First Flight:
The F-4 (then designated the F4H) Phantom II made its maiden flight on May 27, 1958. 

Record Setter:
The Phantom II boasted an operational top speed of over 1,400 M.P.H. and service ceiling of over 35,000 feet. However, in Project Top Flight, CDR Lawrence Flint flew a prototype aircraft to a world altitude record of 98,560 feet. Project High Jump brought a host of time-t0-climb records and the Phantom II also shattered speed records, including a transcontinental flight that earned the Bendix Trophy for the aircrew. All told, the jet established 12 world records in just 28 months. Among the group of record-setting pilots were future astronauts John Young and Richard F. Gordon.

Shift in Role:
When introduced, the F-4 served as a high-altitude interceptor to meet the tactical requirement of defending carriers by launching long-range missiles against attacking Soviet bombers in the event of an escalation of the Cold War at sea. The war in Vietnam thrust the F-4 into a tactical environment for which it was not originally designed, including air-to-air dogfights and an increased strike role.  To this end, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force F-4s flew as high and low- altitude bombers, delivering a wide array of ordnance, their air-to-air kills totaling 107 enemy aircraft. Thirty-six of these kills were scored by Navy and Marine Corps pilots, including five by Lieutenant Randall H. Cunningham and Lieutenant (junior grade) William Driscoll, the first aces of the Vietnam War. 

Longevity:
McDonnell Douglas produced 5,195 Phantom IIs during a production run that lasted from 1958 to 1979, making it second only to the MiG-21 in the number produced.   The only aircraft flown concurrently by the Navy and Air Force flight demonstration teams, the last F-4s flying in Naval Aviation retired from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 112, a Reserve squadron, in January 1992, 31 years after the aircraft was first delivered to the fleet. This was quite a record for an aircraft variously referred to as the “Big Ugly,” “Rhino,” “Flying Anvil,” and “Big Iron Sled.”

The Museum’s Aircraft:
The museum’s aircraft is an F-4N, one of 228 F-4Bs modified and updated as part of Project Beeline during the early 1970s. It was delivered to the museum in 1984 in the markings of its final squadron, the VF-154 Black Knights. The high point of its service came on May 18, 1972, while flying from USS Midway (CVA 41) with the VF-161 Rock Rivers. Flown by pilot Lieutenants Patrick Arwood and Radar Intercept Office Mike Bell, a recent graduate of TOPGUN, the aircraft engaged a North Vietnamese MiG-19. “I thought it missed … The warhead exploded but the missile itself kept on going,” Arwood recalled. “[Then] a huge chunk of metal came off th starboard side of the tail area. [The MiG] pitched up severely, almost like it came to a dead stop. It pitched up like a barn door and the tail end looked like it exploded, a big fireball just at the exhaust of the plane.” It was one of only two MiG-19s shot down by the Navy during the Vietnam War.