KerbalX

Wingtips tilted upwards, tailplanes tilted downwards, massive engines and pillars of smoke are all undeniable trademarks of the legendary fighter, attacker, reconaissance plane, bomber and a SEAD platform known as the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II.

It began it’s life as a development of an earlier F3H Demon fighter in a project aimed at equipping the aging F3H with ground strike capabilities and improved performance. Initial XF4H-1 prototype displayed extreme stability problems - those were remedied by redesigning the wingtips and tailplanes. With these changes, the characteristic shape of the Phantom began to emerge.

The F4H-1 performed admirably in testing against the upgraded Vought F8U - it’s main competitor. All three branches of the US aviation - USAF, US Navy and the Marines expressed their interest in buying the new fighter. Mass production began in 1960.

The F-4E variant was the first Phantom equipped with an internal M61 Vulcan cannon - a design element seen as a remedy to the losses sustained by the missile-only Phantom variants in the skies over Vietnam. Massive, heavy hunk of metal with two obscenely powerful engines didn’t really lend itself well to dogfights against nimble NVAF fighters such as the MiG-17, MiG-19 and MiG-21.

F-4E proved to be a versatile and refined platform which found plenty of non-USAF users (Germany, Israel and Japan to name a few). It wasn’t a dedicated air superiority fighter like the Eagle, or a dedicated attacker like the A-10, but since it could fulfill all these tasks well enough, it quickly became the backbone of NATO air power in the 70s and 80s.

This KSP version was designed with maximum detail in mind, hence the partcount isn’t really low. The controls are pretty straightforward, AG1 controls the afterburners and AG2 controls the flaps. The Phantom has some really nice and smooth handling characteristics and will happily fly without SAS if you want. Have fun taking it out for a spin!

v1.0 - Initial release
v1.1 - Modified the intake ramps, lifted the hump behind the cockpit a little to make the airframe appear more chonky.

Details

• Type: SPH
• Class: aircraft
• Part Count: 438
• Pure Stock