the West Malling Airshow 1988.It was such a dynamic fast Jet Display one I will never forget and this video shows how an experienced RAF Pilot can Fly a fast Jet like the F4 Phantom.
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I'm halfway through the video and this is by FAR.....by FAR the absolute best flight demo of a Phantom I've EVER seen.
Holy shite that was incredible. Man flew that jet like he was mad at it.
This is when air shows were shows. The modern day versions are like watching underwater firework display for the blind and deaf.
Well said!!
A correct Comment .
Remember when the T-birds and Angels did that in 4 ship unison?
Exactly. I used to love going to airshows to see these fantastically skilled pilots show us their full repertoire of skills coupled with the ability of the aircraft. Sadly all gone now.
As much as I love fast jets, and was lucky enough to see f4's, the sr71, etc etc we have to remember that no matter how well skilled the pilots are or how well maintained these old birds are, accidents will always happen, and we can't have the loss of life just for our entertainment. Let's be greatfull for the memories and videos. 👍
Good gawd......I've never, ever seen a Phantom flown like that. Outstanding!!!!
I was there. I remember hearing the announcer saying to the crowd to look to the left and in the distance you'll see the Phantom beginning its display. Then the pilot who was probably over a mile away throttling up and this almighty puff of exhaust fumes came out as he roared in to start hi display. Love West Malling. Warbirds was the best. You were so close to the action. The last airshow I went to with my dad before he passed away in 1989.
I went to West Malling at possibly the same time - incredible show. I believe the B-17 there as the Phantom takes off is the Sally B; last one flying in Europe ...or was then. But my overriding memory was seeing a Grummen Bearcat...it was a beast!!!
@@ginjaico_6132 Same!
Sorry you lost your Dad. A nice thing to both do.
Hi Colin, went to all the West Malling shows, the way he threw that phantom around was mind boggling. All that raw power, the likes of which we don't see today. Sorry about your dad. Mine used to take me to airshows when we were kids, then I took him to Duxford a few times when we were older. Recently took him to the Mosquito Museum and next year, if he's well enough, to The Jet Age Museum at Gloucester. We used to know it as Staverton.
Never had the pleasure of going to West Malling but one of the last memories I have with my dad is standing in the garden and Colonel (now General) Steve Richie came home in his F4 to buzz his parents house. Did a roll directly over our heads.
I served with a Marine Corps F-4 detachment in Viet Nam and Thailand 50 years ago. Amazing aircraft then. They would still be amazing today. Thank you for the post and the memories.
I dont know why I am getting all these F-4 videos lately, but it's awesome. Maybe it's my name.
Indeed the best F-4 Demo I've ever seen. 👍👍👍👍
I went to the Leuchars Air Show in Sept 1988 and it would have been the same Phantom display crew who a couple of weeks after I'd seen them, failed to pull out of a dive and crashed at RAF Abingdon killing Flt Lt Chris Lackman and Flt Lt Thompson. I remember thinking how I'd only just watched their display a few days before. Very sad.
Holy Crap!! That is the most aggressive Phantom display ever!!! He was really yanking it around the sky...definitely max performing the aircraft...outstanding!!!
i love when he does a wide turn then he suddenly pushes all the way back and completes a vertical loop in a dime, tightly without slowing down at all.
I was there!! Thanks for posting. West Malling Airshows we re the best
The rolling change of direction at 2.50 is incredible.
Now that's an air show display! Heavy G's tight turns lowe and fast and super loud ,you won't see that anymore, that was impressive 😲👍👍👍
"you won't see that anymore" this should be low enough, fast enough and loud enough for you.... ua-cam.com/video/wzaPuV44a6o/v-deo.html
I served on HMS Ark Royal in the late 70's and the F4 phantom and the buccaneers were the fixed wing squadrons on board.This video gives a good idea of how awesome the phantom was.but by far the most impressive ( for me) thing it did was the landing and take off from a carrier flight deck.
The skills of the pilots who could approach a " postage stamp" that would be pitching up and down and side to side with the thought that getting it badly wrong may cost his and flight deck crews lives.The landings using the hook to catch one of three cables ( it was considered bad form to catch the last cable) but at the same time use full throttle in case of a cable or hook failure to be able to take off again and go around.During my time one of the pilots was a young " Sharkey Ward" who later became a harrier squadron CO and did amazing work keeping the Argentine air force from having air superiority over the Falklands,his experience in fast jets and their tactics was invaluable.
