Subject: New Fighter Series--McDonnell F-4 Phantom(1 of 49)

From: [email-masked]
Date: 27 Apr 94 18:49:46 GMT

>From [email-masked]

The McDonnell Phantom was one of the most successful postwar fighters.  
It was the second most prolific American jet fighter to be built, 
outnumbered only by the North American Sabre.  Total US production was 
5057, with another 138 being built under license in Japan.  The 
Phantom was in continuous production for 20 years (from 1959 until 
1979).  During the Vietnam war, 72 Phantoms were coming off the 
production line every month.  

Although initially designed as an interceptor and later used primarily 
in the air-to-ground strike role, the Phantom proved to be 
surprisingly successful in the air-to-air role when the correct 
tactics were used.  USAF, Navy, and Marine Corps Phantom IIs achieved 
277 air-to-air combat victories in Vietnam.  In service with the 
Israel Defense Forces/Air Force, the Phantom claimed 116 air-to-air 
victories in various conflicts between Israel and its Arab neighbors.  

The Phantom served with the United States Air Force, the United States 
Navy, and the United States Marine Corps.  Overseas, it served with 
the air forces of Australia, Egypt, the Federal Republic of Germany, 
Greece, The Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel, Japan, the Republic of 
Korea, Spain, and Turkey.  In addition, it served for many years with 
the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom.  The 
Phantom is now in the twilight of its career, and is no longer in 
active service with either the United States Navy or Marine Corps.  It 
does, however, remain in service in small numbers with the USAF, 
primarily in its F-4G *Wild Weasel* version, and some are still flying 
with several squadrons of the Air National Guard.  Although no longer 
in service in the United Kingdom, the Phantom should remain in service 
with the air forces of most of its other customers until well after 
the year 2000.  

The Phantom was the first naval fighter to dispense totally with 
cannon armament.  It was the first fighter that was able to identify, 
intercept and destroy any target that came into range of its radar 
without having to rely on ground control.  It was the first fighter 
originally designed solely as a carrier-based fighter to be ordered by 
the USAF.  It was the first fighter to have computer-controlled air 
inlets for for optimum airflow to the engines.  Finally, it was the 
first aircraft to be flown simultaneously by both the Navy's Blue 
Angels and the Air Force's Thunderbirds flight demonstration teams.  

The design of what was eventually to emerge as the McDonnell F-4 
Phantom began in August of 1953.  The McDonnell design team was headed 
by Herman Barkley.  Initially, the goal of the team was to extend the 
production life of the F3H Demon single-seat carrier-based fighter by 
boosting its performance and improving its versatility.  

Several quite different design concepts emerged, all of them being 
informally designated by the company as F3H-X since they were all 
viewed as a natural follow-on to the F3H Demon.  

The first of these preliminary designs was the F3H-C or the "Super 
Demon".  The F3H-C was to be powered by a single Wright J67 turbojet 
and was to be capable of reaching Mach 1.69 at high altitude.  The J67 
was a license-built version of the British-built Bristol Olympus 
turbojet engine, and was untried and unproven at the time.  

The F3H-E project (also known as Model 98A by the company) was 
similarly powered, but dispensed with the nose-high attitude of the 
Demon and stood level on a tricycle undercarriage.  It had a 45-degree 
swept wing of 450 square feet in area.  In the event, the J67 engine 
never did materialize as a realistic powerplant for American aircraft.  

The Model 98B (F3H-G) project was to be powered by a pair of Wright 
J65-W-2 (or W-4) turbojets rated at 7800 lb.s.t. each.  The 
twin-engined configuration was attractive to many in the Navy, because 
of the increased amount of safety it offered over a single-engined 
aircraft.  The engines were to be fed by a pair of side-mounted air 
intakes.  A low-mounted swept wing and an all-flying straight 
tailplane were to be used.  This wing was slightly larger than that of 
the F3H-E, with a 530-square foot area.  The fuselage was to be 
designed in conformance with the area rule, in order that minimum 
transonic drag be achieved.  

The F3H-G aircraft was to be equipped with an Aero 11B fire control 
system and an AN/APQ-150 radar.  Armament was to consist of four 20-mm 
cannon, but provision for a retractable pack carrying 56 two-inch FFAR 
rockets was also proposed.  A heavy load of bombs and fuel tanks could 
be carried on up to nine external stores stations (four under each 
wing and one underneath the fuselage).  A maximum speed of Mach 1.52 
was envisaged.  

