[music playing] Fasten your seat belts. Turn up the sound. You are about to witness the
last days of the F-4 Fighting Phantom before it flew off into
the pages of American history as the most versatile
multi-mission jet fighter. [music playing] You'll meet the pilots
and the ground crews that kept them flying with cameras
in the cockpit, the back seat, the travel pod, and the nose. You're about to take
the ride of your life. We'll take you up to Mount
Shasta, the Sierra, the Pacific Ocean, Mono Lake, and right down
on the deck over Nevada's Black Rock Desert. [music playing] You'll ride in the
tanker while they refuel a formation of Phantoms
and see how they did it from all the angles. You'll do a walk around with
veteran pilot Rick Vandam, as he shows the
features of the F-4 and what a pilot looked for when
a free flight of the aircraft. A story so compelling and so
real, the filming of Phantom was investigated
by the Air Force. So hold on tight all
you bears, wizzos, and EWOs because no
matter if you were a plane captain or the pilot, an
airframe mechanic or you worked on the flight line,
it doesn't matter what color your shirt
was on the flight deck, even if you worked
on the assembly line. This is your story, because
this was your airplane. The legend of America's
most celebrated jet fighter. The story of the Phantom. [music playing] Our story begins in 1953
when McDonnell Douglas first designed the airplane
for the Navy. The early prototype had a
straight wing and a stabilizer. It bore a striking resemblance
to the A-4 Skyhawk line attack jet. It was designated
the F3H-G. There were no lift to the wingtips
and no drooped horizontal stabilizer. The cockpit it was single place. Over 1,000 of the
original phantoms were built for the Navy
and were the first carrier based jet fighters. That's why the
redesigned Phantom was called the Phantom II. This second prototype had
two cockpits, revised inlets, and a droop tail. The wing was still
flat, but that would be revised in the first prototype. Now, this is the
uniqueness of the F-4. We have a notch right here. We also have the wing bent up. What we've used to
say about the F-4, they bent some up,
they bent some down, they added some pieces, and
they said, OK, must fly now. But it's all part of the design. This helps the dihedral
effect and make the airplane much more stable in
the various regimes of flight. And each little bend up,
bend down, the notch. The notch particularly helps
us in our high angle of attack. Gives us a better airflow
across the wing so we don't get early separation. We can control the wing. And so it was on May 27, 1958. McDonnell Douglas rolled
out the F-4H-1 Phantom for its maiden flight. It was to be piloted by their
chief test pilot, Robert C. Little. Soon, high over St
Louis, first of what eventually would be over 5,000
Phantoms took to the skies. The platform was designed
to carry sparrow air to air missiles. And when it came
to bombs, uh-oh. The Phantom could lift and
drop 22, 500-pound bombs. That was 11,000 pounds
of ordnance plus fuel. Talk about thirsty. Woo. Those two J-79 GE engines
consumed 2,500 gallons of JP-4 fuel in
just over an hour. Afterburner was exactly
like a blowtorch. It's probably never going to get
recommended for the fuel saver award for the year, because we
have a highly complex engine running through the air
through the compressors and the turbines. We like the afterburner. We started pouring raw
fuel into the tailpipe, lighting it off as a
blowtorch, and we are not even able to read the fuel
consumption in the cockpit, but they give us a rule
of thumb that by lighting the afterburner, our
fuel consumption goes up by four times, 4-fold, or 400%
increase in fuel consumption. Wow. If you took an airplane off
exactly the way it's configured here with 17,000
pounds, took off stayed low level in
full afterburner, you'd have about eight to
nine minutes worth of fuel-- That's it? --before the airplane
was bone dry. So we don't use it. We use it for takeoff and
we use it when we fight. Before the plane saw
active duty service, it established a variety
of class records. In a flight from Edwards
Air Force base in 1959, the prototype named
Project Top Flight soared to a new absolute
altitude of 98,557 feet. Project High Jump established
a whole series of time to climb altitude speed records. Sage Burner set a low altitude,
speed record of over 900 miles per hour. 20 years later, that record
still had not been broken. And Sky Burner, only
the second F-4 prototype sent an absolute world speed
record of over 1,600 miles per hour. The first Navy training
squadron to fly the Phantom was VF121 at NAS
Miramar, but it wasn't long before the
Air Force and the Marines were also flying the Phantom. Through a rain swollen
skies over North Vietnam, F-4's out of Da Nang flew sortie
after sortie against suspected enemy targets with
500 pounds bomb loads. These aircraft came to be
known as death rattlers. Out at sea on Yankee
Station, crews on carriers such as
the USS Kitty Hawk, Enterprise, Saratoga,
and Constellation became indoctrinated as
members of an elite Naval fighting Corps known as
a Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club. The Air Force based and adopted
their own use of the Phantom. They added a stick
for the back seater. From Cam Ranh Bay to
bases in Thailand, the Air Force flew
thousands of missions, dropping more ordinance
tonnage than was expended during the
entire Second World War. The Air Force developed
the camouflage Brown and green paint scheme that
marked their early models the eighth tactical
fighter wing, the Wolfpack, operating out of Thailand
scored more combat victories in the air than any
other Air Force squadron. Kill ratios in those early days
of the F-4 program were dismal. Most pilots did return
but far too many did not. We went into the war
teaching guys long range intercept tactics. They went in there
and found themselves in knife fights with MiG 17's
and we had a horrendous loss rate early on in the war. And we had adapted a
philosophy envisioning the way we felt the next
war was going to be fought. It turned out that our
enemy didn't agree, and the Navy went back
and very much looked at why are we running
a 1 to 1 kill ratio? We have airplanes that are mach
2, were carrying the missiles, and we're having vintage 1950
airplanes shooting them down. What is going wrong here? They went back,
evaluated, and they said that we have quit training
our pilots in advanced combat maneuvering. Therefore, the Top Gun
school was the first formed by the Navy down
in Miramar, and it was to teach aerial
combat maneuvering. It has become very famous. That school there went
back into the F-4, then advanced the
handling characteristics, taught the pilots where they
could fly this fantastic airplane, how they could use
the vertical, how they could maneuver, how they
could use their thrust to take advantage of the MiGs. The latter part of the
war, particularly when we got into the aerial
fighting that was going on in May, September, and December
'72, and the kill ratio went overwhelmingly on our side. No matter what, we still have to
keep in mind this is a fighter and we have to know
how to fight a fighter. Let a pilot do what a
pilot does, and that's fly. Yes. Don't let him sit there
and control electrons. Get them out there
flying an airplane, and every time
we've done that, we have achieved
phenomenal success, because our pilots,
the American pilots, are the best trained
pilots in the world, and they've always done that
better than any other country, and that's been their answer. It's only when we've changed
our philosophy of operating, and we walked in with one
hand tied behind our back that proved to be a problem. The F-4 service wide
popularity was so king, it was the only
platform in history to be flown simultaneously
by the Air Force Thunderbirds and the Navy's Blue Angels. The Thunderbirds flew E
models, while the blues flew the J model. [music playing] (SINGING) Chevy and
drive out to the beach. With me and my buddies, the
girls are never out of reach. The Vietnam rocket sled served
multiple roles as an air to air fighter. An escort, a bomber, an air
to ground attack fighter, interceptor, air defense, air
superiority, a wild weasel sam hunter, and a photo
reconnaissance ship. There were to be a
myriad of different models from the original "H"
prototype all the way through to the model versions. McDonnell Douglas
founder James S. McDonnell was pictured here
with the 5,000th Phantom. The company went on to
manufacture a total of 5,195 F-4's. During the height
of manufacture, the company turned out two
jet fighters every single day. From 1962, when it was first
placed into active Naval duty until 1995 when the
