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Just wondering...I was recently given an old Revell/Monogram kit called "F-4J Phantom II/MiG Ace", which has decals for Cunningham's F-4, in which he shot down 3 MiG's in one day and became the USN's only Vietnam Ace. It was begun by a friends kid brother, and is in such a shape that I'm not sure I can do anything with it.
I'm curious about some of the accessories that come with it though...on the front Sparrow missile pylon on the left side, it has an optional pod of some sort...it replaces the missile on the station, and looks vaguely like a gun pod or something, only it has a pair of box-shaped antennas (or something!) sticking out of the bottom of it. They remind me of stick magazines like a Thompson M1 SMG uses, but I doubt any gun pods had ammo-magazines of that type, let alone TWO of them. Is this some sort of electronic warfare pod, for jamming enemy signals? Or is there an option for turning this kit into a Wild Weasel variant instead? I just wondered whether anyone here knew what it was supposed to be.
There's also a pair of "rods" over the intakes...long, skinny things that look vaguely like piping. The run from an inch or so back along the intake trunks, and stop right at the rim of the intake. I've never seen anything like them before, and neither those or the strange pod are on the box art. I'd like to know what sort of variant I'm building before I try and fix this mess, you know?
The pod that goes in the forward missile bay is a AN/ALQ-87 ECM pod. They were not carried by the Navy, only the USAF. On the intake sides, these were ECM antennas and were found on later models of the F-4J. They were not used on the F-4J "Showtime 100".
The load out on the mission flown that day was a 600 gallon center line tank, two AIM-7's on the Aft stations, Six MK-20's on TER's loaded on the inboard pylons, four AIM-9G's loaded on the inboard pylon shoulders. It did not have the 370 gallon wing tanks loaded or the outboard pylons.
Berny
Phormer Phantom Phixer
On the bench
TF-102A Delta Dagger, 32nd FIS, 54-1370, 1/48 scale. Monogram Pro Modeler with C&H conversion.
Revell F-4E Phantom II 33rd TFW, 58th TFS, 69-260, 1/32 scale.
Tamiya F-4D Phantom II, 13th TFS, 66-8711, 1/32 scale. F-4 Phantom Group Build.
The ECM pod for the front Sparrow bay was leftover from the earlier release of the kit as an Air Force F-4C and -D and aren't applicable to the Navy F-4J.
The "rods" on the intakes are ECM antennas that were retrofitted to F-4J's and also are not applicable for the timeframe of Cunningham & Driscoll.
FWIW, on the mission of 10 May 72 when they got their three Migs, they launched with two Sparrows in the rear bays, a centerline tank, and on the inner wing pylons they carried four Sidewinders and TER's with cluster bombs.
Navy Phantoms seldom flew with wing tanks and only used the bomb fuse extenders included in the kit for a very short period of time. They often flew without the front two Sparrows to minimize the forward weight bias during cat shots, particularly when carrying bombs on the wing pylons ( plus the Navy didn't find the AIM-7's to be all that effective in combat).
Mark
FSM Charter Subscriber
You type faster than I do Berny... ;)
RedCorvette They often flew without the front two Sparrows to minimize the forward weight bias during cat shots, particularly when carrying bombs on the wing pylons ( plus the Navy didn't find the AIM-7's to be all that effective in combat). Mark
They often flew without the front two Sparrows to minimize the forward weight bias during cat shots, particularly when carrying bombs on the wing pylons ( plus the Navy didn't find the AIM-7's to be all that effective in combat).
The reason the Navy didn't carry AIM-7's on the forward stations is they couldn't be tuned or fired with any thing loaded on the centerline. In order to fire any forward loaded missile, the tank would have to be jettisoned. Their mission that day was SEADS and they had just come off of a tanker and the 600 gallon tank was half full of fuel. They could only jettison it when fully empty. They engaged the MIG fighters when still carrying the centerline.
For some reason the Navy preferred to load their F-4's with centerline tanks. I may be because of storage space on the carrier. The Air Force and shore based Marines used the 370 gallon wing tanks.
The F-4 was "G" restricted with the centerline tank and that is why the USAF loaded the 370 wing tanks. Many years later the USAF started carrrying the F-15 style 600 gallon centerline tank which was not "G" restricted.
That is your F-4 Phantom lesson for the day.
Thanks, everyone...that's good to know. But I'm confused...I've looked up this plane before, and I was under the impression that it was unusual for the fact that Cunningham's plane WASN'T fitted with a centerline tank, although usually Navy jets were. And the kit that I'm talking about has two wing-tanks on the box-art and photograph. I had a die-cast model of 5800 when I was a kid (which is why I first looked it up) and it also had two wing tanks and no centerline tank. Were they both wrong then?
If you're referring to Cunningham & Driscoll's Mig-killing mission of 10 May 72, they definitely launched with a centerline tank. It was jettisoned during the flight, so you may see depictions of his plane without the tank during their climatic dogfight with the Mig-17.
As mentioned previously, Navy F-4's normally only carried centerline tanks aboard ship. But they did use wing tanks on occasion, mostly ashore, and there are photos around of 'Showtime 100' with them. It's not wrong to use them, it's just not historically accurate for the missions that made the plane and crew famous.
And don't trust box art as a historical reference; its primary objective is to get you to buy the kit....
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