The Phantom II - (F-4C) Walkaround

or C by the United States Air Force has demonstrated its ability by performing every classical fighter mission. Most notable among the factors contributing to its outstanding performance and unmatched versatility has been its bold yet functional structural and aerodynamic design. This first flight of the Phantom 2 laid the pattern for the many record-breaking flights to follow. Here to explain its somewhat unusual appearance and unique design features is the man who made this first flight. Former chief test pilot and now company-wide project manager for the F and RF-4C program at McDonnell Mr. Bob Little. Well, that first flight was mighty interesting, but we've come a long way since then. And now we've got many aircraft rolling off our production line headed for the US Air Force Tactical Air Command. In conjunction with the Air Force and the Navy we've developed in the F-4C the world's most versatile fighter. Its performance speaks for itself. And you will find it not only easy but safe to fly from 110 knots out to well above Mach 2. The twin engines and two-man crew combine to provide unmatched mission performance. The Phantom has an unusual appearance, but then it's an unusual airplane. Its unique design features are not happenstance, and I would like to describe some of them to you. To do this, let's take a walk around inspection. The Phantom II is about 58 ft long and with internal fuel weighs a little bit under 42,000 lb. It's empty weight is 28,500 lb. And the two engines give you 34,000 lb of thrust and afterburning. Some of the unique features are rather obvious here, large intake ducts to feed the two J79 engines. Some coke bottling effect on the fuselage to improve the cruise performance. Here we see the business end of the J79s. The after fuselage is constructed predominantly of titanium and stainless steel to withstand the uh tremendous heat from the engines. This overhead view uh shows the 45° swept wing. The wing area is 530 sq ft as compared to uh 350 sq ft for the F-101. Of course, this gives a much better maneuvering capability to the airplane. They're both about the same weight. This upswept wing tip wasn't happenstance either. Uh it came into being for a lateral stability considerations above Mach 2. Yeah, the wide landing gear tread gives solid stability uh during all ground maneuvering and and very high crosswinds. Of course, this is required for carrier operation and is a fallout for the Air Force for any land-based operation. It's very very stable on the ground. Here are two pilots getting ready for a flight. The uh entrance is by uh telescoping ladder, and the canopy is opened by uh air bottle pressing the button on the outside of the airplane. Second pilot uh enters by a similar manner, also opening his canopy by the external button. The rear cockpit has a curtain over the canopy that can be uh uh closed to keep out all uh sunlight for better viewing of the radar, if required. The interior of the cockpit is quite conventional, normal layout. The pilot makes his usual cockpit checks uh prior to engine start. The Phantom has two Martin-Baker seats, and these ejection seats give you a ground-level capability at any speed above 130 knots. The uh seat is actuated by the face curtain, by pulling the curtain down in front of your face, or alternately by a D-ring, which is positioned between the pilot's legs. You cannot eject through the this canopy, which is made of Plexiglas 55, and is too tough to to the seat to go through. therefore, the canopy, of course, is always jettisoned first before the seat is fired. Later version of the Ray pack three seat will provide a 0-0 capability in the Phantom. The extremely high performance the airplane is doing large part to this variable inlet. The open position is used for low speed and cruise. As it jackknifes out for the higher speeds, it controls the shock wave pattern to keep shock waves out of the inlet and maintain a even flow of air at the face of the engine. This is all done automatically and begins at about 1.4 Mach number depending on air temperature. Uh here we can get a comparison of the Navy and Air Force tire. The two tires are the same diameter, but the Air Force tire on the left is much wider and puts a lot more rubber on the runway. The tire pressure is about 1/2 that of the Navy version, which allows the F-4C to operate off of asphalt runways. Together with the anti-skid brakes and parabrake, you have a stopping capability of about 1,900 ft at landing gross weight. This is the ram air turbine, an emergency unit to supply hydraulic and electrical power. Electrical power is supplied down to 195 knots, at which point all of the output of the pump is diverted to hydraulic supply in the event that a dead stick landing would ever be required. The inboard pylon you see here carries a variety of stores, and the three-section leading edge flaps are a key to the extremely low speed performance. These flaps incorporate boundary layer control. The crew chief here is checking to see that the air is blowing through all the slots. Maintains even flow of air over the wing and reduces stall speed considerably. This is the trailing edge flap and it also is equipped with boundary layer control. It extends 60° in the full down position. And you can see the boundary layer control slots that blow the bleed air from the 17th stage compressor over the surface of the flaps. This is the half flap position as used for takeoff or in the event a single engine landing is required. In the half flap position the boundary layer air is shut off to divert uh all possible thrust to the engines. For lateral control, the airplane has ailerons and spoilers. We're looking at the spoiler here. And there's a aileron and it goes down only. Again, this was not happenstance, either. The uh down going aileron and up going spoiler are combined to give you solid lateral control low speeds to high speed with no gear shifts, no switchovers, or other arrangements. These are the speed brakes. They're unplacarded. They give you solid deceleration from 2.4 Mach number, any attitude, with uh zero pitch change. You can put them out anytime you want, no buffet, no control problems. It is no problem to land with the speed brakes down, although they do very little good at the low landing speeds of this airplane. If you forget them, uh it's no problem. The Phantom has a very conventional rudder. You see here a standard power-controlled rudder. The pipe at the uh bottom of the rudder is the fuel system vent, put at the very tail of the airplane, of course. The stabilator is a single-piece control surface. Inboard sections are built of stainless steel honeycomb to withstand the heat of the engines. 23° negative dihedral for longitudinal stability. We wanted to put the tail as low as possible with without being directly in the jet wake. The tail hook for the Air Force airplane is identical to that of the Navy machine. And as you can imagine, the Navy demands that this be a very reliable unit. The Air Force carries the same tail hook and have a perfect capability for any emergency landing situations where you want to pick up a wire on the field. It's uh constructed of uh Inconel X, by the way. It's a hook weighs about 250 pounds. This is the para brake compartment. Standard 16 foot para brake identical to that used on the F-101. The hole in the end of the compartment and those holes you see there are for cooling air to cool the after fuselage. The wing fold is carried on all Air Force airplanes and I feel the Air Force made a very wise decision not to eliminate this. The control for it is moved to the wheel well and uh would be actuated by the crew chief during hangar operations if necessary to save space. The pilot does not have control. But it will be found to be a handy feature in the field. There you see the boundary layer control uh This large radome houses the most powerful radar uh any fighter aircraft. 42 inch dish APQ-100 radar built by Westinghouse. The small uh dome at the bottom uh incorporates the infrared system. It is used uh in the event of the radar would be jammed by enemy action. The Phantom carries about 13,000 pounds of fuel internally and 4,000 pounds of this amount is carried in integral wing cells. Uh this wing fuel can be jettisoned at the discretion of the pilot to lighten the airplane. Externally the aircraft carries a 600 gallon centerline tank and two 370 gallon wing tanks. I hope this close look has been both informative and interesting to you. The Phantom 2 has come a long way since the design stage and it has certainly been a rewarding experience for me to have been so closely associated with the program. Thank you very much for joining me on this little walk-around tour.