Inside The Cockpit: F-4 Phantom II FGR.2

there are not many post-world War two a crafter can look at a long and eventful combat career nor are there many that can call themselves an ace maker or soldier on from horrendous combat losses to keep on flying into the 21st century today's feature is the world's leading distributor of make parts the f4 phantom 2 [Music] first used in combat during the Second World War it was nonetheless a Korean war that really security jets aircraft position as the new king in the sky with both the Soviet Union and the United States being locked in a standoff the next generation of fighter jets were being drawn up the f-86 Sabre and the mig-15 might have duked it out over Pyongyang but going forward knew faster and more capable aircraft were needed naturally the industry nudists and they wanted a slice of the pie around this time the McDonald Aircraft Company in st. Louis Missouri wasn't bit of a pickle it had just lost a potential Navy contract for a new air superiority fighter that contract went to vote following this the company found itself without a clear purpose realizing the predicament that they were in they went on the offensive banging on the doors of the American Bureau of Aeronautics they said they came up with a new idea and asked whether someone would please just let them in someone did and the Gullah presented plans for a single-seat large twin jet engine aircraft of a heavy armament of four cannons and holding radar designated aah the bureau didn't exactly jump at the idea advising McDonnell that more flexible machine was required one that could be used as an all-weather general-purpose machine and able to carry missiles bombs and even nukes nevertheless two prototypes designed why aah were ordered with McDonnell happy to make the appropriate modifications desired it took four years for the first prototypes to take flight now known as the x f4 h the aircraft had changed substantially new engines no cannons multiple missile hardpoints a state-of-the-art fire control system more powerful radar and crucially a second crew position to work all the new gizmos about two dozen pre-production aircraft were ordered by the US Navy with new equipment being processive Lee worked into the actual design in 1960 the first carrier trials were conducted on USS independence following this MacDonald finally got the official confirmation it was hoping for the f4h was selected to become part of the Navy's arsenal in the next few years the aircraft proliferated in the Marine Corps and the Air Force a first for a carrier plane and became known as the phantom ii since a previous McDonnell aircraft had already used the same name for the purposes of this video however I'll just called the phantom to make things easier when entering service in America an initial order of 192 planes was sent out in October 1960 it soon became apparent that the Phantom had the potential to become a new bestseller McDonnell set out to break the majority of aviation records in fact available in the Phantom's class just for some extra publicity and offered a very competitive support package to any purchase in an attempt to market a plane to all those friendly nations out there that had no upcoming replacement or that had budget concerns which was pretty much all of them some of the takers were Australia Egypt Iran Israel Japan Greece South Korea West Germany the British two actually showed an interest hoping to gain a replacement for the Royal Navy sea vixen fighter and the Royal Air Force's hunter the Phantom promised to be both in one single package and the promise of such a multi-role aircraft and one that was fitting the budget was simply too hard to pass up the British honeymoon with the Phantom evaporated relatively quickly for the accountants the Phantom was a dream but they had not reckoned with those annoying trifles that appear beyond the spread sheet Royal Navy carriers for example had a relatively short decks too short as it turned out for the f4 and they were thus they were also slower giving less wind over deck a problem for landing and takeoff to overcome this and standard front wheel bigger flaps drooped ailerons and the leading edge slats on the tail plane were added the nose was also modified so that it would actually fit on the smaller elevators on the British carriers except for the incompatibility between the US and British fire control and navigational system there was one final problem that caused a disproportionate amount of problems the engines among the top decision makers were those opposed to having a foreign aircraft becoming the new standard Navy and Royal Air Force plane no British jobs would be kept this way as a compromise the rolls-royce spey engine was chosen to power the new machine instead of the General Electric one from the US making sure that while it might have come from the ex colonies it still flew British the Spay engine also promised superior performance which made it a done deal the problem was it didn't fit ironically after redesigned the bokya profile that allowed the fitting of the Spay now also redesigned to be cheaper but a slightly less powerful nullified any performance advantage around 300 aircraft were ordered how for the Navy and how for the Air Force but due to budget concerns the order was cut savagely to a third of the original and little time later but hey at least 45% of the dollar value of the British order was produced on the home Isle a later order of hand-me-down f4j twos was actually following the Falklands War yet those did in fact keep their General Electric engines because I guess they didn't want to bother with the Spay once more turning back to the Americans the phantom would be used by the Navy the Marine Corps and the Air Force the 1967 merger of McDonnell aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company had no real impact or influence on the aircraft orders or on its design deployed initially to Vietnam as both drone attacker and an interceptor in this role the e phantom flew nearly 500,000 combat sorties dropping ordnance in both high and bombing runs it claimed around 170 victories although a good number of these were in fact outdated MIG 17s and mid-nineteenth at the same time around 40 phantoms were lost to the MiG's while this puts the Phantom at a three point five to one ratio a racial disputed by the opposing side by the way around 450 of these aircraft were lost against salmon triple-a sites this put somewhat of a dent in the hopes