When McDonnell Made This Promo Philm During the Early 60s the Phantom II Was Already Phantastic
When the McDonnell Aircraft Company produced the film “The Free World’s Phantom II” during the early 1960s, the F-4 had just gone to sea aboard Forrestal-class aircraft carriers and the Tactical Air Command was putting the jet through a rigorous evaluation program. Nonetheless the soon-to-be-legendary do-it-all fighter was already recognized as one of the most versatile and capable aircraft in the world. McDonnell built 5,175 of them between 1958 and 1981. So sit back and enjoy this Phantom II Lovephest uploaded to YouTube by Periscope Film.
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Starring Plenty of Phantom Phlying Units
Navy and Marine Corps F-4B operators appearing the film include VF-74 Bedevilers, VF-101 Grim Reapers, VMF(AW)-531 Grey Ghosts, and VF-102 Diamondbacks. Aircraft carriers USS Forrestal (CV-59) and USS Independence (CV-62) are shown shooting and recovering the jets, along with glimpses of other CVW-8 aircraft aboard Forrestal. Also prominently featured in the film are the first two F-4B Phantom IIs evaluated by the US Air Force, both of which were McDonnell F-4B-9i’s (F4H-1s) originally built for the Navy. Navy BuNo 149405 (F-110A FJ-405) became F-4C USAF serial 62-12168. BuNo 149406 (F-110A FJ-406) became F-4C serial 62-12169.
Phree World Phighter Indeed
Projects Top Flight, High Jump, Sageburner, and Skyburner are all highlighted in the film. The Phantom II was indeed the “free world’s fighter.” Operated currently by Greece, Iran, and Turkey, F-4s also flew for Australia, Egypt, Germany, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom (Fleet Air Arm and Royal Air Force), and of course United States Air Force, Marines, and Navy. Even NASA operated a couple of Phantom IIs back in the day.
By Any Other Name
Nicknames for aircraft often border on the obscene, or at least are built with a heavy dose of sarcasm. The Phantom has had some classic nicknames over the years. Some of these names included “Air Defense Diesel” (Luftverteidigungsdiesel by the Luftwaffe), “Big Iron Sled”, “Bug Smasher”, “Double Ugly”, “Flying Anvil”, “Flying Brick” (Fliegender Ziegelstein by the Luftwaffe), “Flying Footlocker”, “Grey Goose”, “Iron Pig” (Eisenschwein by the Luftwaffe), “Jeasel”, “Lead Sled”, “Old Smokey”, “Rhino”, “Snoopy”, “St Louis Slugger”, “Toom” (by the RAF), “Warped Wing”, and perhaps its most respectful moniker of all- “The World’s Leading Distributor of MiG Parts.”
Universal Lovephest
It has been said that the Phantom II was “proof that with enough thrust anything can fly” and that the jet “was a triumph of thrust over aerodynamics.” No matter what it was dubbed by its crews or its maintainers, or how its unique combination of appearance, performance, and toughness under fire were evaluated, the fact is nobody doesn’t love the Phabulous Phantom II.
