Original subtitles

Narrator: It's one of the world's most iconic fighters.

Man: This is the mcdonnell douglas

F-4 phantom ii supersonic,

All-weather fighter bomber.

It's just a badass airplane.

Narrator: Its nickname: Double ugly, the rhino,

Even the mig killer.

Man: It came charging in, didn't ask permission.

And said here we are, who wants to fight?

Narrator: This is the story of an aircraft

That transformed itself.

Man: The f-4 wasn't designed to be a dog fighter.

It was designed to be a high altitude,

Fast, long range interceptor.

Narrator: And inspired an entire generation of pilots.

Man: We needed to hit them hard, hit them fast

And hopefully knock them out as rapidly as possible.

Narrator: To become the standard

By which every fighter of its time would be measured.

Man: When you cheat death, it's pretty nice to come back

And live and do it again.

♪

Narrator: August 1990, saddam hussein

Orders 100,000 iraqi troops to invade neighboring kuwait,

Sparking an international conflict.

President bush: Iraq must withdraw from kuwait completely,

Immediately, and without condition.

Narrator: Five months later,

The united states leads a military campaign

To stop the iraqi dictator in his tracks.

They plan a full-scale air attack.

♪

The problem: Surface-to-air missiles or sams.

Lots of them, all looking hard

For american targets in the skies.

Coalition forces need a plane with the firepower

And smarts to take these weapons out.

The aircraft leading the charge

Is a 30-year-old warhorse: The f-4 phantom.

Nearly 60,000 pounds of brute force,

Just over 58 feet long and 38 feet from wing to wing,

The f-4 phantom is a monster.

Man: This is the mcdonnell douglas

F-4 phantom ii supersonic,

All-weather fighter bomber.

We call it the double ugly.

It's two engines, two crew members,

And ugly in its own right.

It's just a badass airplane.

Narrator: It's a badass plane

With massive amounts of military street cred.

Man: The f-4 has served in all three services,

Navy, air force, and marines,

And has virtually been in every role,

Both air-to-ground, air-to-air.

A lot of fighters can only do one thing well.

This thing does them all.

Narrator: Doing it all

Requires not just one crew member, but two.

Man: The pilot does all the flying and maneuvering

And the weapon's system operator does all the radar work

In the weapon's system.

Narrator: A choice of weapons made the phantom

One of the most popular assets in the united states arsenal.

Man: The f-4 is a very versatile platform.

It can carry radar-guided missiles,

Air-to-air heat seeking missiles,

Harm, anti-radiation missiles, iron bombs,

Cluster munitions, pretty much any weapon

That's been out there has been hung on the f-4.

Narrator: The f-4 phantom

Is one of the greatest front-line fighters of all time.

And it's about to do battle again.

January 17th, 1991,

Coalition forces roll out an aerial assault

Over iraqi military targets:

Operation desert storm.

At shaikh isa air base, bahrain,

Two phantoms prepare to enter the fray.

Man: Our mission that day

Was to hunt down surface-to-air missiles.

We needed to hit them hard and hit them fast

And hopefully knock them out as rapidly as possible.

Narrator: F-4 pilot lieutenant colonel

Edward ballanco

Served in the elite air force squad

Known as the wild weasels.

Man: The wild weasels were sam killers

Specially modified to take on the surface-to-air missiles.

Narrator: Being a wild weasel

Isn't for the faint of heart.

The job's so dangerous, you have to volunteer for it.

Man: Our plan was to let the surface-to-air missiles see us

And not look at the attack airplanes

That were coming in behind us

So that we can engage the sams

Before they engage the attack force.

Everybody else tries to hide from the sams,

We tried to make ourselves visible.

The motto is first in, last out.

Narrator: Ballanco and his wingman take off.

Nearly 300 miles away in qatar,

Eight f-16 falcons take to the skies too.

They'll meet up with the phantoms near kuwait.

Man: The f-16s were dropping bombs on the military targets.