BTW the buccaneers were handed over to the RAF and saw service in the gulf. The buccaneers were built to fly extremely low and fast as a naval strike aircraft.I will never forget standing on a weather deck just below the flight deck and looking down at the pilot of a buccaneer.He was so low that the sea behind him was being thrown into the air .....I saw him laugh at my open mouth WTF moment......in the gulf the normal 6 feet ( +/- 2 mtrs) off the ground was kicking up too much sand and gave their position away so they had to come up all the way to 12 feet..... can you imagine flying a jet full throttle 3 mtrs from the ground?????
I consider myself very lucky to have been in the RN during that period..... great aircraft and great pilots......
Certainly sounds like it! Lucky you, and thank you
Thanks for sharing your experience.
@Steve Hilton: I was a USN ordnanceman in a Phantom squadron on board the USS Kitty hawk. The power of those engines was awesome, especially if you were between two F4s on the waist catapults.
Thanks Steve!
This is wonderful Steve, thanks for sharing :)
When it’s your day and your flying is crisp…it shows
Seemed to remember this was one of two phantom s. Pilots stayed overnight at the bear hotel West Malling and few out the next day. Now that was a display.
The most beautiful plane ever. Its shape is unmistakable to all who see it striking like a thunder.
Naaah... Vulcan had the edge in both looks and scary! ;)
There is a story that when it was first delivered to the USAF the joke was that they thought it had been delivered upside down. It's an impressive plane with what it does but is no beauty....
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. I was in the RAF, worked on the Phantom and finished up as a weapons instructor on the Phantom School at Coningsby just before they were taken out of service... and yes, I too thought it was a beautiful aircraft.
Reminds me of happier days, when I used to work on these magnificent machines!!!
Completely agree wholeheartedly - Phantastic times indeed💎
This is THE BEST Phantom aerial display that I have ever seen! Very sprightly & agile, with superb, crisp 4 point roll, etc.!!!
Phantoms Phorever!
Thanks "Spooky" & Cheers!🇨🇦🍺🇨🇦🍺🇨🇦
Nothing like a completly agressive display. And that Phantom looks agile for such a heavy aircraft
This cat was nothing short of fantastic. He really pushed that Phantom hard and put in a ton of effort to give a good display. I have attended the air show at Burke Lakefront in Cleveland and ever since I was a young man, their aerial displays were not nearly as intense as this one was even though they had lots of cool aircraft (F-15, F-18, F-16, F-14, B-1 etc). It has always been pretty much the same tight turns, a split S, a high speed pass, a slow pass to show the landing gear and several circles around the crown to listen to the announcer describe it's capabilities. The pilot in this Phantom was making his aircraft do the talking and I tip my hat to him/her.
They crashed a few months later doing the same show. The hard turn followed by the loop in high winds meant they didn't have enough speed coming out of the loop and they hit the ground. Both crew killed.
@@biddyboy1570 Where did that happen?
I think by then the F4 was under notice of replacement by the Tonka, so the display pilot was basically told to go out and use up the remaining fatigue life rather than savings it for the 3rd Shock Army or Bear Hunting
@@iananderson7883 RAF Abingdon, 23rd September 1988
@@biddyboy1570 I think they crashed on practise day at RAF Abingdon.
Awesome display at West Malling...flying it like he stole it!
Archie Liggat's last display at Mildenhall Air Fete 92 was also a memorable demonstration of the F4.
My dad flew these. Went out to Davis-Monthan in the USA (second lot to go out) to learn how in 1968, then served three years on the staff of 228 OCU at Conningsby, followed by three on 41 Squadron when it reformed at Conningsby, and then a couple or three more on 2 Sdrn at RAF Leuchars - which is now Weeze International Airport. Dad was a tactical reconnaissance navigator. Sadly no longer with us.
Four things stick in my memory about those days:
They were LOUD!
The RAF definition of the Phantom F4 with the RR engines: A triumph of thrust over aerodynamics! ('Glides like a brick' as Dad put it.)
One of the scariest memories was seeing a diamond nine of Phantoms barrel roll over the airfield at Connigsby!
Dad clocked up two thousand hours' night flying while we were at Conningsby.
Weeze International (also Niederrhein Airport) is in Germany and Leuchars is in Scotland. Sure you don’t mean RAF Laarbruch? I went through Weeze a few times in the 00’s (EasyJet or RyanAir, can’t recall which) and the camp was pretty much as was, complete with NAAFI and cinema.
