It's remarkable they've kept these flying, especially the Tomcats! I wish we could get them back since we stupidly destroyed all of ours. Once Iran's F-14s are done flying, the plane will sadly be gone for good.
Iran's F-4s and F-14s: Still flying
- Thread starter Kinnick.At.Night
- Start date
I grew up near a base with an F-4 wing and they were a lot smokier than the ones in this video. I wonder what kind of engines they have in these?
Was that in the mid 90s or before? It could be they were using JP4 instead of JP8 jet fuels.
Yes. 70s and 80s
They fly around the pattern and looked like this. You could see them 4-5 miles away.
All F-4s had GE J79s, although I'm not sure if there were any variants between different models? I doubt Iran has gone away from these engines, but who knows? They've certainly done remarkable things with these ancient planes! Something impressive about their Tomcats is their service record in the Iran vs Iraq war. Their Tomcat pilots kicked ass in early A model planes with garbage TF-30 engines. Imagine if they'd had B or D models.
JP4 was some bad stuff. It had a flashpoint of around 0F and JP8 is around 100F. CSB
No flash point is the lowest temp that introducing a flame will cause it to ignite. Basically you needed to be extra careful around JP4 at any temperature.
I hated being around JP4. Ther bwere so many precautions with grounding yourself and everything around you while refueling and AC, ornaround the storage area. Static electricity would ignite that ish.
Today's JP8 or what ever they used now may have the same rules, but the risk is way different.
South Korea recently retired the last of the their F-4s.
https://theaviationist.com/2024/06/14/south-korea-phantom-retires/
https://theaviationist.com/2024/06/14/south-korea-phantom-retires/
Dale Snodgrass could fly an F-14 better than anyone else and this proves it. A model, B or D. He was the best. And this plane would still be flying if it wasn't so damn expensive to maintain. So much more capable than the Hornet or Super Hornet. The F-18 in any version pretty much sucks compared to the F-14.
Google says the SR71 uses JP7 which I was never around. I was around the U2 for a while. It used JPTS (thermally stable.) We had to suction the fuel out of bulk fuel containers that were shipped in special for them. I liked the U2 because nothing on it looked like it would poke my eye out when I was running a fuel hose to it. CSB
It was pretty cool, our fuel storage was right on the flight line so I got to watch a lot. It was hard not to watch the crew chiefs running out and hopping on the wings to weight it down. I never saw one miss, but I was waiting for it. They were using Cameros as the chase cars where I was.
That's unreal stuff nowadays. Much respect, Moral. I'd like to hear a lot more about your experiences in the Air Force.
I'll have to piece some of it together sometime. I was at Barksdale when a nuclear warhead was accidentally loaded on a B52 from Minot. That was a shit show. I guess enough of a one that it has a wiki.
2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident - Wikipedia
CSB, I was watching The Day of the Jackal on Netflix and they reference British troops getting R&R in Cyprus during deployments to Afghanistan. So, I wondered what was there? Turns out the US still flies U-2s out of RAF Akrotiri.
F-14 is far and away my favorite plane. Just gorgeous.
If you haven't seen it, you should watch this clip from Dogfights to see this guy backflip an F-4 in the middle of a fight. The balls to throw your plane into a tumble at 1500 ft I can't fathom. I'm sure the F-35's fly by wire won't let you do something this crazy (starts at the dogfight, the stall is at the 30min mark):
Interview comparison from a guy with over a 1000 hours in both you might like:
One of the bases I grew up next to used the F-4 for target practice over the Gulf of Mexico. Great place in its day, but clearly past its prime.
Given the US tomcats had around 100 hours of maintenance per flight hour in the mid 90s it’s quite remarkable the old Persian tomcats are still flying.
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