Air Force served the USA and its final theater
of war during Desert Storm, the F-4 was
indisputably history's most versatile,
multi-mission jet fighter. In the early '70s,
the F-4 was placed on duty with air National
Guard units across the country. One such unit, the Nevada
air National Guard, had distinguished itself
by winning numerous NATO competitions for
photo reconnaissance, beating out our own regular
Air Force and the Navy for time and accuracy over a target. They were flying the
RF-4C model Phantoms. It was early in
fall when we were invited to document the
final days of the F-4 at the Nevada Air
National Guard. In five weeks, the Phantoms
and this recon squadron would either be flown
off to the boneyard or delivered to the
Spanish Air Force. Either way, these were to be
some of the very last F-4's in North America. The Nevada Air Guard
gave us permission to Mount our cameras to
various pylons on the airframe. We took an old travel pod
cut a small hole in each end and then mounted a
small finger camera looking both forward and aft. The recorders were
placed inside the pod. Another great location was up
in the huge nose compartment, where the photo recon cameras
were normally mounted. These RF-4C models were
ideally suited for photography, allowing us to shoot out both
the port and starboard side looking windows. We also placed our
cameras in the cockpit with the pilot and the
weapon system officer in the rear seat. Now, while we were given
access to mount our cameras, it was clearly understood
that the guard could not fly any special photo
missions for our benefit. That was the bad news. The good news was that as each
pilot took his last flight in the Phantom. He was allowed to
choose where he would fly so we could coordinate
our shooting locations. Some flew to the Pacific Ocean. Mount Shasta, a dormant
volcanic mountain in Northern California, was
another popular destination. Others chose to fly down
the majestic rocky canyons of the Sierra Nevada. There were two
additional sites where the air guard practiced their
missions on a regular basis. Black Mountain sat high
on the Eastern Sierra range overlooking honey lake. The second practice area
specifically designated for low altitude flying was an
isolated site called Sand Pass. It was situated on the edge of
Nevada's Black Rock Desert just North of Pyramid Lake. Coordinating with
each pilot, our crews would drive for several
hours out into the desert or climb high mountain peaks
to reach remote shooting sites in hopes of capturing
their practice runs. [jet sounding] Sometimes we got lucky. But more times than not,
the only thing in the air didn't burn JP-4. Out on the Black Rock
Desert, the ground was covered with tufa deposits. A needle sharp
mineral rock left over from when this area was the
great Lahontan inland sea. We suffered 14 flat
tires, a blown engine, and a lost helicopter
out of Sacramento that left us high and dry on the
most important day of filming. Out in northern Nevada,
you might see a car pass by every four or five hours. Not a great place to break down. Oh, the fun with this
video never stopped. On our very first flight,
we mounted a finger cam looking aft on the travel pod. Why-- the airframe mechanic
had assured us, the air door would close with
a good six inches to spare. Watch what happened
when we took off. Kiss that camera goodbye. For years, our camera crews had
amassed considerable experience following low flying aircraft
at the Reno air races. Those were vintage
World War two racers that seldom exceeded
525 miles an hour, but the Phantom was a
twin engine jet fighter. They flew much faster
than a Mustang, and they also had the
potential to fly much lower. And as you're about
to see, the closer they got the harder
it was to follow. [jet sounding] It was the middle of
the afternoon when pilot Jeff Turney and his
weapons system officer, Eric Bowring, suited
up for an early evening flight over the Sierra. In the Guard, it was not
unusual for the weapons system officer to fly with a
variety of different pilots. Each had their own duties
and flight responsibility, so they did not usually
fly together as a team. The wingman for this
flight was Ted Wertzberger. His weapon system
officer was Dave Snyder. The pilot's responsibility
was to fly the airplane and monitor systems
that directly related to the condition of
the engines, avionics, and the attitude
of the aircraft. That's why the pilot's job
was to preflight the aircraft, checking key mechanical
features and fluids that were critical to the safety
and integrity of the Phantom's performance. Now, the weapons
systems officer's job was the operation of the
mission's special equipment, such as navigational aids & the
photo reconnaissance cameras. Unlike some of today's
more automated aircraft, the Phantom was intended to be
a platform flown and controlled by a pilot. When the Navy originally
accepted the Phantom, they had a choice of making
it either a single place where the pilot did everything
or a two place with a pilot plus a system
specialist in the rear seat. The concept of a
multi-person crew was not foreign to
bombers, warships, or tanks in the field. Those extra pair
of eyes and skills is what contributed to the
F-4 serving in so many roles and lasting almost 35
years in the US arsenal. It was late in the
afternoon when these two F-4's prepared to depart from
the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. The crew chief
supervised his crew, working in concert
with the pilot. The headset that
he was wearing was tied into the aircraft's
communication system so he could speak
with the pilot. [music playing] They brought their aircraft
out onto the runway, where ground crews gave all
systems a last chance to check. In times of combat, out on
the runway away from personnel and stockpiled munitions is
where missiles and weaponry was armed before the
aircraft launched. Two Phantoms proceeded to taxi
into position for their launch. Reno-Tahoe had a 10,000
foot main active runway. At an elevation slightly
over 4,400 feet, they'd need to use up
almost half the distance before rotating the nose
wheel off the ground. The flaps were down, Jeff
and Ted unlocked the wheels and away we went. [music playing] They had filed a
flight plan that would take them South of Reno,
Nevada over Washoe Valley and down over Nevada's
capital, Carson City. The temperature was 84 degrees. Winds were light and variable
out of the West at 4 knots. It was a perfect
afternoon to be flying. [music playing] The two planes then flew
South, lowering their altitude as they approached the
headwaters of the Tuolumne River High in the wilderness
of the California Sierra. If you've ever
flown the Phantom, you know how difficult it
is to see directly forward and immediately under your
nose without rolling up to look underneath. So you can imagine how
hard it was for the wingman to stay directly above and
behind his lead at close range and still maintain level
flight for the cameras. As the flight progressed, we
would see the camera ship roll or pitch up as the pilot lost
visual contact with a lead through the canyons. Primarily, we use the
wingman in the combat role of the aircraft. And your wingman is
there to provide you with extra weapons,
extra bombs, extra eyes, in the reconnaissance
sense, extra sensors. If I can run two sensors over a
target, I have twice the chance and I will make sure that I
have a successful mission. If we get a Air-to-Mud
F-4 going out there, if he has a wingman
that's loaded up with missiles or
with bombs, then we can end up in
the same sorties deliver twice the
ordnance on the target. Another very important
factor from the fighter pilot perspective is he's up there
in the air to air engagement. Lead is very often
engaged focusing out the front of the aircraft. The wingman's job is
to guard lead's 6:00, and that's where
the term "check 6" is. You want the wingman
checking your 6, because you're going to take
him where he needs to go, but he's going to make sure you
get there by checking your 6. And so formation is an integral
part of any fighter pilot activity and is
one of the traits that we look for early on
is good formation skill. And we don't talk
to the wingman. The wingman job's to be there. We tell them where we need
them, and if he's not there, he's going to hear about it
when we get back on the ground. The aircraft flew down
the Tuolumne River Canyon into the setting sun and
then down the narrow canyon over the Hetch Hetchy
reservoir North of Yosemite. It was September,
and most of the snow had burned off the high country. Only a few patches remained
on the North facing slopes. We were flying over some