@@AnthonyRichesEmpire Duh! Laarbruch! That's what happens when you do these things after three days without sleep!
""Nothing like the lighting. ❤️
Oh, the West Malling Air Shows, those were the days. Good to see the 'Sally B' got into the footage twice as well. I was lucky enough as a ten year old, to get wave from a Phantom pilot when he flew through the valley adjacent to Cat Bell's in the Lake District. Even better to see a Phantom flying lower than yourself. Just a shame I did not have a camera on me at the time. I guess that's why the Mach Loop is so popular with plan spotters.
Holy cow! I never knew a Phantom could move like that! Great job by the pilot. Over the course of my life, neither any of the first hand flights nor videos I've seen have shown anything remotely close to that level of aggressiveness. Awesome!
@dwaski1 In the early '90s, I was at a large central IAF base for techncal trainig. I whitnessed first hand an IAF Kurnass2000 ( Easily identified by the large red lightning bolt painted on it's side ), being chased down by an F-15C single seater "Baz".
To give some context, the Israeli Baz fleet are considered a national stratigic asset, thay are assigned to the role of aerial supremicy. Only the best of the best get to fly them. Our Baz have multiple kills of Syrian Mig-21 and Mig-23.
Back to the point, this Kurnass2000 was out manouvering an F-15 in an almost vertical climb, both jets with full afterburners.
The engagment must have lastet over a minute. I was shocked at how hard the Kurnass2000 Phantom was thrown around. Never seen anything like it since.
The Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels used to fly Phantoms. Saw them both perform in them when I was a kid and my dad was stationed at Eglin AFB. It was glorious.
Raf has the best pilots👍
They can when clean and not loaded up with 18000 lbs of dragging stuff on the wings
The Phantom is a Dogfighter - It's supposed to be flown like a Bat out of Hell
Perhaps more manuverable than what I've read about.
Impressive, great footage I've never seen.
One of my all time favorite jet fighters, the F 4 Phantom. That airplane screams of ' BAD ASS ', the lines of that airplane are pure beauty, only rivaled by a beautiful woman.
He was giving it some pasty there. Great stuff.
Not often you see a Phantom flown like this. There's a reason they were loved by the countries armed services that had them. Fast and for it's time rather agile. Pretty amazing the the RAF Phantoms had a lot of redesigning to fit the RR Spey. Brilliant aircraft and my Favourite of all time.
Cheers for posting this vid.. Phantoms Phorever!!
My Naval squadron and our sister squadron had 24 of these birds. We had at least one pilot that could match this guy, he left us soon after my arrival and went to fly with the Blue Angels. He had flown in Vietnam as a LtJg. I'm guessing that he was pretty good!
I lived on a F-4 base in southern California. I never got tired on hearing and seeing these. I sometimes forget how magnificent and bad ass these planes are.
This pilot is a legend!!
A younger “simPaul flights” was there too with some friends from MGS Maidstone. Firstly thanks for putting this video up, that air show also featured two B17’s used for the film (indeed to film) Memphis Belle with pyrotechnics used during an F190 ‘attack’. The F4 was awesome…later on I was introduced to them properly at RAF ‘What a Shame’ in Suffolk.
Probably the best looking military jet aircraft ever built.
Marvellous aircraft, but no Steve.
Has to be the EE Lightning. 🎅☃️🌲🍻
@@gazza2933 hi, good point but the trouble with that is the EEL was for some time considered to be a highly strung thoroughbred interceptor and the appearance as great as it is shows a limited aesthetic appeal. We need a vote on this?
Hunter.
F86 sabre
F15 Eagle
The sheer size of this aircraft and its agility is mindbending.
@Carson Hopper I was a Structural Technician on F4-E and others.
Our Phantoms had literal armour plating installed to the drop-down service panels and skin under the cockpit. It made the panels much heavier and contributed to many stripped and cross threaded screws and anchor-nuts.
You should see a F-14 display. That is an enormous airplane and its agility and power are just as impressive as the phantom.
@@cloudstreets1396 I used to go the annual air show at El Toro. I loved the F-14 demo.
The F-4 Phantom is all angles and brute force and rage...
In 1960-63 at PAX RIVER NAVEL AIR test center Maryland I was a plane captain. At that time we were required to pull flight time each month. Believe me i climbed into the back seat of the F-4 PHANTOM we were testing every chance I could. A test pilot i flew with told me to hold my stomach muscles tight when doing maneuvers and I wouldn't get sick. At 81 now, this video brought back all the excitement i felt doing those same maneuvers as shown WHAT A RUSH!