Our job that day was to take out the surface-to-air missiles

So that the f-16s could get in, drop their bombs

And get out safely.

It was very critical that we were there.

Narrator: Ballanco and his wingman

Monitor the falcon's progress as they fly.

For the mission to succeed, their timing must be perfect.

Man: We wanted to be in and hit the surface-to-air missiles

Or let the surface-to-air missiles see us

Before they saw the f-16s.

If we screwed up, they could die.

Narrator: Just outside the combat zone,

The phantoms look for a kc-135 tanker.

Man: We had to take on fuel

Because we were loaded with four harm missiles.

The normal load out was two.

We carried four because we knew the threat density

Was going to be high.

Narrator: But the four weapons come at a price.

They take the place of extra fuel tanks,

Reducing the phantom's range to just 300 miles.

Man: We needed the fuel to get up into kuwait,

Do the mission and then get back home.

Narrator: The re-fuel should be routine.

But immediately, there's a complication,

Strong winds blowing over 100 knots.

Man: We're getting blown about 20 miles further south

Of where we had planned to roll out.

That equated to about almost three minutes behind the time

That we had planned.

Narrator: In peacetime,

Three minutes doesn't seem like much.

But in combat, it can mean the difference

Between life or death.

Man: When I saw that we were behind the time

I knew that this was a problem.

I could see the f-16s off to the right.

So they were ahead of us

And we were supposed to be ahead of them.

Narrator: Ballanco has to make a choice:

Finish gassing up or get back on the job.

Man: I said hey, we need to get going.

So we did.

We dropped off the tanker, we pushed it up

As fast as we could go.

We knew it was critical to get in there

And keep the f-16s from getting shot down.

Narrator: The two phantoms speed into kuwait,

Racing to catch up with the f-16s.

But they may already be too late.

Man: As we get close to the target area

We could see that the sams were coming up, a lot of them.

We got a pop up sam right in the vicinity

Of their target area

And it came up with a launch indication.

Narrator: Ballanco's f-4 wild weasel

Is specially designed to sniff out sams.

It has sophisticated sensors and antennae

Placed all over its body.

They search for enemy surface-to-air missiles' radar.

The weapons system officer

Analyzes and identifies these radar signals.

Then, ballanco fires an 800 pound

Anti-radiation missile, or harm.

His goal: To destroy the radar

And render its missiles useless.

Over kuwait, ballanco and his wingman split up

And quickly get to work.

Man: Our plan was to divide up the sams

Based on the target area.

Narrator: Ballanco and his partner confront the sam

That's heading toward the f-16.

They only have time to react, not think.

Man: We have about a 10 second window

To get the harm into the air.

Narrator: Ballanco quickly gets his hand

On the pickle button and fires.

Man: The missile came off

And it went like a spear towards the sam.

♪

Narrator: That's one sam destroyed,

But there's more popping up all around.

Man: So we fired the next one

And in less than 20 seconds, our harm hit its target.

Narrator: Ballanco's now used two of his four weapons

And the threat isn't letting up.

Man: We started looking to the eastern side

And sure enough we had sams come up there.

So we had to quickly maneuver in that direction,

Get a missile off, so we had in a space of about a minute,

We fired three missiles.

Narrator: Ballanco catches his breath

And looks to see if the f-16s are on target.

He's relieved to see that the fighters are almost home free.

Man: I could see the attack is taking place by the f-16 flight.

I saw the bombs going off.

Narrator: It looks like the strike

Will go off without a hitch, but then: Trouble.

Man: Just then we get a sam indication that comes up

And gives a launch indication.

The sam was guiding on the f-16.

We've got seconds to keep the attack force alive.

♪

Narrator: 1991, high over kuwait,

F-4 pilot lieutenant colonel edward ballanco

Is in the heat of battle.

He must protect an f-16,

But an iraqi missile has it firmly in its sights.

Man: The f-16 started a defensive maneuver.

He was jinking and putting out chaff.

The missile was in the air.

He was in a very vulnerable position.

Narrator: To disable the missile,

Ballanco must take out its radar now.