The J65 was a license-built version of the British-designed Armstrong 
Siddeley Sapphire engine, and was already in production at the time.  
Although at that time the Navy was experiencing a good deal of trouble 
with the J65 engine installed in its North American FJ-3 Fury 
single-engined fighter, the McDonnell team fully expected that these 
problems would be resolved by the time that their F3H-G proposal was 
ready for production.  

The F3H-H was similar in overall configuration to the F3H-G, but was 
to be powered by a pair of higher-thrust General Electric J79 
turbojets.  The J79 was at that time a new and untried engine.  
Assuming that the J79 performed as promised, a maximum speed of Mach 
1.97 was envisaged.  

The Model 98F was the photographic reconnaissance version of the Model 
98C.  

Models 98C and D were to be fitted respectively with delta and 
straight wings, and were to be powered either by a pair of Wright J65s 
or two J79s.  

The Model 98E (F3H-J) was to have been similar to Models 98C and D, 
but with a larger and thinner delta wing.  

Herman Barkley's design team decided that the Model 98B with its twin 
J65s offered the best potential and they abandoned work on all the 
other configurations.  A full-sized mockup of the Model 98B (F3H-G) 
was built.  The company hedged its bets by designing the right side of 
the mockup for a J79 engine and the left for a J65.  

On September 19, 1953, McDonnell submitted its Model 98B project to 
the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) in the form of an unsolicited 
proposal.  Since the Navy as yet had no official requirement for such 
an aircraft, McDonnell tried to cover all bases by developing 
interchangeable single- and two-seat noses that could be accommodated 
to widely different roles.  Noses were designed that could carry 
search radars, missile fire-control systems, mapping radars, cameras, 
or electronic reconnaissance equipment.  

Although the Navy was favorably impressed by the Model 98B proposal, 
the Grumman XF9F-9 Tiger and the Vought XF8U-1 Crusader which had been 
ordered respectively in April and June of 1953 appeared to satisfy all 
the Navy's immediate requirements for supersonic fighters.  
Nevertheless, the Navy encouraged McDonnell to rework its design into 
a single-seat, twin-engined all-weather attack aircraft to compete 
against designs being worked on by Grumman and North American.  

McDonnell submitted a formal development proposal for the F3H-G/H to 
the Navy in August of 1954.  The Navy responded in October of 1954 by 
issuing a letter of intent for two prototypes and a static test 
aircraft.  The Navy assigned the designation AH-1 to the project, 
reflecting its intended ground attack mission.  The AH-1 was to have 
no less then eleven weapons pylons.  Armament was to consist of four 
20-mm cannon.  

On December 14, 1954, the multirole mission of the aircraft was 
formally abandoned by the Navy, and McDonnell was requested to rework 
the proposal as an all-weather interceptor.  McDonnell was instructed 
to remove the cannon and all hardpoints except for a centerline pylon 
for a 600-US gallon fuel tank.  In addition, troughs were to be added 
for four Raytheon Sparrow semi-active radar homing air-to-air 
missiles.  A Raytheon-designed APQ-50 radar was added, this 
installation being essentially that installed in the F3H-2 Demon.  A 
second seat was added to accommodate a radar operator.  

On April 15, 1955, in a formal letter from the BuAer to the Commander 
of Naval Operations, the J79 engine was formally adopted, and all work 
on the J65-powered version was dropped.  

On May 26, 1955, after further review of Navy requirements, the BuAer 
requested that the designers complete the two prototypes (BuNos 142259 
and 142260) as two-seat all-weather fighters carrying an entirely 
missile-based armament.  On June 23, 1955, the designation was changed 
to YF4H-1, a fighter designation.  A day later, McDonnell issued a new 
model number for the project--98Q.  

This factory designation was to be short-lived, since when a contract 
for 18 airframes beginning with 2 flight test prototypes and a static 
test article was signed on June 24, it was for the Model 89R with the 
APQ-72 I/J-band radar which was to be compatible with the Sparrow III 
semi-active radar homing missile.  This order was changed to Model 98S 
shortly thereafter, the changed designation indicating the provision 
of the capability of handling the infrared homing Sidewinder missile 
in addition to the radar-homing Sparrow.  

On July 25, 1955, the Navy and the manufacturer agreed to a detailed 
list of specifications for the YF4H-1.  The aircraft was to be capable 
of staying on patrol for up to two hours at at time at a distance of 
up to 250 nautical miles from its carriers and was to be able to 
remain in the air for at least three hours without midair refuelling.  
At the same time, the go-ahead for the F4H project was confirmed, with 
a formal contract being written for the two previously-ordered 
prototypes but also for five pre-production aircraft (BuNos 143388 to 
143392).  

