Few, if any, of the fighter planes have had the enduring effect on the craft of war flight as the F-4 Phantom II. It was made during the Cold War and was a giant to dominate the skies – huge, mighty, and in every aspect best equipped. With its twin engines and streamlined design, the Phantom could take off from ground bases or air carriers and perform sorties from air superiority to bomb runs.
The Phantom was continuously upgraded during its service, with each new model better than the last to address emerging threats and missions. Even included on the list were some that threw giant shadows on what they contributed—and how they helped build one of America’s all-time greatest airframe legacies.
The F-4J arrived in 1966, just for the Navy and Marine Corps. It introduced still more sophisticated radar, better electronics, and landing gear to cope with the tricky weather of carrier flight. Among the J model’s surprises to the pilots was that it had a bigger canopy, and it gave them a wider field of view—something you’d especially enjoy flying over huge seas.
The J model had the mission change mid-course from bombing to dogfighting, so it was an awfully convenient plane to be in Vietnam. The Navy bought over 500 of them, and it was one of the toughest flight deck fighters.
Before the F-4J, the Air Force had been flying the F-4C. It was the first that the Air Force bought when the Navy bought its F-4B. It would be equipped with radar-guided as well as heat-seeking missiles, and it would be able to attack at any range. With its own 1,900-mile range, the F-4C was able to deliver a line deep into the enemy ranks, and so it did on many occasions.
To take out enemy fighter aircraft and ground targets, it made a record number of sorties. More than 580 of them were built, the F-4C gave the Air Force an airframe that could darn near do anything, while airpower was becoming more and more normative in Southeast Asia. But it was due to the F-4B.
It was the first production version, which was delivered to the Navy early in the 1960s. Since the day of its birth, it has set the height and speed standards and made everyone realize how far technology has come. The F-4B loaded with an unprecedented amount of bombs to missiles set the standards of what a multirole fighter was all about—long before even human beings began using the term daily.
It performed wonderfully in the Vietnam War, dogfighting, or bombing, never sacrificing any speed. Nearly 650 were produced, and without the original model, the Phantom legacy would never have been. The F-4D followed.
The F-4D updated the F-4C with better radar and more precise targeting gear, a more precise bomber on a mission. Such precision was worth the hassle for missions too important to gamble. From flying the enemy out of the air to stripping money targets out of the ground, the F-4D did it all. With over 800 of them in Air Force inventory, it was the tactical fleet workhorse during the peak of the Vietnam War. Then came the F-4E, and this was the airplane that got the job done.
The E model, built in 1967, was the most manufactured Phantom and arguably the best finished. Arguably, the greatest enhancement was the installation of an M61 Vulcan cannon inside the aircraft—something earlier models didn’t have. This finally provided pilots with a good gun to use for dogfighting in close air-to-air combat during war, something the Vietnam school of hard knocks taught.
Other than the cannon, the F-4E had better radar, smart bombs, and versatility to fly any mission—air-to-air, attack, even recce. With 1,370 of them constructed and flown by allied air forces themselves, the F-4E solidified the Phantom legend. The F-4 Phantom II was never one aircraft—it was an aircraft that experienced many changes in its development process.
As newer jets stole the headlines, Phantom persisted, performing essentially all tasks new planes wouldn’t. Its ugliness isn’t in bomb yield or gun speed—it’s versatility. Phantom demonstrated to the world that you could build an airplane to do almost anything you wanted it to do. And decades after its last flight, its legacy stands up well on design, flight, and remembrance of today’s fighters.