And he has just one chance to do it.

Man: We have one missile left

And in this case, maybe 20 seconds

Would be the sam time of flight

Before it would kill the airplane.

So we turned immediately,

Put the sam on the nose

And fired.

♪

When our missile hit the sam radar,

The missile no longer had guidance

And it was no longer able to follow the airplane.

We knew the f-16 was safe.

Narrator: Ballanco and his weapons officer

Have destroyed four iraqi surface-to-air missile sites

In under two minutes.

Man: It finally dawned on me, you're out of missiles dummy.

You probably ought to turn around and go home.

So we headed home.

We were fortunate.

We got up there, we got our mission done,

We got the attack airplanes in and out

Without having any damage.

It was a good feeling.

Narrator: The f-4 wild weasels go on to destroy

Over 200 iraqi missile sites,

Shutting down iraqi air defenses

And making it safe for coalition aircraft.

Man: I was proud to fly the f-4 in desert storm,

Proud of what we accomplished.

By doing our job, we saved not only our own lives,

But my friend's lives as well.

Narrator: The f-4 phantom is no stranger to combat.

For over four decades,

It's struck fear into any enemy who dared to challenge it.

This legendary aircraft has been a fighter

Since the day it was born.

1949, the united states and the soviet union

Are in the throes of a bitter cold war.

Man: The cold war is this battle over what kind of governments

Will dominate around the world.

Narrator: Dr. Laurence burke

Is the naval aviation curator

At the national air and space museum.

Man: It is a very tense time where the soviet union

Is looking to expand communism

And the us are looking to contain it.

Narrator: In August of 1949, the stakes get higher.

The russians reveal their brand new atomic bomb.

Man: The united states initially thinks

They have the atomic bomb as a sort of ace in the hole

And very quickly find out

That no, in fact, the soviets have the atomic bomb as well.

Nobody's sure what the other side is going to do.

Narrator: Leaders on both sides

Believe that conventional warfare is now obsolete.

The next war will be swift and devastating.

Man: There is an assumption coming out of world war ii

That any future war will be fought with nuclear weapons.

The next war will be fought at much greater distances,

At much greater speeds, with much less time to respond.

Narrator: The pentagon scrambles to adjust

To the new world order

And the us navy finds itself on the losing side.

Man: Eisenhower comes up with

What he calls the new look military

That will rely primarily on atomic weapons.

And he really cuts down the number of ships in the navy.

It all becomes about delivering nuclear weapons.

Narrator: Navy planes don't have the range

To bring a bomb to the russians

Or to stop a russian bomber before it attacks.

Man: The navy is still using a lot

Of late world war ii aircraft.

So the f4u corsair, the douglas ad1 skyraider,

The mcdonnell phantom 1.

What was adequate for a combat air patrol

Now has to be pushed much further out

To stop the bombers before they get close in.

So the navy is looking for an interceptor.

A plane that can quickly rush out,

Intercept incoming bombers and shoot them down.

Narrator: 1952, the pentagon,

The navy bureau of aeronautics is desperate

For a new aircraft capable of intercepting a nuclear attack.

Two companies jump at the chance to submit a design,

Chance vought and mcdonnell aircraft.

Man: Chance vought responds with what becomes the f8u crusader

And douglas responds with what becomes the f-3 demon.

Narrator: Each looks promising.

Single-engine with radar powerful enough

To detect faraway bombers,

And missiles big enough to knock them out of the sky.

Each claims an engine that offers speed and power.

The crusader goes

With a pratt & whitney j57 turbojet engine.

It's light and powerful,

Allowing the jet to be nimble and quick.

The demon takes a gamble

On an engine recommended by the navy: The westinghouse j-40,

Said to have twice the thrust of any engine in navy service.

Man: The two companies design their planes,

They build these prototypes,

They are basically compared against the standard

And against each other.

And the f-8 crusader is clearly the much better aircraft.

It's much better at the short-range fighter role.