Fantastic flight display!! I don't remember ever seeing a F4 pushed that hard in a flight display. Very impressive 👍
I’ve never had the privilege of seeing an F4 move like this pilot demonstrated here. Wow.
Still get to see these babies take off almost daily at my duty station in South Korea. Absolutely love the roar.
Simply magnificent!
The crowd were deaf but happy after this. Phenomenal display.
As a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's (before F-14's, 15's, 16's and 18's came on the scene), the F-4 Phantom was what a fighter jet was, to me. Big, loud, smoky, fast and intimidating. Looked like a flying shark. Badass. I miss Ole Smokey....
Those people watching that so long ago can still hear the rumble of those jet engines in their heads. Whatta brute of a plane!
what a truly fantastic aircraft
Brilliant! As a lad, used to watch the F4-Ds ('D' for 'Dirty'!) from RAF Bentwaters in the mid'70's from the fields on my Grandfather's Farm next to the River Deben. Didn't always throw theirs around like the RAF display guy, but now and again they'd hit the throttle and go vertical .. I can remember the insane noise reverberating through my chest .. so, so lucky to have seen these .. one-of-kind aircraft.
I flew F4s out of Bentwaters in the late 70s. Glad to hear that someone enjoyed seeing us take to the skies every day. It was a great time to be flying in the UK.
@@timhayes3684 Hi Tim. That must have been a dream job flying those F4s! Even now in my mid-50's, when I see an F4 on screen I am immediately transported back to being a lad again watching you and your colleagues do your stuff. I can remember I was so disappointed when the F4s went from Bentwaters and were replaced by A10s - would rather hear that rich, cackling vibration of your bird than the whine of the titanium bathtub! Thank you for your service in the U..K
Fantastic display by a great pilot in a great warhorse ,top marks 👍
A Phantom with the burners lit. It’s this that made me want to be a pilot after my first air show 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Love the Phantom absolutely awesome
My high school physics teacher was a co-pilot in a wild weasel during Vietnam. He had good stories and was extremely good at teaching. He knew the info backwards and forwards.
My maths teacher was a Lancaster pilot in WW11, shot down, imprisoned and starved for 3 years, never fully recovered, we set him off talking almost ever lesson, hardly learned any maths sadly.
One of if not THE BEST displays put on by an F-4 I have ever seen! Would love to meet and speak to this pilot and more so, Love to hitch a ride while he performs this Ballet! Fantastic and Bravo..
Unfortunately,both pilot and navigator died,a few months later,in practice for the airshow at RAF Abingdon..As already mentioned and without going into detail,high winds played a role!
One of my ALL time favorites! F-4 are such legendary aircraft, and when piloted well, as the video shows, the smoke wagon is an absolute formidable predator! Such an awesome aircraft!
Awesome airplane! And what noise! And looks fearsome! Sorely missed!
Loved watching the Phantoms flying out of Leuchars back in the day. The Lightnings were no slouch either!❤
Wow...hats off to the pilot here - getting the most out of the plane that he can. Impressive, utilizing all the strengths of the F4. One of the best all around displays I have ever seen. I LOVE THIS!
The plane,the pilot and some pretty neat flying... don't get much better than this!!!!
The F4 Phantom and Concorde, two aircraft which were way beyond their time, awesome
brings back memories of when i was a crew chief on F-4Ds. when those J-79 engines went into afterburner, my heart would pound.
Nothing beats the sound of an F4 Phantom doing an unrestricted climb in full afterburners... Nothing!
2 J-79s + JP-4 = huge smoke trails!
@@pb68slab18 -This issue was addressed with the Block 53 group of the F-4E which included smokeless J79-GE-17C (or -17E) engines.
Chucking it around like a rally car! Great aggressive flying!!
Brings back memories for me. I was allowed 10 mins unlimited in my phantom when I left JaBo 72 back in 86.
Love the F-4, still looks deadly
Phantom displays were always absolutely nuts. Loads of noise, hard G maneuvers and a ton of engine fumes.
Also, on some of their dives in "Southeast Asia " it's awesome to hear them scream!
I was a weapons controller in the USAF, on the EC-121 for 5 years. And over 90% of the aircraft I controlled were F-4's, it was literally the ONLY aircraft flying the DEW line or the GIUK (Greenland Iceland UK) gap in the 70's.
