Japan retired F-4 Phantoms

Sheesh, F4's?

I grew up near an airbase in the 80's and used to watch them fly overhead everyday.
 
Ooh-Rah said:
Sheesh, F4's?

I grew up near an airbase in the 80's and used to watch them fly overhead everyday.
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I used to time my drive to work by them. Better than a clock. I wrote an article for the base paper about it. Goodness that was ages ago.
Guy I work with now used to be a Weasel. Call sign Digger.
 
Devildoc said:
One of my favorite aircraft, Japan is transitioning from F-4s to F-35s. I imagine that is the technological equivalent of moving from the Wright Brother's Wright Flier to the P-51 Mustang. I think next to the B-52 it's the oldest aircraft flown.

Japan says farewell to its ‘Phantastic Phantoms’
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The Russian Tu-95 "Bear" is old as shit too. It gives the B-52 a run for it's money in that department; I think they both had their first flight around the same time.
 
SpitfireV said:
Sorry dibs.

Fun fact. The RNZAF tried to get F4s but got told to go back and find something cheaper so they got the A4s which turned into some very capable aircraft.
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If it weren't for the cost of ownership/ upkeep, many 3rd and 4th Gen a/c are very viable for many nations. Modernized A-4's could compete with early model F-18's given the right upgrades. There's a reason A-4's are used as adversary a/c in the US military.
 
AWP said:
If it weren't for the cost of ownership/ upkeep, many 3rd and 4th Gen a/c are very viable for many nations. Modernized A-4's could compete with early model F-18's given the right upgrades. There's a reason A-4's are used as adversary a/c in the US military.
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They chucked F16 avionics and radar into ours and got a good strike aircraft and they held their own against the RAAF and RSAF jets at the merge too. And, as you say, after we sold them to Draken they're still using them as red air.
 
SpitfireV said:
They chucked F16 avionics and radar into ours and got a good strike aircraft and they held their own against the RAAF and RSAF jets at the merge too. And, as you say, after we sold them to Draken they're still using them as red air.
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The Scooter is a good a/c and still relevant. Like the F-16, it could be the B-52/ C-130/ Bear of the fighter/ attack community if given a chance.
 
A4s are awesome, pound for pound one of the cheapest to maintain, and one of the hardest planes to shoot down in Vietnam.

Edited to add, showing my age, I remember when Cherry Point MCAS had A-4s and A-6s (and when Seymour Johnson Air Force Base had F-4s and B-52s).
 
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This isn't worthy of it's own thread but if you like hearing stories about some of these older jets, I just listened to a great interview with a former F-14 pilot (he was one on the pilots in the movie 'The Final Countdown', for those of you familiar that classic WWII film 🤣).

Normally, I wouldn't post and recommend a link to a 2 hr interview/video...mostly because I wouldn't watch it myself. But this was on one of the very few YT channels I follow and I started listening last night and it sucked me in. It was so entertaining I couldn't stop listening, next thing I knew, 2 hours had gone by
EDIT: If you don't want to listen to the whole thing, I see the interview was also segmented out into smaller clips, so you can look for those.

Anyway, if you like that kind of stuff, here's the full interview:
 
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Blizzard said:
This isn't worthy of it's own thread but if you like hearing stories about some of these older jets, I just listened to a great interview with a former F-14 pilot (he was one on the pilots in the movie 'The Final Countdown', for those of you familiar that classic WWII film 🤣).

Normally, I wouldn't post and recommend a link to a 2 hr interview/video...mostly because I wouldn't watch it myself. But this was on one of the very few YT channels I follow and I started listening last night and it sucked me in. It was so entertaining I couldn't stop listening, next thing I knew, 2 hours had gone by
EDIT: If you don't want to listen to the whole thing, I see the interview was also segmented out into smaller clips, so you can look for those.

Anyway, if you like that kind of stuff, here's the full interview:
Click to expand...

"Mover's" channel is pretty good. The story about blowing the gear doors off was pretty good. I need to listen to the whole thing, maybe DL it and listen to it on my flight next week.
 

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