Narrator: Chance vought flies away

With a contract for the f-8.

It's a bitter defeat for mcdonnell.

Man: The loss of this competition was difficult.

And it was especially difficult because the mcdonnell people

Didn't think it was their fault.

The navy had decreed that mcdonnell would develop this

With this westinghouse engine,

So when the time came for the fly-off,

Westinghouse did not have an engine

With the power that they had been told it would have.

Narrator: Mcdonnell is determined

To restore its reputation

And get the contract they believe is rightfully theirs.

Man: Mcdonnell does what was known

As an unsolicited proposal.

The mcdonnell engineers went back

And said, well, let's improve this design.

Let's give it twin engines and let's give it better engines.

And let's build a flexible airplane for different missions,

Really pushing the demands

For what a new airplane needs to do.

Narrator: Mcdonnell takes its design to the pentagon,

Convinced they've created an aircraft

That will propel navy aviation into the future.

Man: And the navy essentially says, yes, this is interesting,

Keep working on it.

And they give mcdonnell a little bit of money

To continue developing this idea.

Narrator: Mcdonnell bears down,

Determined to come up with the ultimate high-speed,

Long-distance fighter.

Six years later the new plane is ready to make its debut.

May 1958, st. Louis, missouri.

Mcdonnell rolls out its new f4h-1 prototype.

Immediately, it makes an impression.

Man: It's very different from its ancestry as the demon.

It's a big, bulkier plane.

It's got sort of an odd-looking wing.

It's flat in the middle with these canted up wing tips.

It's also very different

Than anything that's been seen to date.

Narrator: One big difference: The phantom's wings.

They're designed with dihedral or an upward angle.

Man: One of the most interesting characteristics of the f-4

Is the dihedral on the wing tip

And that's right along the fold line here.

It's directly related to the stability of the airplane.

For a fighter, you want it

To be somewhat unstable for maneuverability

And that's what's accomplished from this.

Narrator: Its wings give the phantom maneuverability.

Two general electric j-79 engines give it power.

Man: This is one of the two j-79 engines on the f-4 phantom,

Put about 11,000 pounds thrust of military power

And about 17,000 pounds in afterburner.

They can propel the airplane to mach 2.2ish

And push the airplane

To an altitude of 40,000 feet per minute.

The j-79 is known for is its noise.

It's a very noisy, noisy, loud, very distinctive noise.

The f-4 kind of makes a howl as it's coming

And as it's leaving, quite the roar from these engines.

Very reliable, strong engine.

As a pilot flying the f-4 phantom,

It's like driving a '60s muscle car.

Narrator: The new aircraft seems poised

To take the navy by storm.

There's just one thing standing in its way, again.

Man: Chance vought, having had the successful design

With the f-8 crusadar, basically decides to update it.

They give it a little bit bigger engine

And it's a little bit longer

But it's still a single engine, single seat aircraft.

Narrator: The navy wants a fly-off.

The new and improved f-8 crusader is ready to rumble,

But this time mcdonnell is determined to get the edge.

September 1958, edwards air force base.

Mcdonnell's f4h-1 meets its rival for a second fly off.

Man: It's a close competition.

The crusader is a little bit more nimble

And the pilots like it better.

But the navy sees much more promise in the f4h design.

The navy ends up giving the contract to mcdonnell

To develop this into a fleet defense airplane.

Narrator: The navy is confident that its new fighter

Will dominate the skies

And they set out to prove it to the world.

Man: They wanted to demonstrate not only to the us public

But also to the soviets

That we now had this very fast, very capable plane.

Narrator: The phantom challenges

Almost every aviation record in the books

And methodically blows them away.

In 1959, it sets the world altitude record,

Over 98,000 feet.

In 1961, it beats the world speed record, over 1,600 mph.

Just 31 months after its first flight,

The f-4 is the us navy's fastest, highest flying

And longest range fighter,

With 15 world records to its name.

Man: The f-4 early on

Was a public relations person's dream.

Narrator: Dick anderegg was an f-4 pilot

And director of the air force history and museums program.