Thank you sir. One of my pops best friends flew the F4 in Vietnam. Respect.
What an absolutely superb display!
I found it hilarious that they tried to commentate over the roar of those Spey engines at full chat. I have been at airshows where they have tried to do that. You can’t hear a bloody thing LOL. 😂
What a lovely solo flight display the F-4! It is evident that this pilot is an real expert flying for a long time this fantastic airplane! I really would have loved to be there to watch this airshow....
never had a clue the F4 was this agile what a fantastic solo display!!! can't wait to see this again!!
The Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels used to fly Phantoms. I saw them flying them as a kid.
Last time I saw a Phantom fly was at RIAT 2017 by the Greek Air Force. I I can remember the external fuel tanks having massive dents in them 😂 I believe Iran, South Korea and Turkey are the only other operators of the F4 now
Probably the best F4 air show video that I’ve seen.
Beast of an aircraft, brilliant display
Fan Freakin Tastic!!! I have seen the F4 in demonstration flights before, but not like this. I never knew the F4 was this agile. WOOOHHH!!! Nice video!!!
Loved the phantom growing up. My fave plane 👍👍👍
IMHO the most beautiful jet fighter ever built.
The glory days of air shows
, such a tight display too, thankyou for sharing!
Only got to hear the F4 in a high speed run once. In Korea, 1968, some outfit moved from VietNam to Taegu(Daegu) AB, Korea. The bird came down over the mountain range on the left, poured the coal to her, she came up with a great twin j79 screaming for air with a big low moan. Still gives me chills when I think of it. That legend of an airframe will never be again, just raw power!
THAT is the sound that I live for in videos!!!
@Henauder Titzuaf Having worked on F-4E Kurnass as a structural technician, I am fully aware of the power of those two J-79s.
Seeing, and hearing, a Phanom bearing down on ones position is not something to ignore.
Our Hammers squadron, in addtion to the nose cannon, would regularly launch with 8,500 lbs or more of external payload. Some of which were 500lb smart iron bombs that could be threaded through a window pane.
The unit from Vietnam was my old squadron the 421st TFS from Danang Air Base
Awesome F4 display shows what it could do in the right hands :) Thanks for the upload .
Beautiful display., much better than watching a jet display team.
Magnificent....So sad that the nay sayers have stopped us enjoying such a spectacle these days.
Amazing display, I hadn’t realised that the Phantom was that agile. That performance puts some F-16 displays I have seen in the shade. Thanks!
Cap the f16 literally outclasses the phantom
I love the f4 nevertheless tho
The F4’s advantage was its brute power. If you get a chance, find ‘Duke’ Cunningham’s description of his air to air with a Vietnamese ace flying a Mig 17. Quite a battle.
The F-4 always had pretty decent roll rate when clean, and could it be that the pilot was actually pushing to the G-limits of the plane in the turns here more than normal for an airshow, because it was known they were about to be retired from service? The airframe not needing to be looked after and maybe even relatively "low mileage". That would make it seem closer to a regular F-16 display than you would expect.
The Blue Angels flew them for 4 years.
Remember a show at Waddington, when the announcer said,the next aircraft is the Lightning which is coming from Lossiemouth! Everyone settled down expecting to be quite a while, but it approached from the north in no time at all and thundered down the airfield, all hell broke loose kids were crying ,dogs barking a few windscreens were shattered!proper air shows!
I remember watching these take off in the twilight at RAF Tengah in the 70's, the noise was incredible, and i used to wait for the two red 'dots' to turn bright orange, and the whole house would shake!!! Happy memories....
0:25 That is a 360 degrees turn in about 22/23 seconds. Even discounting for a speed inaccuracy in the analog device playback, is a damn impressive number. To give you a idea, is the same number as the average F-15C do in air displays.
100%. This pilot is pushing it to the limit
@Magoid Seem about right. I've seen first hand a Kurnass2000 out manouver an F-15C, for a minute or so.
When pushed, the Phantom could turn hard.
SU-27 Flanker is 20/21 sec
Congratulations Friend Barry Price , Spectacular Military Pilot, honestly.
Check out the F4 with the Blue Angels flying them. I saw them back in the 70`s what a show!!
A great big heavy beast of an aircraft getting thrown around here. I used to love seeing Phantoms flying over the house....they were so damn loud!
Best Fighter jet of its day. Broke record after record. Love the Phantom!
