Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the phabulous F-4E Phantom II...the Air Force version from the 80s, a change from all the Navy versions prevalent on the site. For the youngsters out there, before the mighty Eagle, the Phantom fought for control of the Cold War skies and was both the USAF and Navy's preeminent air superiority fighter during Vietnam. The idea here was to build a fairly accurate, but still fun to fly SP build; hence the non-built up wings. Just enough detail to be recognizable, but friendly enough for older mobile devices. It's loaded out with an M61 cannon, 4x AIM-7 Sparrows, 2x AIM-9 Sidewinders and 2x AGM-86 Maverick missiles. Regarding the missiles, they're pretty much stock except I sized up the AIM-7s (Interceptor missiles) to be the size of the real Sparrow missiles...so, you're going to have to maneuver and lock up targets before blowing them out of the skies...just like in real life. I've also included a ton of chaff and flares (4 packs total) to survive in hostile skies...feel free to change the loadout as appropriate.
Flight Manual: She likes a little, just a little, nose up (slider down) trim. Takeoff at full power about one notch down on the trim and pull back, she'll be airborne before 200 mph. Trim forward (trim slider to just a little below mid position) once off the ground.
AG 1 for nav lights.
AG2 for nosewheel steering (recommended only for taxi.
AG 3 to jettison stores should you suffer an engine failure on takeoff.
AG 4 for braking parachute on landing.
Landings are fairly straightforward, start your initial approach at 200 mph (around 10% throttle), keep adding a little more nose up trim (slider down) as you slow down. As you slow to around 170-180 mph, you'll have around a notch of slider down (nose up) trim set. Activate your braking chute (AG 4) on touchdown, brakes to come to a stop. AG 2 to activate nosewheel steering to taxi around the airfield.
3-1 Weapons and Tactics: Standard weapons controls. You're going to have to maneuver to lock up targets and fire...no 25th Century laser-beam missiles here!
M61 cannon - trigger...lead target!
AIM-7 Sparrows (Interceptor missiles) - standard controls--air-to-air mode, select "Interceptors", maneuver to put target in reticle, close to proper range (9 miles), keep target in reticle until the system locks up the target and fire.
AIM-9 Sidewinders (Guardian missiles) - standard controls--air-to-air mode, select "Guardians", maneuver to put target in reticle, close to proper range (5 miles), keep target in reticle until the system locks up the target and fire. Keep target in reticle until missile impact.
AGM-65 Mavericks (Inferno missiles) - standard controls--air-to-ground mode, for use against enemy emitters. Select "Infernos", maneuver to put target in reticle, close to proper range (4 miles), keep target in reticle until the system locks up the target and fire.
Fly safe!
Specifications
Spotlights
- phanps 6.9 years ago
General Characteristics
- Predecessor !McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II (E1)
- Successors 10 airplane(s) +70 bonus
- Created On Windows
- Wingspan 41.0ft (12.5m)
- Length 63.2ft (19.2m)
- Height 16.9ft (5.1m)
- Empty Weight 21,684lbs (9,835kg)
- Loaded Weight 37,401lbs (16,965kg)
Performance
- Power/Weight Ratio 1.802
- Wing Loading 66.7lbs/ft2 (325.6kg/m2)
- Wing Area 560.8ft2 (52.1m2)
- Drag Points 8467
Parts
- Number of Parts 222
- Control Surfaces 3
- Performance Cost 918
Absolutely stunning, I love it!
@ChiChiWerx neato, and I wish i could do some of those higher detailed ones like you stated heh. I'm not experienced enough to do it fully
@DaDerpachu123 hi. Yes, so this was an interesting build; I wanted to make a relatively simple replica, and this is only 222 parts. I used the default wings, instead of building them up with fuselage and intake pieces, then burying scaled wings inside. It kept the part count down, but it’s probably the biggest visual detractor from the whole thing. If I were to do it again, I’d probably do better wings, though the Phantom’s wings aren’t simple with leading edge flaps, spoilers and the kink in them. Probably would add at least 50 or 60 parts for both wings. The thin wing shape forced me to make the main gear skinny, though IRL, the F-4E’s MLG is noticeably beefy. I also used the stock nose gear for part count, as well as the fact that it’s roughly the same as the F-4’s nose gear. Also, this was a pre-Blueprints mod build, so the shape is fairly close but not as accurate as it should be, especially with the forward fuselage “droop”. I’d also reduce the power on the engines through FT because it is overpowered and possibly do some drag reduction...neither of those things would add to the part count and would be absolutely transparent to the casual player. But, I might also succumb to an unfortunate tendency to go overboard and make a 1,000+ part replica, much the same as I’ve done with so many other more recent builds. But, I’m glad you like this!
Wow! this is a beautiful Phantom! It's really fun to fly and is a great opponent for my MiG 21 in dogfights! Do you have any tips for building these types of planes?
@BandicootNewSnipes here’s my F-4E from quite awhile ago...I didn’t have Designer Suite, but I think it turned out pretty well. Ignore the wings, but I used a couple of other techniques here and there you might appreciate. Feel free to use as necessary for your builds.
I’m glad you managed to get a satisfying number of upvotes on this one hahaha
@BogdanX here you go again, your 12 hour reminder, thanks again in advance!
@BogdanX any way you can overlay a 3 view over this build and tell me what I would need to change for accuracy?
@Alpha029 thanks! I’ve always liked the looks of the Phantom myself.
@phanps thanks, I appreciate it!
@ChiChiWerx Ouchies, take my spotlight. You deserve it.
@phanps, thanks! This is one of my personal favorite builds I’ve completed, so it was a little frustrating that it didn’t find as big an audience as I was hoping.
Pretty underrated. Nice job.
ALWAYS THE PHANTOM FAN!!!
@ChiChiWerx I appreciate a good F-4.
@Sunnyskies check out my latest!
@ChiChiWerx I'm never a fan of retouching stuff thats already been released, It's much more fun to design new cockpits for completely new designs. Next time you start a new plane design, gimmie a holla and I'll be happy to build a cockpit for you then :)
@Weaverfish what do you think about building a cockpit for this one?
@Enderminion I think I get it, you've been flying a lot of builds with XML modded missiles. In real life, missiles aren't freakin' laser beams, you have to lock up the target first, then fire. That's one of the reason why the F-4 had a RIO. Even on the F-15, F-16 and F-22, you have to lock up before firing, we don't just fire off a missile to hone in on whatever it wants to, otherwise you might shoot down your wingman. As for jettisoning stores, that button is only intended to drop all your stores if you get into a problem (engine fire or failure) on takeoff and have to jettison weight in order to avoid crashing, not to fire off the missiles to shoot down targets. Anyway, I'd think it would be unrealistic to do otherwise, so when flying, try and make allowances that you're going to have to maneuver to lock up targets, not just cruise along straight and level at FL400 plinking off airplanes! I'll mod the aircraft description to make that clear.
you can't shoot missiles until they lock-up, when launched they drop and the motor turns on but it doesn't go
@Enderminion how do you mean? Small boresight, or they don't work at all for you? Are you selecting air to air mode, then the appropriate missile type, closing to the proper range, keeping the target in the reticle until locked up (target turns solid red), then firing? They're stock missiles so should work normally.
The missiles work about as well as they did in 'Nam, as in they don't
Saw the navy version.
Sat in the cockpit of one of these at an airshow! So cool!