Man: Because of all the power it had,

It was able to break all of the existing speed records

And all the existing time to climb records,

Far surpassing anything any other aircraft had ever done.

This made it very attractive to the public.

It made it also very attractive

To people in the defense department.

Narrator: One of those people

Is defense secretary robert mcnamara.

He thinks the f-4 is the perfect aircraft

For not just the navy, but for the air force too.

Man: The department of defense was making an effort

To try to have the navy and air force

Have the same airplane, and they wanted to do this

For commonality as a cost reducing measure.

Narrator: Mcnamara pushes the air force

To take the phantom for a test ride.

It's love at first sight.

Man: What that means for airplanes

Is that the air force is looking

For its own new high-altitude air defense aircraft

And isn't really interested in taking a navy plane.

But the f4 phantom is such a good design

That the air force says, no, in fact, we like this.

Man: The appeal of the f-4

Was that it was a very strong airplane with a lot of thrust,

And when you're a fighter pilot,

There's no such thing as too much thrust.

Narrator: The pentagon quickly finds a use

For its brash new fighting plane: Vietnam.

Man: Vietnam is the first time

That the f-4 is going to see combat,

And it's going to see combat

With the navy, marines, and air force.

Man: It was the big dog on the porch.

The f-4 was quite versatile to fill both of the roles,

Fighter and attack airplane.

Narrator: Soon, the phantom

Is the most widely used aircraft

In the united states military.

But halfway around the world,

Someone else has its eye on the phantom: Nasa.

Their plan: To put it on the edge of outer space.

1965, the f-4 phantom has been working

For american interests in vietnam for almost a year.

In the united states, nasa scientists tap it

For another mission: To give america an edge in space.

Gemini 4 is nasa's 10th manned spaceflight

And its first attempt

At both a multi-day mission and spacewalk.

Man: A 62 orbit flight of the gemini 4

Is a most important connecting link

Between our first faltering efforts in space

And an ultimate landing on the moon.

Narrator: For this launch, and every launch,

There's one moment that always has nasa on edge.

This is when the missile carrying the gemini capsule

Reaches the point of max q.

Man: Max q is the maximum stress

On the outer shell of the rocket.

Narrator: Colonel jack petry was an f-4 pilot

For the us air force and worked closely with nasa.

Man: And this maximum pressure

Occurs during the launch sequence as an aircraft

Or a missile goes through the speed of sound.

Narrator: Max q is an extremely dangerous time.

Any flaw in the missile's shell can prove catastrophic.

Nasa wants to make sure the technology holds up.

Man: They wanted to see if there was any vibration,

Any shaking or any abnormities in the skin of the missile

And determine if they need to make any changes

In the missile structure, the speed,

The angles of the launch.

Narrator: Engineers come up with an ambitious plan

To photograph the missile

As it rockets into the stratosphere.

Man: They wanted some close-up photos

To see what was happening when this missile

Went through its maximum aerodynamic pressure.

Narrator: The only question, how to do it.

Man: You just couldn't get this photography from the ground.

And so they very quickly said, we're going to use f-4s.

Narrator: F-4 pilots are up for anything,

But chasing a rocket into space is a tall order.

Man: This is an extremely complex intercept maneuver,

Because of missile altitude, missile angle,

Missile velocity, our velocity, our positions.

Narrator: June 3rd, 1965, cape kennedy, florida.

Nasa prepares to thrust the gemini 4 into space.

137 miles away, petry and a second f-4

Take off from macdill air base.

Man: We had high speed 35 millimeter cameras

Mounted under each wing of the aircraft.

The cameras worked right off the gun switch

In the front cockpit.

We synced our gun sight with the cameras

And so we knew that we're looking at the right place.

Narrator: At cape kennedy, the countdown is on.

Man: Three, two, one, ignition.

♪

Narrator: The two f-4s race towards the gemini 4.

Their timing must be perfect to make the plan work.

Man: From missile launch, t zero,

We had probably about three and a half minutes

To get ourselves in good position.