of the u.s. Navy and the Air Force that they had in the phantom going into Vietnam but it also seemed must be seen in context in the aerial engagements a phantom did well although the lack of backup weaponry in the form of fixed guns the limited rearward visibility of the aircraft and the fragile hydraulics were negative features pair two of course with a lack of maneuverability against the mix part of this experience did from McDonnell to add guns to the aircraft and it also added to the Navy's desire to establish the top gun school nevertheless the loss ratio of both Vietnam served as an early warning to the perilous nature of multi-role jects exposed not only to fighters but sam and triple-a sights just like the phantom might have been known as the leading distributor of make parts so to immitis Soviet supplied AAA devices be known as a consistent supplier of phantom parts in the Middle East Air Force would be used by Israel scoring acclaimed 116 victories and Iran Iran South Korea Japan Turkey and Greece continue to operate him to this very day the phandom was a twin-engine supersonic all-weather multi-role jet aircraft the aircraft's initial offensive weapons were air-to-air missiles with no onboard gun platform this was back in the day when air-to-air missiles finally started to work sort off and everyone who was swept away in the enthusiasm that dakka dakka was no longer needed and too inspired that sometimes even in a smart munitions world the pilots had to nonetheless get medieval so with the e-type the aircraft actually got a General Electric m61a1 Vulcan multi-barrel 20 millimeter rotary cannon holding 640 rounds enough I am all for around six seconds of fire additionally 4 to 6 a.m. 7 or m16 Reuters could be carried 16,000 pounds of conventional or nuclear ordnance could be carried as well as well as air-to-ground missiles such as Mavericks turning into the aircraft beside me then this is what is known as the FG r21 of 118 used by the british it has a length of 17 point 5 meters a span of 11 point seven or eight for inform and folded and it stands at four point nine meters and is one of those phantoms that actually used the Spay engine the FG r was specialized in ground attack and tactical reconnaissance initially deployed to West Germany to provide some support in case the Cold War well ever heated up a bit before we jump inside let's go over some of the design characteristics of this aircraft it is crewed by a crew of two or the pilot and the navigation and weapon systems officer going over the aircraft will see the nose housing the radar system the enlarged inlets for the Spay engine of course and the swept wings to cope with the airflow demands of the Spay small auxiliary intake doors were added for landing and takeoff purposes one above and one below the main intake the engine was rated at the maximum thrust of nearly 21,000 pounds evenly playing a top speed of you know just over 2,200 kilometers an hour range was set at 2,800 kilometers or 1600 for combat use although again that could be extended of three external tanks you might now wonder what advantage the spey ultimately leader to the British phantoms well the 20% increase in thrust and maximum reheat gave it better initial acceleration but he increased drag from the bigger inlets negated any clear advantage in the long run while a low-level acceleration was impressive over the Yankee model the high altitude performance also deteriorated faster the initial design of the Phantom with wings swept at 45 degrees proved to have various aerodynamic instability flaws the main modification to combat dis where the doctor of notches on the leading edge and by changing the dihedral of the outer panels by 12 degrees these panels could also be forwarded inward as you can see to assist storage the fandom has a recognizable tail plane with the horizontal stabilizers actually swept downwards the electronic countermeasure pod is added to the top of the vertical fin all in all the aircraft presents itself as quite a compact yet streamlined package for the weapon systems as mentioned the fgr was put into a strike role the aircraft could nonetheless carry force barrows or Sidewinders one of the design features was that the missiles were set in a housing partially exposed this was a compromise of sorts between McDonnell and the Bureau of Aeronautics with the former having providing external mountings but the latter wanting internal ones like with America's phantoms up to the e-type a gun pod could be equipped in this case a 20 millimeter canons 1,200 rounds provided 12 seconds of fire of course beyond that you've had pylons for bombs rockets missiles and even reconnaissance parts as well but enough talking let's get inside so sitting in the front first impressions well considering that this aircraft was sort of I don't want to say competitor to the f5 Tiger but they sort of occupy the same time for him obviously what the phantom being a two-man ship whereas the tiger only has one the tiger is a lot more comfortable now the Phantom isn't bad I've got ample room even for my size this is perfectly fine I can move everything I can touch everything and I don't feel cramped but ironically somehow for the aircraft that was actually introduced in the US Air Force and in the Navy the Phantom and the aircraft that was more or less used sort of as an export giveaway the tiger the tiger is a lot more comfortable but you know this being an American aircraft I still have plenty of room when everything is nicely visible the layout is as you would expect it of course this is a when a lot of new systems are still being introduced so you do see some changes going through the different iteration generational yes aircraft but the general layout of a cockpit is always sort of going to follow the same sort of lines to the left for example here we have a lot of the system's concerned with the engine starter with the start of the machine and so on of course I offer throttle control if I've got our keel control up front we have all the instruments required to actually operate the aircraft fly it the engine how are the engines working up and so on and so forth and of course the weapons avionics as well and to the right end we have a whole array of well you know switches and bits and bobs for radio communication and all got a good stuff so we'll go a little bit more in detail now and I'll show you all about the inside of this this aircraft in this pilot station right here so starting then on the