Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: hplabs!ron@hpfcmgw.hp.com (Ron Miller)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: F-4 : really an interceptor
Message-ID: <7953@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 5 Jul 89 12:37:34 GMT
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From: hplabs!ron@hpfcmgw.hp.com (Ron Miller)

 
>     [corporate history]
> 
>     As a successor to the F3H Demon fighter, which is operational with
> the U S Navy, McDonnell has developed the F4H [the astute reader will
> notice that this is the old designation system, where the H means

My father flew the last F3H to the mothball facility at Litchfield Park.
He and his buddies have some awesome stories about the load of junk that
the Demon was. It had a complex engine utilizing vacuum tubes for control
functions. Some of the tubes had 1.5 hr service lives. Failure of the 
engine controls could result in wierd states such as idling in afterburner.
Power wouldn't always come off when descending from high to low altitude.
You had to play with the throttle sometimes.

As an all weather interceptor it had an unfortunate characteristic. It
would flame out in a moderate rain. My dad still has pieces and parts in
his junk boxes scrounged from crash sites he investigated around San Diego
I had some really awesome magnets from onboard radar sets to play with 
as a kid.

The ejection seat was insufficient to function below pattern altitude.
He watched his first operational squadron CO deadstick a Demon into
the mesa near Miramar when it flamed out in the clear. (survived, no injuries)

They say that you can always tell who transitioned into F-4s from Demons
because the Demondriver *had* to be an expert at setting up the 
intercept. The plane wouldn't support a second chance.

It's interesting to listen to the old graybeards talk about "how safe
carrier aviation is today."  For them, that's true!

> 
> BTW did you know that you can successfully launch an F-8 _with_ the
> wings folded?  I don't know if you can do this with the F-4, but maybe
> nobody ever tried.

Define "successfully."   Launches occurred. Complete, non-destructive flights
didn't (that I've ever heard). 

F-4s can be thrown from decks unprepared too. Same results.  In fact, 
sometimes the tow tractors and start carts go for short flights too :-)

> 
> --
> M F Shafer                                |Ignore the reply-to address
> NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility |Use shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov
> 

I've really enjoyed listening to my dad's stories. But I also recognize that
the law of probability predicted I was raised as a fatherless child.
I wasn't. And I chose to drive submarines when I served my time.

Ron Miller