Narrator: Petry closes in on the missile,

Trying to keep his air speed precise.

Man: When we first got a real good look at it,

At about 25,000 feet, it's a big missile,

And we're closing at about 1,200 feet per second,

Or about a mile every five seconds.

We've got to control that speed really well,

So we don't get too close.

Narrator: The gemini 4 hurtles away

From the earth's atmosphere.

Petry and the other f-4 fly directly at it

From either side, at speeds over 700 miles per hour.

They must intercept the gemini below 35,000 feet,

The exact moment of max q.

♪

Man: We pull with the missile

And so we end up almost co-altitude with 35,000 feet

As the missile breaks through the sound barrier.

Narrator: Petry and his f-4 fly next to the rocket

For 90 extreme seconds.

Man: After he went supersonic,

We got into the rocket wash from his engine.

It threw our f-4, it was just, we were all over the place.

It was rocking and rolling.

It was pitching the aircraft, rolling it left and right.

Narrator: Despite the danger,

Petry isn't about to stop now.

Man: So we just kept on the missile

And I said, I'm going to stay here until we run out of film.

Narrator: The f-4 soars with the gemini to 68,000 feet.

That's twelve miles straight up.

Man: When we landed, there was a team on the ground

And they instantly downloaded that film and whisked it off.

Narrator: Nasa has its close-up.

Petry's f-4 footage plays a key role in advances

In the space program.

Man: I really didn't think too much about that.

We were part of this huge, huge step forward into space.

We were just focused on getting our airplanes

In the right place and helping out nasa.

Narrator: The gemini 4 goes on

To orbit the earth 62 times

And completes the first american spacewalk.

Man: Okay, I'm out. Man: Okay, he's out.

Narrator: Paving the way for astronauts

To eventually land on the moon.

Back on earth, petry's space chase mission shows the world

The f-4 can literally keep up with a rocket.

♪

While the phantom rides high in the united states,

It's facing another tough challenge

Halfway across the world.

♪

December 14, 1966, north vietnam.

The united states is a year and a half

Into a large-scale bombing campaign:

Operation rolling thunder.

Man: Operation rolling thunder was the overarching plan

To bomb and attack key targets in north vietnam.

Narrator: Retired rear admiral denny wisely

Was an f-4 navy pilot

Who flew 350 missions during vietnam.

Man: It was primarily to stop their logistics to the south.

We would go after storage facilities.

We bombed the power plants in hanoi,

We bombed power plants in hai phong,

Which is the two biggest cities.

Narrator: Rear admiral wisely and five other f-4s

Prepare to take off from the navy carrier uss kitty hawk.

Man: Our mission on that particular day

Was to bomb the van dien truck and storage facility

South of hanoi.

The truck and storage facility

Was roughly the size of 1/2 to two city blocks.

Each element in the strike group

Had a specific section of the area to bomb.

Narrator: The f-4s shoot off the boat

And cruise toward land.

Every mile of their 100-mile route

Is littered with north vietnam's lethal defenses.

Man: They had automatic weapons.

They had anti-aircraft guns,

And they had the sa2 guideline surface-to-air missiles,

Which was really formidable.

It was a very well-protected target.

Narrator: Guiding the sa-2s, the deadly fan song radar.

It has the range to track an aircraft up to 75 miles.

Wisely's f-4 will know when it has him in its sights.

Man: Our warning devices in the f-4 at that time

Was this apr-27 that could detect if a missile

Was actually launched and coming at us.

Narrator: The only problem: Wisely needs missiles

To take out the radar, and he's carrying bombs.

His only defense: Out fly the enemy missiles.

One misstep and he's as good as dead.

Man: The radar warning system in our airplane

Started going off, just doodle, doodle, doodle

And your heart rate's going the same way.

We knew a missile was airborne, coming at us,

But we didn't know where it was coming from

And you don't know which airplane that

Missile is locked on.

Narrator: All six phantoms

Quickly break into evasive action.