of the most pristine Alpine country in the Western region. We would continue South
to Mammoth Mountain and eventually fly the shoreline
of California's Mono Lake. [music playing] (SINGING) Peace, is a flower
that grows in the sunshine. Its petals are
raised to the sky. [jet sounding] Love and understanding. Oh, why can't we have peace. That hangs on the trees. Watching the world hurry by. Peace, is purity. Faith and inspiration. Oh, why can't we have
peace all the time. Is something there's not
too plenty of. And time is governed by
the Almighty up above. Peace is a flower that
grows in the sunshine. Its petals are
raised to the sky. To the sky. To the sky. To the sky. The next morning, we arranged to
have one of the Phantoms pulled up in front of the hangar so
that Rick Vandam could tell us some of the things a pilot
looked for when he pre-flighted the aircraft. Rick, good morning. How are you? Good morning, Jim. How are you today? Just great. I wonder if you could
give me a little walk around this airplane
and tell us some of the special parts about it. Jim, it'll be my pleasure,
and we'll go over, and we'll talk about this. A very important
part of the airplane, make sure all the pieces are
there before we get going. Let's get started, Jim. Excellent. Rick Vandam had almost 5,000
hours logged as an F-4 pilot. No rookie, this guy. Rick first checked the manuals
to make sure the aircraft was ready to fly. He then performed a quick
safety check up in the cockpit. Then he took us down
under the airplane, where he talked
about the nose gear. OK, we come down
the strut looking for the integrity of it. This is our nose gear
steering assembly system, and it actually
electrically drives from we activate
it in the cockpit to give us good steering
so we can maneuver the aircraft around here
in tight quarters in a very safe manner so we don't
have any problems with that. OK, very similar to
the back up here. Anytime we have hinges in here,
we would like them to move. And that freedom of
movement tells us that we'd still have a
real good connection there. Also check to make sure we
do have this safety wire. If this comes loose
here, we will end up having the nose gear drop and
we will lose our steering. Cause some problems. Is that like a shock absorber
a little bit too when you land? As we come back inbound, this
here is the shock absorber right here. And this, actually, when you
see the airplane in flight just prior to touchdown
or just after takeoff, this will be extended the full
length of this right here. As this extends out,
so the nose gear will actually extend
out about this far. One of the unusual
characteristics of the Air Force model
F-4 versus the Navy model of the F-4. In the Navy airplanes, because
of the demands of the carrier catapult launch system, when
they come in and hook up to the bridle on the cat, they
will actually from the cockpit, inflate this strut. It will extend the nose up
about from our level here at about 10 inches
up to about here. That's very important
for them to do, because it's critical
to getting the airplane off the deck of the carrier when
it ends up with its ramp speed. That's one of the differences
between the Air Force F-4's and the Navy F-4's. Exterior appearance
is very similar, but we have subtle
differences all the way through the airplane, showing
why ours are a little better than theirs. [laughter] No bias there, right? None whatsoever. Check down, security
of the tires. We need to have
these tires checked, and we do unusual versus what
you see on your automobile. We actually will
go down to what you can see here is a little
bit of the cord showing. I was going to say,
it looks like you're a great trouble there to be. These are actually
multi cord tires, and we will actually work
down from cord to cord until-- as you can see here--
we're in white cord. It will go down through a
certain number of layers until it gets to red cord. Red cord is time
to change the tire. And Rick, why the
screws important? It's very important here. If you'll notice where all
these access panels are, we might have these
50 screws in here, and it does appear that this
panel will stay in quite nice with 49 of them. The problem lies in that
if one of these screws leaves the airplane, and
that's why we have to make sure they're very tight. It leaves the airplane, if you
look at the path right here, it will go right in the intake. The intake to the airplane,
the first thing-- and you're looking back in
there-- as you see the first stage of the
stator and the compressor. This little metal screw
will come in there, and that is actually
a very sensitive motor spinning at about 11,000 RPM. If it hits any of
these blades, which it will because of the nature
of a jet engine, it can bend it, it can crack it. If at any case you lose
one of those blades, that will have a tendency to
take everything aft of it out. The first thing
the mechanics see is a bunch of sparks coming back
out the aft end of the engine, and then we've lost
an engine, and there's another million dollars. So it's very important
for us to check make sure we do have
everything secure. Something of passing point
is we're here with the RF-4C and most people are
familiar with the F-4. Now, the F-4 right
in this panel here has its forward spare well. That's where one of the
air intercept missiles is kept on the radar
missiles, and it sits in a conformal housing
that actually fits up in here. In the RF-4C, these
are fiberglass panels that cover where we used
to have the SLAR antennas, the Side Looking Radar. And it was a modification done
with several different models of the SLAR, which we
used quite a bit in Europe pretty much during the
height of the Cold War. Did a lot of border work
with the SLAR system and quite successful. OK, one passing point here--
and this is an add on. And you will see it on
all modern fighters, it is a formation strip. It's a translucent
dielectric panel, which we illuminate at night,
and it makes our wingman when we're at night in the weather. This helps see the airplane. So he'll line up the
stripes and you'll see on the wing
with the fuselage, and it just makes flying
formation at night just a little bit easier. What illuminates it, though? It's electric. It's electric. It's electric, and because
of the nature of how it is constructed, one
of the checklist items we check quite clearly,
we don't turn it on until we're
ready to take off, and one of the very first items
after landing on the checklist is to ensure that this panel is
off so we don't burn them out. OK. OK, let's move forward here. And these are our
access panels, and one of the points
after we've started is crew chiefs will check, and
we have air flowing in here. And this is used for
our equipment cooling bays which sit in here. Kind of an interesting
point a point in here is we have one of
our cooling turbines that actually sits about
right here-- actually, it sits about right here,
turns at 50,000 RPM. Just the other day
on one of our flights Friday, we had one of my
wingman lost this and I was just walked out of the
hangar looking at it. And we have 50,000 RPM
of metal turning around and the whole thing came apart. Can be very catastrophic, so we
need the cooling air in here. We also need this to work. And it actually talks about
in the our flight manual that if this thing
starts to go, it's important as soon as you
can recognize it, get the power off. It can-- as it says, the way
the blow up pattern on it can take off your left foot. So I was a good
lead that day and I told him to move his left foot. [laughter] But stay with me. Yes. OK, come forward so we
have here standing here and we're into our camera bays. It's a good idea here. We've talked about predominantly
everything on the nose here. Here are landing
and taxi lights. Here's one of our
radio antennas, and here is this
Rosemont probe, which is part that feeds into
the air data computer so we do get good sensing
on airspeed and altitude in the air. Down here looking, we have one
of our three forward camera bays. This is the high
station or referred to as station number 3. This is the low pan,
or station number 2, and forward, we have a
combination here of station number 1, and we
can put the camera looking forward out
for an oblique shot or vertical looking
straight down. And we have very quick
access into this panel, because when this airplane was
designed for reconnaissance, it was designed
to hit the ground, have the sensors
people out here, have the film
downloaded, processed, and on the PI table and
the intel pulled off of it within 30 minutes of landing. So we have very quick
access into these panels. OK, let's come back
up here in just a bit. We also have a capability that
we don't use very much anymore because of the type