The YF4H-1 mockup was inspected between November 17 and 23, 1955.  The 
twin J79 afterburning turbojets were to be mounted in the lower 
portions of the fuselage and fed by fixed-geometry cheek air intakes.  
The primary armament was to be four Sparrow III radar-guided missiles 
mounted in semi-submerged slots beneath the fuselage.  No provision 
was made for the mounting of cannon.  

At the same time, the Navy authorized Vought to build two prototypes 
of the single-seat, single-engined F8U-3 Crusader III to compete with 
the F4H-1.  In reality, the aircraft should have been designated F9U, 
and it should have been Crusader II rather than Crusader III.  

After much wind-tunnel testing, it was found that the new McDonnell 
fighter would encounter severe stability problems at high speeds and 
would as a result probably be limited to speeds below Mach 2.  In 
order to correct these problems, several important changes had to 
made.  One of these was the application of 23 degrees of anhedral to 
the all-flying tailplane, which became known as a *stabilator*.  This 
gave the necessary degree of stability but still left the tailplane 
free of the jet exhaust.  Another change was to the outer wing panels.  
The center section of the wing had originally been envisaged as a 
single unit spanning 27 feet from wing fold to wing fold.  It was 
decided to give the outer (folding) panels twelve degrees of dihedral, 
and a dog-tooth leading edge was fitted.  Another change was to the 
air intakes.  The intakes had originally had a fixed geometry, but it 
was now decided to fit movable ramps to the sides of the air intakes.  
These ramps could be adjusted in flight to admit the optimal airflow 
to the engines at various speeds and angles of attack.  These changes 
took time to incorporate in the design, and initial structural release 
was not authorized until December 31, 1956.  

In the meantime, on December 19, 1956, the Navy ordered 11 more F4H-1s 
(BuNos 145307/145317).  These were to be the first full production 
aircraft.  

The first YF4H-1 was to have been powered by a pair of General 
Electric J79-GE-8 engines, but delays in their development led to the 
substitution of a pair of 14,800 lb.s.t. afterburning J79-GE-3A 
engines on loan from the Air Force.  The first F4H-1 was a 
proof-of-concept aircraft and was not equipped with radar and was not 
wired for missile firings.  However, four dummy Sparrow missiles were 
carried in their ventral underfuselage recesses.  Ballast was provided 
in place of the AN/APG-50 airborne intercept radar that was to be 
carried.  The tandem cockpits were covered by a canopy that was flush 
with the top of the fuselage.  However, on the first YF4H-1, only the 
pilot's cockpit was provisioned, with the rear radar operator's 
position being filled with test instrumentation.  

The YF4H-1 was fitted with wing leading edge flaps which extended from 
the wingtip all the way inward to about one-quarter span.  They were 
in two segments, divided by the wing folding point.  These would droop 
downward at low speed to provide additional lift at low speeds.  

The wing leading edges as well as the flaps were all blown by 
high-pressure air bled from the engine compressors, which produced a 
sheet of air which helped to keep airflow attached at high angles of 
attack.  

Five-degree fixed air intake ramps were fitted.  Flush NACA-type 
inlets were mounted on the lower sides of the forward fuselage just 
behind the radome to feed ram air into the air-conditioning system 
which cooled the electronics.  

The trailing edge of the horizontal main wing was divided into two, 
the inboard surface being a flap and the outboard being a "flaperon".  
The "flaperon" was a sort of aileron which could be moved down only, 
not up.  Immediately ahead of each was a large spoiler.  To roll to 
the left, the pilot would push the right flaperon down and the left 
spoiler up.  A complex pattern of large perforations was applied to 
the spoilers which were mounted on the upper wing trailing edges ahead 
of the flaps and just inboard of the wing folding points.  The 
aircraft had no ailerons in the conventional sense, with control being 
provided by spoilers and downward flaperons only.  The outer wing 
panels were canted up by twelve degrees and had no control surfaces 
except for the hinged (drooping) leading edge.  The stabilators had a 
23 1/4 degree anhedral, and provided all of the pitch control.  

The YF4H-1 prototype made its maiden flight on May 27, 1958, taking 
off from Lambert-St. Louis Municipal Airport with McDonnell test 
pilot Robert C. Little at the controls.  On the first flight, the 
nose gear door would not close, there were difficulties with the 
hydraulic system, and there were problems with the engines.  
Consequently, the flight had to be cut short, but the aircraft landed 
safely.  The right engine was replaced and the air inlet ramps were 
repositioned at 4 degrees.  On the second flight on May 29, the nose 
landing gear door still would not close.  However, on the third and 
fourth flights on May 31 and June 2, things went better and the 
aircraft flew at speeds of Mach 1.30 to 1.68.  