They know that their best chance for survival

Is to make the missile overshoot.

Man: We're all maneuvering for our lives.

We're banking the airplane and yanking it

And hoping the missiles miss.

When you know there's a missile in the air,

It's absolutely frightening.

Narrator: Moments later,

The enemy missile explodes mid-air.

No casualties this time.

Wisely and the other phantoms quickly recover

And resume their drive toward hanoi.

But the north vietnamese radar refuses to be defeated.

Seconds later, wisely's radar lets out another warning.

Man: They're just firing one missile after another

And they're exploding fairly close.

I was scared silly.

Narrator: Wisely still has many miles to go

Before he reaches his target.

It's too late to turn back.

And even if he did,

There's no guarantee he'd make it out alive.

Man: It was just so much stuff coming at us.

It was just surface-to-air missiles everywhere.

We maneuvered the airplanes as best we could

And just hoped for the best.

♪

Narrator: High above vietnam,

Phantom pilot rear admiral denny wisely

Picks his way through an airspace full of enemy missiles.

His goal: To bomb a north vietnamese military site.

Man: It's over 100 miles and that doesn't seem like much

But that's a long way

When you're getting shot at the whole time.

It's amazing how you can be scared silly

And so focused at the same time.

Narrator: Suddenly, hope.

Wisely and his partner see that they're close to the target.

Man: We said hot dog, we're right where we should be.

It's just like the photos we had studied

Before we came on the flight.

Narrator: Success requires intense concentration.

A false move now would erase all the work they've done

To get to this point.

Man: My backseater, he's calling off the altitudes

And the dive angles, making sure my parameters are correct

As we're approaching the release point for the bombs.

I'm just focused on that target

To get those bombs off the airplane.

Narrator: Wisely dives down to 4,000 feet,

And drops his bombs.

6,000 pounds worth of devastation

Tears into the ground below.

Man: I dropped twelve 500-pound bombs on the target.

And then it was a matter of turning back

And going right out the same way we came in at 550 knots,

Which is well over 600 miles an hour, just going like crazy.

Narrator: Two hours later,

Wisely and his partner are back on the carrier.

Man: What kept me alive that day

As far as the f-4 is concerned,

The ability of it to maneuver and the speed it can attain,

Especially carrying bombs.

It's just pretty nice to get the job done

And live and do it again.

Narrator: But as the war in vietnam rages on,

Another threat emerges.

North vietnamese fighter planes called migs.

Man: The migs were designed for close-in dog fighting.

The migs were also smaller and lighter

And much more nimble than the phantom.

Narrator: It soon becomes apparent

That the migs have the edge on the american fighter.

Man: The phantom was a very fast aircraft

But it's very slow to turn

Which means that it's very difficult to get behind a mig

For a good shot.

Narrator: No shots mean no kills.

The pentagon fears its f-4 pilots are losing the edge.

Man: The f-4 wasn't designed to be a dog fighter.

The f-4 had been designed as a high-altitude interceptor,

To shoot high altitude targets.

Man: The navy and the air force

Were expecting this long-range missile battle,

Shooting down bombers, and what they got in vietnam

Was a short-range dog fight war.

So it was a bit of a problem.

Narrator: Mcdonnell gives the f-4 a major overhaul,

Hoping to improve it for the reality of war.

Man: There were four major versions of the f-4

During the vietnam conflict.

The f4-c, which was basically the navy version

Of the airplane, which had no computing power,

Nothing automatic in it at all.

Then, the f-4d, which did have a computerized bombing system

And a computerized gun site, for air-to-air.

Then the f4-e with an internal gun

And then a modified version of the f4-e

That had a highly modified wing that gave a better control

At low air speed and high angles of attack.

Narrator: The new and improved f-4s emerge

Ready to prove themselves

Against their north vietnamese enemies, including the migs.

April 1972, udorn air force base, thailand.

A team of phantom f-4ds take off on a mig hunting mission.

Man: Our wing was selected to find and attack and kill migs.