Lovely to see. The best Phantom display I saw was by a Royal Navy Phantom at Bentwaters, just after the transatlantic air race. One I will never forget.
My brother served at an English base back in the 70's, he gushed about how the Brits were able to fly the wings of these and other aircraft vs the USAF rules limited American pilots.
When I was a child I saw The Blue Angles perform at Willow Grove Naval Air Station in the mid-1970s they were using the F-4 at that time. I later saw them using A-4 as well. In the 80s I joined the Marines and saw the F-16s perform for the air force team. The last time I saw the Blue Angles they had F18s. They were all good but for size, sheer power, and ear-splitting shriek, nothing compares to this utter beast. I only wish I could take my grandsons to see an F-4 perform these stunts.
So did I! In the mid~late 80's , I did my reserve time there in VP-66. Now , I work right across the street from the shuttered base. Kinda sad , had some good times there.
Sorry to be That Guy, but it's "Blue Angels".
Blue Angles sounds like you're talking about a modern art sculpture or a pop group. :)
I'd love to see one of their displays if I ever make it to the States for a holiday.
Barry this is one of the very best Phantom videos! Thanks phor sharing.
Thanks Troy
F4のアクロバティックな飛行は初めて見ました、とても貴重な映像ですね、ありがとうございました👍👍👍
I once saw a mock dog fight between a Corsair and a Phantom at Tanagra while I was waiting to get in the airshow. They flew right over me while doing a tight turn. Such an awesome experience.
We worked on the Spey 202's on the RN & RAF machines at RR Derby during my 16yr stint there.
It was a pleasure to see them in action. I still have a soft spot for the EE Lightning though. They were regular visitors to RAF Akrotiri in the '60's. The scramble, rotate and climb still bring a tear to my eyes.
Memories !!
When I was stationed at Bruggen, Germany, in the mid 70's, we had a Phantom jockey called Watson. He always gave a great display on return. Then they were replaced with Jaguars. Nothing was ever the same after then.
WOW! I have always loved the look and sound of the Phantom...Was stationed at MCAS El Toro, Marine Corps, in the early eighties. MAG-11 had 4 squadrons of them. I was MAG-13 on the A4 M Skywawk.
I've always heard that the Phantom was like "flying a brick"...Hats off to the crew here, superlative piloting skills!
I remember visiting my brother at his base in Germany in the mid 70's and those Phantoms were LOUD!
Served on two RAF stations with Phantom squadrons: Leuchars and Wildenrath. The "sooties" (engine techs) used to say that you can tell when a Phantom is empty; it stops leaking. A truly impressive aircraft for its time.
I've spent many hours sutting under a Phantom and pumping in the blue-tack putty like sealant into the fuel seal channels. used to return to the barraks smelling of jet fuel.
The RAF had different engines than the ones that were in our squadron on the Saratoga. We had the B model Phantoms , Lots of smoke and extremely loud but fast & agile. Lots of them came back with lots of holes and parts dangling off too from ground and air fire. F-4> Mean & Nasty, very capable. One outstanding aircraft.
RAF and RN phantoms were heavily modified to use Rolls Royce Spey engines in lieu of GE J79's.
I'd kind of wondered why it wasn't smoking when out of afterburner. The only time I saw any appreciable smoke was on its final approach, and when it did the dirty pass (gear down). I've seen tons of F-4 demonstrations, including both the Blue Angels and T-Birds when they flew the plane. It was kind of good to see the smoke, their demos took them almost out of sight sometimes and you could still see the plane from its smoke trail.
@@johnallen7367 When fitted with the Spey engines they were the most powerful Phantoms ever built
@@redkevful But the only improvement over the J79 engined Phantoms was in range . They were actually inferin all other aspects, including top speed
The only time I saw J79 engines smoke was when they were using American fuel (I asked why the jets were so smoky that particularly day and that was the reason given to me). In day to day use the J79 engined phantoms had near identical exhaust to RR engined phantoms, only the afterburner exhaust looking quite different.
I was a weapons mechanic on F4D's, in the 70's, on flight line duty, stationed at Hill AFB Utah . Used to pull the pins and launch these fuckers from end of runway two at a time , in full afterburner with 10 feet of cover, OMFG was it impressive!
He gave it some hammer didn't he! Very well flown. Love the Phantom.
A superb display of an aircraft that is quite agile for such a beast.
The first time I saw the Blue Angels fly they were in the F4 Phantom. Ever since then it's been my favorite fighter jet.