camera here, but we can put in side looking
cameras that will look out these two side panels. So we want to check to make
sure that this is secure and these quick access
panels are secure. We roll it forward here and
we have the dimples here. These are part of our radar
warning receiver system. These are actually highly
sophisticated antennas, and any time someone's out there
looking at us with a radar, it will be picked up here
transmitted to the cockpit, and we will get a good idea
radar wise who's looking at us. OK, so that's-- I mean, if
someone were doing a missile or something like that,
that's what they would do. That's actually exactly
what we're talking about, Jim, is we look at all the
enemy radars as a matter of fact are looking at our own because
we can't always trust the Army to worry about who's up there. Sometimes, their feeling
is let's shoot now, we'll sort them out later. Can you tell me what
the feeling is truly when you see your indicator
go off that somebody is looking you over? Do you pucker a little bit? Does your-- Well, let's just say
that the heart starts going a little faster and
your back seater talks up starts speaking a little
higher and somehow your eyesight gets a
lot better, but quite a feeling in the first couple
of times they lock on to you, and they've done quite
a bit of experimentation and how pilots actually
physically react when that hurts,
and they do notice that they can
measure that there is a measurable increase
in your blood pressure and your heart rate when
the wrong type signals start coming up on this stuff. Rick, I just got to ask
you as a personal thing, how long you been flying F-4's? 22 years. 22 years. 22. Have you ever had a
missile fired at you? Not directly at me, but
I've been up there and had-- or at least let's just say
none that I'm aware of, which I think is a very good technique. Anything I'm unaware of is good. No, we did a lot where
we do get them to lock on and there are
techniques that they use where they can
come up and look at you and give you the electronic
indications that they're firing at you, but maybe
they are, maybe they're not. This system really evolved
for the R-4 in the Vietnam War and was very, very instrumental
in increasing the survival rate. Once we were able to detect
predominantly in Vietnam the Fan Song radar connected
with the SA-2 system, which is still used in a
lot of countries today. So they've upgraded the
system, upgraded the computers, but it really came
into its heyday as an important part of aerial
combat back in the Vietnam War. And it was the first
time we actually got into the electronic
aspect of fighting. Let's migrate forward here, and
we come up to the pitot tube. One of the things to caution on
the pitot tube, this is heated and we have a switch
in the cockpit. And most people that have been
around a Phantom long enough or most other
airplanes have noticed that it does get quite hot. You might notice
the discoloration. The reason we heat this is
any time we're flying high or in the weather, ice will
tend to form on the pitot tube. It's very important
to keep this heated. That will keep the ice
formation off of it. Now, we'll come
forward, and we talked about the pitot Tube the
pitot aspect of the tube is that which is
going straight in. One of the things we'll
glance at particularly if an airplane has been
sitting on the ground. See if we've picked up any bugs. Any obstructions
in the pitot tube can give you false
instrumentation sensing in the
cockpit and can lead to some erroneous decision. If you look around
the side here, you'll see these little holes. These are some of
our static holes, as we talked about the
pito and the static system. So we have a combination
system right here. OK, let's move back around. Now, as we start down this
side, a lot of things we see are going to be very
similar to what we just saw on the port side
of the aircraft. We start out here, we
have our locking pin. We have our raw antenna. Now, one thing that's
different here-- and the F-4 was really one part of the
Navy that came into the heyday with the use of the
angle of attack system. And this probe here,
and on this airplane, it's a series of
slots right here, and this will align
itself with what is known as the relative wind. Relative wind versus the
angle of the airplane will give us the angle of
attack of the airplane. We have a sensing device here. It feeds into the cockpit. I will show you
later, where we have the instruments
that will actually read what we're sensing here. In addition to that, we will
get a tone in our headset. The advantage of that
is angle of attack is very important to prevent
stall in the aircraft. If we can feed this into our
headset with a series of tones, we are able to engage the air to
air environment with our heads out fully looking for the
enemy and have that transmitted into our headset
without ever having to refer back to the
cockpit for a big advance. The other thing is
coming aboard the carrier where the Navy is instrument
very, very important to have this for nailing
the carrier landings. It just turns out that
when they adapted it, and we took it in
the Air Force, we found out that in any old
Phantom pilot anyone that's actually flown the
F-4 for a while, they would easily trade you
their airspeed indicator for their angle of attack. Very important to the way we
fly and land the airplane. Now, we're back to the mainstay
of the F-4, which really brought this airplane
into existence, and it's the J-79 motor. Built by General Electric,
puts out a little over 17,000 of thrust,
having two of them. And as most people,
particularly in the early days of the Phantom, they will tell
you that McDonnell Douglas. You could give them barn door
and they can put enough power on it to make it fly. Well, we thought that was the
theory behind the aerodynamics on the F-4. These were the biggest motors,
the most thrust put out at the time, and the F-4
entered the inventory as the muscle
airplane of the time. And that's what gets
it through the air. Uses a lot of gas doing it. Part of it, which makes the F
for such a versatile airplane, we've shown the angle
of attack and we've shown some of the things we're
bringing in aboard the carrier. But this was designed, not
only to fly slow and come aboard the carrier at a slow
speed where you could see, it was also designed to be
out in the mach 2 plus range. To get an airplane going mach 2,
and this is a lot more complex than you or I would
care to figure out, because all those
genius engineers working in those dark closets come up
with these kind of systems, but this is our intake ramp. And you need to have
a variable intake ramp to have a true
supersonic airplane. You can get most
airplanes if they're designed right through the lower
ends up up to about mach 1.5 without a variable intake. To get an airplane up
much above mach 1.5, you need to design in some
sort of variable intake system on everyone's from
air or most will be on the spike on
the SR-71, the MiG 21. Both those spikes move. And as the spike move, that
allows increased engine performance. On the F-4, it happens
to be the ramp here. And as we get going
faster above mach 1.5, this ramp will actually
open like this, and it looks like it's
restricting airflow into the motor, which it is. The other thing it's doing
is it's controlling the shock wave entering the intake. Wow. Force in with these
giant motors here, the thing it likes best out
of that is fuel consumption, and it's using fuel faster
than you can believe. How thirsty is it? Actually, the low level
full afterburner fuel flow in the airplane is
just under 1 ton, 2,000 pounds of gas a minute. Whoa. If you could imagine
a 55 gallon drum, you take the lid off,
turn the drum over, it won't pour out of
the drum fast enough to feed these two motors. You're kidding me. So you carry that much fuel
on board when you launch? We'll launch out here
in a normal mission with about 2,500 gallons. And one of the flights
I flew the other day where I launched out without
any of the external field tanks, I had a little over 2,000
gallons of gasoline. And in the design
profile that we worked is that we were basically
at landing fuel weight 14 and one half
minutes after takeoff. That's extraordinary. So you might not want to have
it for home for running around the neighborhood on Sundays. The Europeans do
quite a good job of celebrating their
famous aircraft, and I was fortunate
enough to be at a dining in Willie Messerschmitt of the
famous German Messerschmitt family was there. And he made a
statement in his speech is that he felt that the
Phantom would go down in history as the all
time greatest fighter that has ever been built.