That was our wing's motto.

Narrator: Air force captain fred olmsted was a f-4 pilot

With over 300 vietnam combat missions

Man: They were a very fast, very nimble,

Very capable adversary.

So we were very aware of that.

We were cognizant of what the mig-21 could do

If you weren't careful.

Narrator: Olmsted counts on the phantom's upgrades

To help him.

A better radar, improved sidewinder heat-seeking missiles

For short range adversaries,

And a lighter, more maneuverable frame.

Man: The upgrades did help.

It was basically an aircraft that could dog fight

And stay up with any migs the north vietnamese had

At that time.

Narrator: Olmsted and the other f-4s

Soon cross into enemy lines,

Daring the migs to come out and play.

Man: We've got all four of our radars

Pointing in the direction we feel a threat might be coming.

It was worth it to take a look

And see if there's any trouble up there,

Any migs that want to cause trouble

For other airplanes in the area.

Narrator: Olmsted's intuition is right on the money.

Two migs appear on the radar,

Ready to accept the phantom's challenge.

♪

Man: Right then and there

We knew there was going to be a dog fight.

Somebody's going to die

And it's not going to be the phantoms.

Narrator: The migs flash by, passing at just 1,500 feet.

Olmsted quickly turns his phantom to pursue and attack.

Man: As I'm turning to chase, unbeknownst to any of us,

Out comes another mig from below and behind,

Maneuvering to try to attack me and my wingman.

And his intention was to get behind me and my wingman

And kill both of us.

Narrator: Olmsted and his wingman

Prepare to confront the first two migs.

Another f-4 chases down the third.

Man: I pulled my nose up to get behind him.

The mig leader, he rolled on his back

And went straight down right in front of me and he was gone.

He was out of the fight.

Narrator: The mig knows better

Than to face off against the phantom.

But the second mig isn't as quick.

Man: The number two man was right in front of me,

Right where I wanted him.

There was no way the mig

Was going to out maneuver my phantom.

No matter what the mig did left or right,

I countered by exactly the same maneuvers.

Narrator: The mig tries to make a break for it.

But he can't out match the f-4's speed.

Man: All of the sudden the real high g maneuvering ended

And the mig sort of straightened out

And allowed me to get the gun sight right on him

And the missiles locked him right up.

Narrator: Olmsted quickly sends an aim-7 off the rails,

And it's right on target.

Moments later, another f-4 shoots the second mig down.

Man: The absolute adrenaline exhilaration

After a dog fight, being over enemy territory,

Shooting your adversary down

And none of your flight mates are threatened

And everybody comes home, it's hard to describe it to people

That have never been in a dog fight.

It's such an accomplished feeling

That all of your training just paid off.

Narrator: By the end of the war,

The f-4s shoot down 280 north vietnamese aircraft,

More adversaries than any other fighter.

Man: The f-4 that we started with in vietnam

Was nothing like the f-4 that we ended the war in vietnam.

By the end of the war in vietnam,

We did have the right aircraft.

And by then, they were doing quite well in the air war.

Narrator: Soon, the phantom's reign goes global.

The world wants the f-4 too.

Man: The phantom sees a lot of success

With international customers as well.

The germans want to build it, the japanese want to build it,

The british want to build it.

Man: The appeal of the f-4 to these nations

Was that it was a great airplane.

These nations wanted an airplane that was versatile.

They knew the f-4 had a great record

As an air superior airplane

And they knew the f-4 had a great record

As an air-to-ground airplane.

And they knew

That it was the us air force's front line fighter,

So they wanted it.

Narrator: Back in the states,

The f-4 sees a different type of action,

In the aerial acrobatics squadrons

Of the us navy's blue angels

And us air force's thunderbirds.

Man: The phantom has the distinction of having flown

With both the blue angels and the thunderbirds

At the same time.

Certainly the reasons it was such a successful aircraft

Was one of the reasons that made it a good airplane

For these demonstration squadrons.

It was big, it was loud,

It could be seen, it could be heard.