And who said the F-4 Phantom is obsolete?

[Vern Humphrey]

How many of you can guess what the third photo from the top is?

[High Plaines Doug r]

Not Bar-b-que.

[Vern Humphrey]

Not Bar-b-que.

You got that right!!

[RED]

This thread inspired me to spend two hours reading about 1950-60's jets. It's raining today anyway. The F series of jets were designed to fly fast and very high. When Russia's missiles could fly as high as our jets we went the other direction and designed planes for low altitudes.

Probably my favorite jet was the B-58 Hustler. I had a model of it when I was a kid.
I wonder if the F-16 is the be-all-end all of jets.

The F-35 probably will become the last manned fighter that is widely used. It is too bad they didn't give it two engines and add a GIB (Guy In Backseat). The F-8 Crusader was the most dangerous Navy fighter to fly. 1,216 were made and 1,106 made big splashes in the ocean or little holes in the ground.

[Allen]

The F-8 Crusader was the most dangerous Navy fighter to fly.

Kinda ugly too. I heard that the (more ugly) A-7 was bad about sucking up people on the carrier decks with the huge intake.

- - - Updated - - -

This thread inspired me to spend two hours reading about 1950-60's jets. It's raining today anyway.

This should keep you busy for a while.

https://aviastar.org/index2.html

[dryheat]

https://aviastar.org/index2.html

Lockheed made lots of planes we know but it looks like everything Northrup made was an experiment.
We had an A-7 park at our hanger. While I was on night guard duty I climbed inside the intake and crawled all the way to the back just for fun.

[Art]

There is a difference between "obsolete" and "obsolescent." Obsolescent (meaning more modern and efficient stuff is available) equipment can still be quite useful. For example MiG 17 and 19 aircraft, both clearly obsolescent in the 1960s gave us a good bit of trouble in the Viet Nam war. As late as the Gulf War Phantoms, while not used by us much in their original role did good service for us in the "Wild Weasel" electronic warfare mode.

The Phantom remained in US frontline service from 1961 to 1996, that's 35 years, an almost unequalled record for a fighter aircraft. The Japanese just retired their Phantoms in 2021!! A remarkable record and one of histories great aircraft.