And for those of you that flown the Phantom, he added. But let me tell you,
it's because it's dominated more arenas
of aerial combat for a longer period of
time than any other fighter in the history of
fighter aircraft. But then he added, but it
didn't do any of them well. It just did them all. [laughter] That's one last
comment that he had to put in to make sure
the Phantom guys didn't get a little swelled heads. Yeah. So let's go back in. We're looking in
the intake here. This is one of our
pressure sensing probes. And it's important when you
get into complex engines here you sense the intake pressure. It's very important to
make sure that is clear and a digress into
something is that happened to be instrumental
this probe right here instrumental in the
Palm 90 accident Air Florida in Washington DC. That probe was iced up, which
allowed false engine sensing to that 737. So the pilots were not
getting adequate information in the cockpit. So we do need to check that. We're a little fortunate
out here in Reno. Snow's not one of our
significant problems today. Sure. Look back in the
intake, you'll notice what we call the bullet nose. That's where the
generator is kept. Then we're looking at the
stater, and we can't see a lot, but I did have the
mechanic go out earlier, and he'll actually
crawl down the intake, look over the
engine, and make sure that there's nothing in there. I take his word for it then
I give one good check just to make sure that he
knows I'm concerned about the status
of this airplane. You rely a lot on
your ground crew. We rely exclusively
on the ground crew, and there is no
better ground crew than we have than the mechanics
we have here in the Nevada Air Guard. I flew active duty for a
little over seven years in the Phantom. I had a great time. I really enjoyed
every one, but when I got out here, the Nevada
Air Guard 13, 14 years ago, I found that world's
best mechanic. When they have us, and as I run
across a few of the mechanics I've known for
the last 15 years, they let me borrow the
airplane every now and then, and they'll talk
to me about what I might see when I borrow it. But they want to make sure
I know it's their airplane and then I'm bringing it back
to them, and it's real funny. Here, kind of different
between the guard versus the active duty. Our mechanics have been out
here for years and years. Some of the mechanics
on these airplanes were here the day these
airplanes arrived 20 years ago. They treat that airplane just
like a member of the family. When I'll talk to Jimmy
or Terry or Randy, I'll sit here and say
how's 19 going for Bud? How's 870 going? They'll say, well, remember
a year and a half ago when I had that generator problem? And they'll relate back
in terms like that. It means a lot to me that these
guys treat these airplanes that way, so I want to show the
same amount of respect the way I fly the airplane. But then on the
lighter side, they want me out there breaking
them every now and then for a little job security. And somehow, they think I
do that better than some of the others. So we kind of have a
love hate relationship, but these are the best mechanics
we'll ever find around. I took an airplane
fluid for three weeks, never had a write up. And anyone that's flown
Phantoms in the last 30 years will sit there and probably
think I'm lying about that, but they've done such
a good job of putting these things together and
watching every little move they make that I can go
take an airplane out, fly it three weeks hard, flying
it every single day twice a day and still comes back code
one just like it shut. Interesting point here, we're
getting rid of the airplanes next week. We went out and did the
eight world speed records. On every one of those
flights, that aircraft came back code 1, which is our
word to the mechanics meaning everything is 100%. Wow. So quite a tribute to the
airplane and to the men that maintain it. What we have here
is this is a LAU-17, and it's one of
the pylons we use to attach some of the
external equipment we carry on the airplane. Predominantly here in
the reconnaissance role, we put one of our
ECM pods on it. Those are the-- came
out in the Vietnam War, and what they do is they
actually act to spoof the enemy radar that we pick up there. And it's a little guts
ball with the ECM pod, because the electrons
in there are telling you they're working but
you just kind of got to trust them to doing
what they think is right. Sometimes that takes
a little more trust and we're willing to handle. But that attaches here. We're also able on
the LAU-17 pylon to put some missile launchers,
and we carry the AIM-9
sidewinder missile. And the latest model we have
adapted for our airplane is the AIM-9 "Mike", and we
can put two on each pylon. Normally, the way we would run
in our normal configuration. We'll have two AIM-9's on
the right starboard pylon, and we'll have an ECM
pod on the left pylon. Give it mostly
pilots in us, I think we'd settle for the four
AIM-9's and we'll let someone else worry about the electrons. But that's quite a credit
to this and adaption to the original R-4 that
came from the old rookie days of a lone,
unarmed, and not afraid. We said, well, we
can go with a lone, and we can go with unafraid. But we kind of saddle up,
I'll give us a few things. Didn't want to be
completely unarmed. OK, part of what we
have here-- and it'll be noticed to some of
you, particularly anyone that's worked around the F-4. The mechanics are talking
about it all the time. And we're called--
this is the Phantom, but where the Phantom
will get you is it gives you a Phantom bites. Phantom bites are
a lot of the points here that, after you get
used to the airplane, you can kind of move
your body around in such a manner that misses it. Early on in my flying career
and most of the mechanics, you'll come around
these corners that'll hit you in the side of the
head or poke you in the back and you'll get a bunch
of Phantom bites. Hopefully through
experience, they go down. When you take off, what
is your what is your speed before you rotate? Normally, the
technique-- and it's kind of a unique to the F-4. We use what's called a
full half stick takeoff, and as soon as we start the
takeoff roll, simplicity, we put the stick all
the way in our lap, the stamp is all the way down. When the airplane gets to about
155 knots or about 175 miles an hour, the nose
will start rising. When the nose gets up to
about 10 or 12 degrees, we smooth move
forward on the stick, hold the nose at
10 or 12 degrees, and about 190-195 knots
about 220 miles an hour, the airplane will break ground. OK, let's go underneath here. And the next item forward
is this is our speed brake. We have two, one on each side. Hydraulically actuated, comes
down, and we'll open in flight. Very simple system. Disrupts the air flow, starts
slowing the airplane down. Most of you have
been out looking around your local airport. You'll see the tail
of an airplane, and it'll have an elevator
at the back of it. If you'll notice any
modern day fighter in that, we have what's called a
stabilizer, and the entire it's a flying tail plane and the
entire surface moves on it. That whole thing? The whole thing, and it pivots
just up below that hinge right there, and that's
actually a wash plane. We make sure that sits in
there tight and is actually on the pivot, and we'll see it
in a little closer underneath. But by having the
entire tail plane fly, we were able to increase
our supersonic performance of the airplane. So it's like trimming
it up even further? Yes. And so when we move the stick in
the airplane, what we're moving is the entire tail
surface of the airplane. Now, what I always
do and I always think it's very
important is I'll step back from the airplane. I'll walk out in front, usually
one last word with the crew chief prior to
starting, and I always like to give the
airplane a look see. We've been walking around
very close, very tight. Walking around in
that forest and we're in amongst all the trees. I always like to step back, take
