The Paradise of Phantoms

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 01/25/2017 at 16:44 • Filed to: planelopnik

8

7

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

While the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! no longer flies with the US Air Force and US Navy, it is still in service with a handful of nations around the world, including the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force. The F-4E and RF-4E Phantoms operated by Japan are all based at the former Hyakuri Air Base (now !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) on the eastern Japanese coast, and the airport has become a mecca for Phantom lovers the world over. It has been said that the Phantom is an example of aerodynamics through brute force, but this video shows that it can still be a graceful aircraft, at least in slow motion.

Phun Phantom Phact: Have you ever wondered why the wingtips of the Phantom are angled upward? During development of the fighter in the late 1950s, engineers in the wind tunnel discovered that the wings needed to be given a 5º dihedral, or upward angle, to improve lateral stability. Rather than redesign the entire titanium center section of the Phantom, they gave the wingtips a 12º dihedral for an average of 5º across the wing. The tailplane was given a 23º anhedral, or downward tilt, to improve control during high angles of attack and to keep the tailplane clear of the exhaust.

Via T !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on Vimeo; !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

E90M3 > ttyymmnn 01/25/2017 at 16:46

0

Doesn’t Iran still fly F4s?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 01/25/2017 at 16:50

0

Minor quibble: dihedral/anhedral confusion.

I really do like Phantoms - saw one land in South Korea in 2001. The Israelis, another late operator - had a very neat up-engining program, but even with that, they retired their last ones in ‘04.

ttyymmnn > E90M3 01/25/2017 at 16:51

2

Yup. Iran, Turkey, Greece, Japan and South Korea. Another fun fact: During the ill-fated Operation Eagle Claw to free the US hostages in Iran in 1980, US Navy fighters were painted with “invasion stripes” for recognition, since Iran was still operating fighters they had bought from the US during the Shah’s reign.

Ash78, voting early and often > ttyymmnn 01/25/2017 at 16:54

1

Genius work on the wings. Those dihedrals are also the location of the hinge for carrier storage. I didn’t realize it had a proper functional reason, too. And the tail seems sort of like an afterthought, but it makes sense — I bet high angles with that giant wing could easily stall the tail if it didn’t extend downward like that. Cool plane. A buddy of mine from church (almost 80 years old) used to fly Wild Weasel missions in Vietnam in these — fly straight at SAM sites, wait for them to locate you, which gives away their exact location, then your partner takes them out. Scary shit.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 01/25/2017 at 16:54

0

Oops. Fixed it. Thanks. The first time I ever saw the Blue Angels they were flying F-4s (1969-1974).

E90M3 > ttyymmnn 01/25/2017 at 16:56

1

That’s an interesting fact that I was unaware of, that does make sense though.

ttyymmnn > Ash78, voting early and often 01/25/2017 at 16:58

3

It gets even more interesting when you look at the F3H-G Demon, which served as the basis for the Phantom. This is pretty much what the Phantom might have looked like without the dihedral wingtips or anhedral tailplane.