Made by the McDonnell Corporation (before it became McDonnell Douglas), THE RECORD BREAKING PHANTOM II presents the story of the F-4 Phantom, a tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy. The aircraft first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable, it was also adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Air Force, and by the mid-1960s had become a major part of their respective air wings. The film begins with an overview of the F-4, including its ability to carry tremendous numbers of stores, an ability to operate from both WWII type aircraft carriers and super carriers. At 2:40 the film begins to look at the Phantom’s assault on various aviation performance records. At 3:00, Project Top Flight which proved the airplane’s incredible climbing ability, is shown from Edwards Air Force Base. Commander Lawrence Earl Flint, Jr., set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Altitude to 30,040 meters (98,556 feet). This was just short of the arbitrary 100,000 feet (30,480 meters) that delineated the beginning of space at the time. Diving back through 70,000 feet (21,336 meters), Flint restarted the engines and flew back to Edwards. Other closed course flights are seen at 7:00 to establish speed records with the aircraft over the Salton Sea from Edwards AFB. The plane with Col. Thomas Miller at the controls flew at 1216 mph average, 400 mph faster than the previous record. Commander John F. Davis is seen at 7:40, maneuvering by radar over a tight 100 mile course achieved 1390 mph.
At 8:48, Sageburner is seen, designed to set new speed records at low altitudes. On May 18, (not shown in the film) the initial attempt ended in tragedy when Commander J. L. Felsman was killed when pitch dampener failure led to pilot-induced oscillations (PIO), causing his Phantom to break up in flight and explode. The second attempt to set a new low-altitude speed record succeeded on August 28, 1961, when Lt. Huntington Hardisty (pilot) and Lt. Earl De Esch (RIO) flew F4H-1F BuNo 145307 at an average speed of 902 mph over a 3 km low-altitude course at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The maximum altitude reached during this flight was only 125 feet, fully living up to the name of the project-Sageburner.
At 10:30 Project Lana is seen, showing how the aircraft could quickly deploy for combat. Five F4H-1Fs took off at timed intervals from Ontario, California and set out for NAS Brooklyn (formerly Floyd Bennett Field). They made four supersonic dashes, separated by three subsonic mid-air refuellings by tanker-configured Douglas A3D-2 Skywarriors. Three of the Phantoms finished the journey, shattering the record set back in November of 1957 by a USAF McDonnell RF-101C Voodoo. The top speed, set in aircraft 148270 piloted by Lt. R. F. Gordon and Lt(jg) B. R. Young, was an average of 869.73 mph.
The Phantom is a large fighter with a top speed of over Mach 2.2. It can carry more than 18,000 pounds (8,400 kg) of weapons on nine external hardpoints, including air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, and various bombs. The F-4, like other interceptors of its time, was designed without an internal cannon. Later models incorporated an M61 Vulcan rotary cannon. Beginning in 1959, it set 15 world records for in-flight performance, including an absolute speed record, and an absolute altitude record.
During the Vietnam War, the F-4 was used extensively; it served as the principal air superiority fighter for both the Navy and Air Force, and became important in the ground-attack and aerial reconnaissance roles late in the war. The Phantom has the distinction of being the last U.S. fighter flown to attain ace status in the 20th century. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, being gradually replaced by more modern aircraft such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 in the U.S. Air Force, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat in the U.S. Navy, and the F/A-18 Hornet in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