one last look at the airplane. Does anything look unusual on
it, and there's a lot of things that you might pick up here
that you just might not pick up when you're in and amongst. Things like puddles
underneath, might indicating a leak, or
anything that might stand out. All of our demos we talked
about have big red tags on them say removed before flight. We should see those hanging. We might have just
pushed it aside when we've been underneath or
someone might have walked up and said, did you check this? So good idea, and I
was like to do it. The Nevada Air National
Guard had twice successfully outgunned all
the other photo recon units in NATO. The drivers were Brad Wilkerson,
Lee Beal, Larry Matlock, and the prime mud
mover, Rick Vandam So in the final days of
the RF-4C program, Rick and a few of these
drivers took it on as a challenge to
set a few more class records before the
Phantom slipped off into the pages of history. They gathered in The
Ready Room to plan their record-setting strategy. OK, house notes. Avoid Moondance, private
airfield, on VR 1,250 run. Route center line
between H and I. Nobody's flying out there today,
so that's not a player. Anybody going down 1,250? You guys going to go down
1,500 feet coasting in. Another noise complaint. EP of the day. September 12th. Emergency evacuation map. Low guard that. Place to meet off the
front of the airplane whether you're going to ground,
egress, or unstrap, whatever going to be, OK? Go set a world record, boys. Good luck. See you out there. OK. We'll be on all radius. The maintenance shop got
out the military stencil kit and set about to rename one
of their ships, Sage Burner II after the record setting
McDonnell Douglas prototype codenamed Sage Burner. [laughter] In the Ready Room, the pilots
check their final coordinates. Like anything else it
works right the first time, the men and women
of the guard had invested a great deal
of time and planning to hopefully set
the new records. While McDonnell Douglas had
set blistering speed records, they were logged
as company records but were never officially
clocked or sanctioned by an organizing body. To set the speed
record, the crew had stripped off the
pylons from under the wing to smooth out the
airflow and reduce drag. Gotta collect my rent check. [laughter] Collect my rent check. The log book, it held a
special certification ticket for the missing pylons. This was a flight configuration
not normally allowed in the military. [jet sounding] Could they set the records in an
airframe that was over 20 years old? Well, some of the same hotel
Sierra pilots that helped win the recon awards
were at the controls. [jet sounding] The pilots climb to altitude
to begin their runs. High over the Earth, there
was no perception of speed. Rick Vandam, Aaron Zeff, Steve
Van Der Heide, and Matt Speth set new records in both the
15 and 25 kilometer dash. Lee Beall and Larry Matlock
set the 100 kilometer dash. Brad Wilkerson and Rick Vandam
set the 500 kilometer record, and the 1,000 kilometer
closed circuit dash record was set by Scottie Ernst, Alan
Renwick, Chuck Hanson, and Mike Carriker. [jet sounding] In all, they set four records in
both the C1-Juliette class and
the C1 India class, exceeding
1,200 knots airspeed. Rick Vandam had left the ground
with 2,000 gallons of JP-4. 14 minutes later, he was back
with a nearly empty tank. [jet sounding] Might be you're maxing
your time, that's enough. It was a relatively good
sized crowd of family, friends, and well-wishers
who had gathered to welcome back the victorious. They took the timing and
documentation equipment out of the nose to
verify their runs. The pilots were jubilant. I've never seen an
F-4 go by us so fast. [laughter] We're doing 1.3 and
here he comes, vroom. This was the last flight
for some of these pilots. All hands received a
ceremonial wash down with a 3-inch fire hose. [cheering] Not every pilot thought this
impromptu bath was such a swell idea. [cheering] Does that feel good or not? Ah, it's great. Now, I want to go to Disneyland. No, it's super. How's flying the top speed? Outstanding. It was outstanding. It was great. A lot of coordination
with everyone, but a lot of support
for maintenance to try to get this thing done. What's it like flying? What's it like to fly? Like a $20 carnival
ride, I guess, it's like how you
could explain it. You can imagine the finest
ride and the finest simulator. Can't compare it to
anything, really. 1,040 knots, which comes out
to be about 1,250 miles an hour. So it's moving. Hey, I thought your last
flight was on Saturday. No, I got hit up getting
squirted just like these guys. You get it twice, huh? Yeah, so I get it twice. When you're out there
on a day like today and you're doing you're
doing a record like that, how does it compare to the
way that you normally fly? I mean, the feeling you get? I feel like I was
an airline pilot. I realize that's not
the career to take. Not going into that. It's not necessarily
how we ordinarily fly. We ordinarily fly lower or
altitudes than we did today. We flew up in the 40 to 50,000
foot block, which we ordinarily don't do. And we flew a lot faster
in the Mach 1.0 range plus that we ordinarily
don't fly too, primarily due to fuel considerations. Airplanes built to fly up
there, but it takes so much fuel and it's very limited
in most of the areas that we fly mostly
below 30,000 feet. If all the Phantoms in
all the world could talk, imagine the stories these
double uglies could tell. How many young Americans
had spent hours staring at these very
controls over the ocean? Jungles of Southeast Asia, going
downtown and Hanoi or Baghdad, or even on patrol in
Europe against the threat of communism. During the Cold War, the
F-4 was armed in Europe with nuclear weapons. There just wasn't a whole heck
of a lot this aircraft had not done in its 30
plus year lifespan. The British paid
their final respects. A visiting squadron
from the royal Air Force parked their Jags on the tarmac. This wing commander no doubt
had seen his share of action. Just the kind of
person you'd hope would be guarding our freedom. Maybe I'm getting a
little old for this. [laughter] How long have you
been doing it, sir? Nearly 30 years. It beats working for a living. How do you like flying
over here in America? We've had a great time. So much good scenery to see. The British taxied their
Jaguars down the taxiway. With the high rollers switching
from the F-4's to C-130s, this would probably be the
last visit from the Brits. [jet sounding] Preparing to fire. [explosions] 60 miles north of Reno
was a military base called Sierra Army Depot. This facility ran what was
the largest demil operation in the country. This is where they destroyed
outdated munitions, such as bombs, bullets,
and anti-personnel devices. Clear the area right now. Once part of the
nuclear arsenal, these huge rocket
motors were brought here to be destroyed as part of
this country's disarmament pact with the former Soviet Union. Skilled demolition personnel
prepared these rocket motors for destruction, lining them
with plastique explosive so they would crack
open and burn. Fire in the hole. [explosions] Sierra was situated on
the shores of Honey Lake. And high above Honey Lake
in the California Sierra was Black Mountain. This was a favorite
practice ground for the F-4's, so we sent up a
crew with a couple of cameras to watch them fly around a
mountaintop radar installation. [music playing] Already, over half of
the squadron planes had been turned out to pasture. Flown off to the boneyard
in Arizona for storage and decommissioning. We picked up on pilot Wayne
Jeffries early one morning. This was to be his
last flight in an F-4. The locker room with all
the helmets hung in a row and looked like
Darth Vader's closet. Jeffries got on his speed
jeans, the inflatable flight suit that kept the flight
crew from passing out from lack of blood flow to the
brain during high G load turns. Last flight, Don? Last flight. See you later, buddy. See ya. Like so many who work