left-hand side as I said a lot of systems for concerning the the starting of the engines you've got the master switches you've got the engine starter switches just to the right here between the frontal controls and the seat we've got a fuel system of top all the way to the left and then of course we go to the throttle levers one per each poor engine of course or you push those forward and they will stop somewhere mid mid swivel there you can then go into afterburner if you want to override a system this is not possible at the moment in this museum piece but you could push it all the way forward and essentially you know give yourself a nice little piece of thrust right there pulling it backwards you will see a little bit of a friction control there that allows you to essentially personalise the aircraft a little bit and see how how much friction and resistance you want to have of the frontal control moving along a little bit further first of all here we've got for the ejection seat you can dial in your roll your pounder to really your weight right here behind the dial for your weight you have the drag chute lever that you could obviously pull to come to a more immediate stop landing and just to the right just behind the Fratus really you've got this little joystick here as well it's a little cube really that is essentially the bomb control right there moving up a little bit further here we've got you know the oxygen control the oxygen system and so on and we've got all the indicator for the gear as well as the key or lever the gear lever also acts as a double essentially first of all just no manual operation of the gear up and down and then for emergency you can actually use that that lever and just pull it out and there you go the air for your aircraft will hopefully release this gear moving then on swiftly towards the front of the aircraft instrument dashboard right here first of all we have to stick very basic layout you've got your your little buttons your little control levers we can only use the the element control at the moment there's no real elevator control locked in place there but you know it's ergonomic it works fine it feels right in my hand no complaints there it's very similarly simple moving up top a little bit here then we have the weapon and missile avionics over here we can switch between missiles and guns you can have your missile status displayed here and so forth so this is essentially where you're going to look if you're going to operate the weaponry or if you're going to select your weapons really obviously you would also be keeping an eye on the radar scope moving up top all the tray on the top left we've got a clock and then we've got the ground speak indicator we've got the altitude and feed and we've got the speed and knots right there moving on to the middle we have a gyro on top and a compass being compass down low another altitude altimeter right here and we've got your very own meter essentially your climb and descent right there with another artificial horizon below it below that you have the device switch between tech and ADF and nav computing where you can essentially switch foody different devices that you have in your disposal and all the way to the right then you have your engine control indicators starting of course with the fuel content with the RPMs per each engine port and starboard you have then the temperature of the engines and the the pressure the fuel flow between them below that you have the jet nozzle position that also indicates whether it's open or closed moving up top then you have the radar scope right here present in a prominent position there's no way to miss it just offset to the top left this is very very standard sort of placement you've got your angle of attack meter and then we have the gun sight now the gun sight is currently reflecting something it does not in fact the actual gun sight as it would have looked like in real life it is in fact a light that is hung right above the gun side a couple of meters up just to the right of the vertical you have three more dials right here you are starting essentially with the low altitude warning repeater light and the missile selected repeater indicator light so what we over here moving on to the middle we've got a sim lock repeater indicator light and the heat indicator light and then to the right we have an electronic listener turn on your angle of attack if you're doing some ground attack well the main instruments are down low as you can see we've got the bomb selector switches and we've got all the instruments that are really required to arm the bombs to set the bombs and then also to release them as you wish facing me to the right next to my knee we've got the warning system lighting and then all the way from up front essentially all the way back we've got instruments for radio control radio communication and all that good stuff all of this stuff has to do with this and she keeping in contact with your flight with Brown elements perhaps with the fleet and of course we're talking with Rio in the back or as I would like to call them Nigel the Phantom had many nicknames Rhino double ugly San Luis Slugger world's leading distributor of McPartland my favorite coined by a West German Luftwaffe pilots eyes enshrine the iron pig with it MacDonald had developed an aircraft that while becoming obsolescent was a worthwhile attempt to create a capable multi-role aircraft that kept itself in the fight for longer than anyone could have reckoned and the experience gathered in this American classic would serve the United States and its allies really well in designing the next generation multi-role aircraft thank you very much for joining us on today's episode and I want to thank the Royal Air Force Museum here in London for letting us get close with their phantom if want to sit in this very aircraft just follow the link in the description below that will take you to all the required information as always please also consider supporting the channel by a patron and by sharing this video and have a great day good hunting see on the sky just click on something

Channel: Military Aviation History

Views: 259,991

Rating: 4.9175992 out of 5

Keywords: F-4, Phantom II, FGR.2, Cold War, Navy, Air force, Vietnam, USAF, US, USN, America, McDonnell, Douglas

Id: 9tGDQ4O9IOk

Length: 21min 7sec (1267 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/AWACS_Sky_Eye]

bis is such an informational youtuber, and at times his German humour gets me