TopHatter

Warthog: Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War by William L. Smallwood. I guess it's out of print but if I really wanted it, I'd order it on Alibris.com, used. It was a great read, loved every minute of it.

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The Chap

Ditto!
And how bloody stealthy is an A-10 by the way?
No attempt to do anything other than kill. They can see it comming? They generally run. Saves DU rounds as well. And resulting lawsuits from Vets.

Before any one gets cross, I know that was in poor taste.

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Se7eN

The F-4 is still a might in the sky. Right now my dad, who retired AF after 24 years, is working as a civ contractor in South Korea helping train the SKAF with the F-4 and the AMG-142 missile system.

I asked him why they still use F-4's and he said with the new avionics they are still a very formidable aircraft.

Fury

If Im not terribly mistaken, the F-4 was used by argentinians during the Falkland war in 1982 I think. I once saw a document on TV where four argentinian F-4 phantoms disabled or destroyed two british battleships. The argentinian fighters were already in 1982 using outdated weapons and electronics still fighting against british battleships who had state of the art technology.

The Chap

No Phantoms. All french kit; various Mirage marques. Also there were no British battleships present because the Brits hadn't had any for a long time before that!
The Argentinians had one. For a brief while.

Bluesman

You're BOTH wrong. He meant to say A-4, NOT F-4. But even A-4s are American-made.

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
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bfng3569

this thread is worthless with out pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dreadnought

One of my most favorite planes the F4.

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omon

who are you calling ugly, f4?? i think f4 is the best looking fighter, only f22 beats it in looks, but that just me.

gunnut

F-4 is one of the ugliest fighter ever to be mass produced. Its ugliness is only surpassed by the X-32 Monica.

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Jimmy

So ugly its gorgeous, you mean.

I loved watching them fly at Tyndall. It was mildly sad to know that there was a decent chance it would die over the Gulf of Mexico in the HUD of an Eagle, though.

Edit: VVV I meant the F-4.

gunnut

No way. Monica was bad. Huge gaping mouth. Fat torso. Thin spindly legs. What the hell was Billy...I mean Boeing, thinking?

Oh you mean the Phantom. No, it was just ugly. It had droopy tail, bent wings, saggy nose, crooked pipes...etc.

But it sure did perform though. It was a fine plane. Just ugly...

Maxor

It was a fairly ugly fighter large ungainly and oddly proportioned.





Finally the worlds ugliest example the the f-4 wall video YouTube - F4 Phantom Vs. Wall

nutter

Heh i never found the F4 to be that ugly :D

One of my fave aircraft actually, though it *is* definitely from the school of "brute force and ignorance" type flight. Pretty sure it's kill ratio improved with the top gun stuff when pilots learned to fly the energy fight with it rather than try and make it turn :D

Back in it's day, it actually held a few time to climb and speed records for a while if i remember properly?

Bluesman

Its kill ratio went up as a consequence of it getting a gun, as well as better air-to-air skills for its crews.

Missiles just weren't very good back then, and putting an energy fighter like the F-4 with missiles-only armament up against angles fighters like various MiGs with guns and missiles was asking for a hard lesson. Our other, more sensibly-armed fighters were doing better BECAUSE they carried guns.

Once the F-4Ds started showing up with gun pods, and the F-4Es with the internal gun came on line...watch out, Charlie.