in the National Guard, Wayne Jeffries has had a
regular job as a Reno policeman. Weapons system officer for
this flight was Jim Bradshaw. He was a local attorney. When we're done flying, can we
park them down next to ball six? down next to ball six,
because it's their last flight. We got to hose them both down. Pulled completely to the
opposite end of the ramp. I think he said he'll
bring ball six up here. Bring ball six up here. I'll tell him bring
ball six up here. We need to clear
that into the lane. Yeah, I'll take care of it. So that'd be all right bring
him down here at the very end? Yeah. OK, great. So they can just hose them both? And you want to show me
how to run these cameras? They checked the
logbooks and then spoke with Skyfire unit
manager, Pat Maxfield, about how to operate
the portable cameras in the cockpit. Yeah, I'll show
you how to do it. It's just one button. You just reach over there and
push it and it stops, push it and it starts. And there's a red light
that glows and tells you when it's going. So that's real easy and
all the other pilots haven't had any problem with it. I'll show you how easy
that is to make it happen. And you can control
that 30 minutes so you don't have to waste it
if he's not here or-- Well, we can use the
one in the back cockpit then for the low
level for you or maybe like Mount Shasta or something
when we're flying out that way. Yeah, anything. [jet sounding] As the APU began to
circulate hot compressed air through the starting
turbine, Wayne Jeffries pre-flighted the aircraft. His last act was to fasten
the straps on his G suit before climbing
into the cockpit. As he prepared to depart,
Wayne spoke with our cameraman. What we're doing is getting
everything safe prior to engine start. Altimeter's set 4,400 feet,
which is Reno's altitude. All this ensures is that
he has the back seat of the new control panel. Everything's working properly. I got it set to two ground
track and our ground speed. Will show us how fast
we're flying our mobile. [jet sounding] [music playing] From Reno, the aircraft traveled
north out over Pyramid Lake. They would fly up along
California State Route 44 North of Susanville
toward Mount Shasta. There, they would circle about
a granite promontory known as Cassel Craig's and then
out to the Pacific Ocean. [music playing] As the Phantoms flew
through the desert canyons, their shadows chased along
the ever changing terrain. The two aircraft flew
across the landscape of Northern California, head
chopping over ridge tops and down through small valleys. Out the side window,
snowcapped Mount Shasta was just coming into view. This was a southernmost
volcano that was considered part of
the California, Oregon, Siskiyou mountain range. The two planes turned slightly
south and began to bank around castle Craig's. The legendary lair of Bigfoot. A creature in the
northwest Indian tribes knew as Sasquatch. Bigfoot was thought to be
half human, half ape or bear. He was reportedly covered
with long black fur and stood several feet
taller than a normal man. Oh, we sure looked hard. We never saw Bigfoot. The two aircraft continued
on toward the Pacific Ocean. Off our wing, we could see an
immense fog bank far below. We were at high altitude,
flying above the tropopause. Even in late summer,
the outside temperature was a bone chilling
-20 degrees Fahrenheit. We dropped down out of the
clouds, through the fog and then down along
the shoreline. [music playing] The F-4's had 1,000 mile
range, and we were rapidly nearing the halfway
point of our flight. Time to turn around and
head back for the barn. [music playing] We left the Pacific Ocean
and headed back inland. The coastal hills and secluded
valleys graced by our window. Now that button that
the pilot was constantly pressing on top of the
stick, that's the trim tab. This adjusted the
control surfaces so that aerodynamically,
the aircraft was clean with minimal dragging. [music playing] Nearing back to Reno, we crossed
north of Honey Lake and Black Mountain. [music playing] North of Reno, the two planes
swung back in over Pyramid Lake to make their approach. [music playing] The two F-4's overflew the field
in a standard military approach to landing. [music playing] [jet sounding] It had been a perfect mission. The last for Wayne Jeffries. Oh, they were wet but happy. Feel so good? [laughter] I'm going to miss all of it. I mean, there's not one thing
that I'm missing any more than anything else. Everything combined is
RF-4 Phantom driver's job. Everything combined
is what I do. I'm just going to
miss every bit of it. Daddy, can you come up with me? Got a good crew? Good crew, excellent
people to fly with. Everybody here,
we're best friends. There's nobody
better in existence. It's a wonderful job, and if
all of that sounds arrogant, I guess it's because it is. I don't know what
else to tell ya. And so for the last time,
pilot Wayne Jeffries shared the greatness
of our generation with the next generation. The legacy of the F-4
was coming to a close. In the early days, the guard
had flown P-51's after World War II. And before the Phantom,
they had flown F-101's. In passing tribute, they
flew out to Pyramid Lake with two F-4's and escort
with Ted Contri's P-51 in the original Nevada Air
National Guard paint scheme. [jet sounding] When the passes were
done, these two F-4's were flown off to Idaho in
preparation for transfer to the Spanish Air Force. The next morning,
the remaining F-4's prepared to depart for a
rendezvous with a tanker. The aircraft departed
to the south. They would pass Slide Mountain
and cross over Lake Tahoe. We had mounted this
camera looking out the starboard side of wing
commander Chuck Chinnock's aircraft. We had also mounted this
camera in the cockpit with maintenance
commander Scottie Ernst. We watched as a
giant KC-130 tanker departed behind the Air Force. We had arranged to have one
of our cameras on board. [music playing] The F-4's lifted off
and then climbed out over Washoe Valley
past Slide Mountain. This mountain had a
tremendous escarpment that once had been created
by a massive earthquake. Inside the KC-130, the
pilots followed the formation of F-4's out over Lake Tahoe. Down below was Marlette Lake,
an isolated body of water in the Carson range
high over Lake Tahoe. It was a crystal clear
fall day for flying. Lake Tahoe was the second
largest Alpine Lake in the world, second only
to Lake Baikal in Russia. One after another,
the force would pull into position in
trail behind the tanker, waiting their turn to refuel. A long fueling boom extended
out from the tail of the KC-130. In the rear of the ship
was a fueling station, where the operator controlled
the extension, insertion, and pumping of the
fuel into the aircraft. Now, as each ship
pulled in to refuel, the other F-4's
flew in formation off the wing of the tanker. Scottie Ernst maneuvered
his aircraft into position just under the boom. Slowly, he would
advance his aircraft as the fueling boom
swung overhead. It required the coordination of
the tanker pilot boom operator and the driver in the F-4. There, the boom was inserted. In just a few minutes, more
than 2,000 gallons of JP-4 would pass out of the
tanker, down the boom, and into the fuel cells. Now, it was up to the pilot to
track smooth with the tanker until the tank was full. It was quite an aerial
display that took place high over the Sierra. Scottie, almost full,
time to break away. We watched out the viewing port
as Scottie put the nose down and the boom separated. The F-4 were refueled. These aircraft were
the last of the F-4's. They would soon appear for
the last time in formation for opening ceremonies at the
National Championship Reno Air Races. And so it was a Thursday
afternoon at the air races, and we had less than three
days to complete our filming. It was there that I
happened to meet up with Rick Vandam
and Steve Korczak. And they asked how
the filming was going, and I told them we had
some great aerials. But as far as ground to air
