F-110A Spectre. Wait, what?

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 01/29/2020 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik

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(US Air Force)

F-110 Spectre? Isn’t that an F-4 Phantom? Well, yes, but....

The preproduction prototype YF4H-1 Phantom II outside the McDonnell factory in 1958 (US Navy)

In 1953, McDonnell Aircraft began work on an updated version of their !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the result was an aircraft that eventually became the F4H, an all-weather fleet defense fighter for the US Navy. The F4H entered Navy service in 1960 as the Phantom II, after some consideration was given to assigning it the nickname Mithras (the Persian god of the sun) or Satan. (Personally, I think Mithras would have been a pretty cool name.)

At the time, US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was dead set on having all flying branches of the US military operate the same aircraft in an effort to save money. When the Air Force received their first Phantoms for testing, they had to give the fighter their own designation, because there’s no way the Air Force would use a Navy number. Thus, the first Phantoms in Air Force service were known (unofficially) as the F-110A, and were given the appropriately spooky name Spectre.

(McDonnell Aircraft Corporation)

The Air Force really liked their Navy fighters, and in 1962 sanity prevailed when McNamara instituted the United States !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which standardized the designation of US military aircraft. At that point, the F4H-1 in Navy and Marine Corps service became the F-4A and F-4B, and the Air Force F-110 Spectre became the F-4C Phantom II. Now, it’s only the alphabet soup of variant letters that is confusing.

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phenotyp > ttyymmnn 01/29/2020 at 15:57

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Well, there’s a bit of history I didn’t know.

ttyymmnn > phenotyp 01/29/2020 at 16:00

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GLiddy > ttyymmnn 01/29/2020 at 19:21

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Cool. So it almost was part of the Century series of Air Force craft. Well, kinda anyway. Wonder how the F-111 kept its high number? But then you have the F- 117... Jeez. Nevermind. It doesn’t make any sense to me anyhow.

ttyymmnn > GLiddy 01/29/2020 at 20:27

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I discuss the F-117 numbering in the XF14C-2 article linked underneath the Phantom story. The USAF got up to F-111 before the redesignation system had them start over at F-1. 

ttyymmnn > GLiddy 01/29/2020 at 21:01

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The Century Series only goes from F-100 to F-106. I’m currently writing a piece about what happened after the Century Series. Keep an eye out for it!

f86sabre > ttyymmnn 01/29/2020 at 21:41

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Lot of freedom coming out of the exhaust in that promotional video.

ttyymmnn > f86sabre 01/29/2020 at 21:48

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ALL the freedom. 

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 01/29/2020 at 23:10

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its interesting seeing the transition from banshee to voodoo to phantom, with the low slung wings and low twin exhaust. 

GLiddy > ttyymmnn 01/29/2020 at 23:24

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I’ll keep an eye out for it. Since I grew up the 1960s I knew a few of these planes and my favorite was the F105 Thunderchief (Thud).  Yeah, I’m not a big plane buff, but I have a passing interest in military aircraft.

ttyymmnn > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 01/30/2020 at 11:35

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I see the XF-88 and F-101 as more of a riff on earlier designs, like the Banshee or even all the way back to the Bell Airacomet. While the tail arrangement is similar across the types, the cheek air intakes arrived with the Demon, which was the direct predecessor to the Phantom.

What blows me away is how McDonnell started out as a parts manufacturer, built one plane that kind of sucked (XP-67) and then hit a home run with the FH Phantom and Banshee.