Spinners

Bravo Daniel!!

Great team work guys. Well done.

Slightly off topic but I found it most odd that the Airfix 1/72 scale kit (covering the B, C, D, early E and J) totally ignored the the carriage of the 'normal' inner wing 4 x Aim-9 loadout but did have the different pylon for inner wing Sparrows. Buying this kit exactly 40 years ago was a magical experience for me and I thought it was the coolest looking aircraft ever.

Egress...

McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG.1B - 899 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1985

McDonnell F-4B(UK) - 893 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1966

McDonnell F-4B(UK) Phantom FG.1 - 700P Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1966 By 1961 it was inescapable that McDonnell's F4H-1 Phantom was fast becoming the standard against which all other fighters would be judged a fact quickly realised by the Royal Navy who were seeking a replacement for the De Havilland Sea Vixen in the fleet defence role. Lord Mountbatten pushed hard for a minimum change version of the F-4B and stone-walled any attempts to force the P.1154 upon the senior service. In March 1962 the UK Government cancelled the P.1154 and announced that 100 McDonnell F-4B's would be purchased for the Royal Navy for delivery during 1965 and 1966 and also announcing extensive refit plans for both HMS Ark Royal and HMS Eagle to keep them in service until 1975. Despite the desire for a minimum change version some changes were necessary. The short 54 foot decklift length of the Royal Navy's carriers meant that the radar and radome had to be designed to swing round 180o and an extra-extensible nose wheel leg had to be incorporated to increase the nose-up angle to compensate for the less powerful catapults on the British carriers. However, Mountbatten and the Admiralty resisted all calls to adopt the promising Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engine and this undoubtedly helped in McDonnell getting the first F-4B(UK) into the air on June 26th, 1964 with deliveries to the specially formed 700P Naval Air Squadron commencing early in 1965 and eventually equipping four front-line squadrons as the Phantom FG.1. During 1972 and 1973 all surviving Phantom FG.1's were retro-fitted with the Westinghouse AWG-10 pulse-doppler radar and the type remained in service until 1984 seeing service in the 1982 Falklands conflict.

Looking good Russ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Early days

Republic F-7C Thunderstorm Dassault Mirage FGA.2 - No.54 Squadron, Royal Air Force, 1967

One of the best USAF schemes ever!

Awesome!

Glad to hear that news Sophocles!

Really enjoying RC's early 'E' version of the 1960's Superfighter

You weren't.

Tour of Duty

A Freudian slip there Stratos...

Whilst definitely a 'Marmite' figure (at least, in the UK) there was much to admire and I guess her adversaries would sum her up as 'formidible'. I hope the State Funeral is respected as she was a true great Briton.

A great idea!

About the same as going from the Canberra to the TSR.2 lol

No. That would be beyond my abilities and attention span.

Very nice camo scheme! A short while ago I used Flogger23's skin to make a North Vietnamese MiG-23

Yes, from the F-4M.

McDonnell Douglas F-4H Phantom - Fliegerstaffel 16, Swiss Air Force, 1970 The Swiss Air Force's search for a new fighter to replace the Vampire and supplement (and eventually replace) the Venom and Hunter was a three-year long study that led to the announcement in December 1960 that the Dassault Mirage IIIS was their preferred choice in what had eventually boiled down to a close-run battle against the excellent Saab 35H Draken. However, the Swiss Air Force then implemented so many expensive changes into the Swiss Mirage programme that they were eventually only able to procure about half as many as planned and at twice the unit cost. By September 1965, even before a single Swiss-built Mirage IIIS had flown, the Swiss Air Force demanded an off the shelf purchase of a suitable fighter aircraft to offset the reduced size of the Mirage force and initiated a six-month contract study for a requirement of 40 aircraft and in early February 1966 they announced that a minimum change version of the McDonnell (later McDonnell Douglas) F-4D Phantom was the winner and that a slightly reduced order for 36 aircraft was to be placed. Desginated F-4H (Helvetia) the Phantoms entered service in April 1967 and were delivered to Fliegerstaffel 6 at Payerne and Fliegerstaffel 16 at Stans and served until 1999 when they were replaced by the Saab Gripen. I've always planned to do this one at some time or another and with Fabian Cancellara winning his third Paris-Roubaix today I felt the time was right!

Kfir C2 of the IDF Aggressor Squadron

Panavia Tornado IDS - Ala 11, Ejército del Aire, 1988