shots on a scale of 1 to 10, eh, we were about out of 4. Nothing to write
home to mother about. Rick rolled his eyes and
with a broad grin said, now, I can take care of that. One thing led to another,
and before you know it, we were drawing pictures
and making plans on the hood of my
42 military Jeep. It sounded something like this. If I get gas-- if I get gas, we're
going to be fat on fuel. If we're fat on fuel,
when we do this, you will see one of two things. You will either see four
airplanes southbound. If you see 1 and 2
when you turn around, if 1 and 2 are turning
back, you're getting more. Don't worry. We roll. We roll. We roll do we get your sound. Would you want a supersonic
crack for the camera? Yeah. For this camera one. You bet. He'll know we haven't left if
he hears that supersonic crack times four. We all know some of the
best plans ever made are drawn on the back of a
napkin and some greasy spoon. This was no different. Using topo maps, we isolated
four mountaintops that encircle the Black Rock Desert. The plan was to get the last
four parade phantoms out to their traditional
practice area and run them at the cameras
for the pilot's last flight. And the last thing
we discussed was who should get all
the flying credits and take the fall
for this video. Just remember, if anything-- no,
if anything goes on the tape, you can make nice hands rod. Floyd Chuck does a great job. Jesus, Stifler. I didn't know you
can fly like that. Those comments will
be well appreciated. We pulled out our four
best operators at four the next morning, and we headed
out to the Black Rock Desert. While we packed our cameras
up to the mountain peaks, back on the ramp, crew
Chief Robert cluck and his crew were getting
ready to launch their ships. [music playing] (SINGING) I feel it coming. Oh, it's going to
break on through. I feel it coming. Oh, just what I'm about to do. I've got this
pounding in my brain that's slowly driving me insane. Well, it's coming. I can feel it. Oh, yeah. I feel it coming. Oh, it's right inside of me. I feel it coming. Road's got a hold on me. I'm going to take it like a man
and give you everything I can. Whoa, it's coming. I can feel it. Girl, I always knew
that you'd be mine. Slow I never am,
but take your time. Come on. Come on. I feel it coming. Oh, can't hardly
stand up straight. I feel it coming. Oh, it's coming back again. I've got this
pounding in my heart that tells me love
is going to start. Oh, it's coming. I can feel it. Feel it coming. I got love. Feel it coming. I got feeling. Feel it coming. Feel it coming! [jet sounding] Air Races PA: (unintelligible)
air guard (unintelligible)
coming in low and from your left. F-4, it first flew on the
27th of May back in 1958. [jet sounding] Usually, the plane would
return to the field. But on this day, next stop
was Black Rock Desert. To help the pilots
locate our positions, we had placed out white sheets
in front of the cameras. [static on radio] The two-way radio
crackled to life. Rick Vandam and the
F-4's were on station. Right now, you're
almost even with me. Right, mark, now,
you're even with me. OK, I've got one of them,
about a mile back and closing. And I've got the second one
about two miles behind him. They came in high and
circle the alkali flat, looking to identify our camera
positions on the hilltops. Down on the alkali flats,
there's a fence that runs and right where it
hits the sagebrush, there's a camera in it
right on the edge there. You should have some
red things out over. We were about to witness
an aerial demonstration few people would ever see. Sand Pass was an area
specifically set aside for the air guard to practice
low altitude maneuvers over the desert. There wasn't a
dwelling in 50 miles. Good thing, too. Even though this was their
designated practice range and the pilots were on their
last flight, what you're about to see triggered an
Air Force investigation into our filming of Phantom. [jet sounding] The F-4's came downhill and
flew out over the valley. You could see the vortices
coming off the leading edge of their wings. [jet sounding] The Phantoms were
moving so much air at low altitude the concussive
force of the shockwave exploded into clouds
of swirling alkali. Nice hands, Rod. Way to fly, Chuck. [jet sounding] They came out of the loop
hugging the far canyons. Rick Vandam was in the lead. Steve Korczak was on his wing. This was a cameraman's dream. [jet sounding] They chase through
the pass and out toward the Black Rock
Desert, following the track of the Union Pacific Railroad. [jet sounding] Then came Bob
Gardner in the lead with Chuck Hanson on his wing. There were F-4's
all over the sky. [jet sounding] They had had the ships in the
air for almost 45 minutes. They can only make
another two passes before returning to base. [jet sounding] And just when we were
about to say goodbye, as luck would have it, that old
Texaco aerial fueling station just happened to be in the area. [jet sounding] Why, just imagine
our good fortune. What luck, what timing. As Sand Pass grew silent, a long
old westbound UP freight car just came around the bend. No doubt, the engineer and
fireman had enjoyed act I, but they best be
moving down the line because it wouldn't be long
till the intermission was over and we started act II. The two lead
aircraft chased along the shoreline of Pyramid Lake. Up over the ridge and
backed down into Sand Pass. I got Rick Vandam on
the radio and told him everything was
looking great, but I asked if he might come
just a little bit closer on the next pass. Watch this. [jet sounding] Whoa, Rod. What hands. Chuck, what a great performance. [jet sounding] The radio crackled to
life and the voice said, was that close enough, Mitchell? I wanted to answer, but I was
too busy pulling up my pants. [music playing] Then down the fenceline
came a hair cut in a shave. [music playing] (SINGING) You want to sail
the notion, make a commotion. Some want to get to the
top, some others do not. [jet sounding] (SINGING) Some people's
life runs easier, just work like crazy. Some like to socialize,
others exercise. [jet sounding] (SINGING) Everybody wants
money, money, money. Everybody wants
money, money, money. Everybody wants. [jet sounding] (SINGING) I'm not the coin in
the slot, waste and want not. [jet sounding] (SINGING) Some people's
fortunes get greater, others buy now, pay later. They've come to see
see what you got. [jet sounding] (SINGING) Everybody wants
money, money, money. Everybody wants
money, money, money. Everybody wants-- [jet sounding] The scenes you're
watching should not be attempted in your Cessna,
a Piper, or anything else that doesn't have two
big ugly blowers. [music playing] Everybody wants money,
money, money, money. Through the pinnacles
North of Pyramid Lake, pilot Jeff Turney had
joined in the Fur Ball. [jet sounding] Rick and Steve
pulled the RF-4C's up high over the desert. I called all cameras and the
sound man to hold on tight. OK, gentlemen, this is going
to break the sonic boom. So hang on. [jet sounding] Incoming. Be ready, guys. [jet sounding] [sonic boom] [sonic boom] Watch again as the
white shock wave traveled across the ground. And now you know why they
call this place Sand Pass. On the east side of the Valley,
we watched as a pair of F-4's sliced through the sun devils. [jet sounding] [music playing] The jet fighter that
came to life in the 1950s played out its final
song over the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The Phantom had been none too
affectionately called the rhino and the double ugly. But for all those young men
who were once pinned down under hostile enemy fire in
the jungles of Southeast Asia, there was no sweeter
sound on Earth than the howl of the Phantom. [jet sounding] Like the washboard, the
spittoon, the steam locomotive, and the typewriter,
it was time to say goodbye to another one of
America's finest achievements. For Skyfire, America's Video
Storyteller, I'm Jim Mitchell. Thank you for watching. [music playing]