142259 was sent out to Edwards AFB for initial flight trials.  The 
YF4H-1 and the competing F8U-3 were put through the Navy Phase I 
flight evaluations at Edwards AFB, and in December of 1958 the F4H-1 
was declared the winner of the contest.  On December 17, 1958, 
McDonnell was awarded a follow-on contract for 24 more F4H-1s (BuNos 
148252/148275).  This brought the total production order to 45 
machines.  

The second YF4H-1 (BuNo 142260) flew in October of 1958.  It was 
provided with an operable AN/APQ-50 radar and a fully-equipped rear 
cockpit.  Variable-inlet ramps were fitted which were set at 5 degrees 
for the fixed portion and at ten degrees for the variable panel 
downstream.  The aircraft was provided with unperforated spoilers, and 
a ram-air turbine was fitted which could be extended upward by a 
pneumatic ram from a compartment situated above the left intake duct.  
This turbine drove an emergency hydraulic pump that powered the 
controls in the case of an inflight emergency.  An ASA-32 autopilot 
was provided.  YF4H-1 144260 was later retrofitted with Martin-Baker 
Mk H5 ejector seats.  In 1960, wiring was installed for the firing of 
the Sparrow missiles.  

On July 3, 1959, the F4H-1 was officially named *Phantom II* in a 
ceremony held at the McDonnell plant in St Louis.  At one time, the 
project manager, Don Malvern, had wanted to name it *Satan*, and James 
S. McDonnell himself had wanted to name the aircraft *Mithras*, after 
the Persian god of light.  In practice, the Roman numeral II was often 
omitted from the name, since the original Phantom, the FH-1, had long 
been out of service and there was no possibility of confusion.  

Following trials at Edwards AFB, the first YF4H-1 (BuNo 142259) was 
returned to the manufacturer in St Louis in October of 1958.  It 
continued to be used for various flight test programs.  On its 296th 
flight, on October 21, 1959, the aircraft suffered a failure of the 
aft access door of the right engine, which led to a further 
catastrophic failures and to the crash of the aircraft, killing test 
pilot Gerald "Zeke" Huelsbeck.  

The Navy was anxious to publicize its newest fighter, and the second 
YF4H-1 (142260) was used on December 6, 1959 by Commander Lawrence E.  
Flint, Jr. to set a new world's altitude record of 98,560 feet.  This 
record, set as a part of Project *Top Flight*, bettered the existing 
record of 94,658 feet, set by Major V. S. Ilyushin of the Soviet 
Union in a Su-T-43-1.  To set this record, Commander Flint took his 
YF4H-1 up to 47,000 feet and a speed of Mach 2.5.  He then pulled the 
aircraft up into an angle of attack of 45 degrees, and then climbed to 
90,000 feet.  He then shut down his engines and coasted up to 98,560 
feet and went over the top and then began to fall back to earth.  At 
70,000 feet, he restarted his engines and made a normal landing.  

On December 22, 1961, Marine Corps Lt.Col. Robert B. Robinson used 
142260 to set a new world absolute speed record of 1606.347 mph.  On 
his second run at an altitude of 45,000 feet over the measured 15/25 
km course, Lt.Col. Robinson's Phantom was clocked at over 1700 mph.  
This speed run was known as *Operation Skyburner*.  For the record 
attempt, 142260 was fitted with a special water/alcohol spray in the 
engine inlet ducts to cool the air ahead of the compressors and thus 
increase engine thrust.  

Flying the previously-modified YF4H-1 BuNo 142260, Commander George W.  
Ellis set a new sustained altitude record of 66,443.8 feet.  

Sources:

  The World's Fighting Planes, William Green, Doubleday, 1964.

  McDonnell F-4 Phantom: Spirit in the Skies.  Airtime Publishing, 1992.

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
  Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.

  Post-World War II Fighters: 1945-1973, Marcelle Size Knaac,
  Office of Air Force History, 1986.

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers,
  Orion, 1987.

  The World Guide to Combat Planes, William Green, Macdonald, 1966. 

  The World's Great Attack Aircraft, Gallery, 1988.

Joe Baugher		AT&T Bell Laboratories   	
263 Shuman Boulevard 		Naperville, Illinois 60566-7050