Retired F4 phantom question..

[peter]

Now that the final F4 has been completed for the drone program, what fate will there be for the hundreds of other F4's in storage??

[mike furline]

[kmiles]

The number of F-4's at AMARC has dropped from around 1200 in the late 90's down to less than 300 now, so they have not been waiting for the end of the drone program to start the recycle process. There were certain airframes that were set aside to be converted to QF-4's, but they have been chopping the rest of them up for years.

[The Inspector]

[peter]

Well now the drone program is over and most countries have stopped flying them, there should be more making it into preservation..

[kmiles]

Well now the drone program is over and most countries have stopped flying them, there should be more making it into preservation..

Most of the museums that would want an F-4 for static display probably already have one. The number of airframes that were suitable to be converted to QF-4 was pretty small compared to the almost 5000 that were built. There have been available airframes for static display available for a long time, so getting one for static display would not have been difficult if the museum was willing to go through the effort.

What I would like to see is any remaining airframe at AMARC that could be returned to flight status, be made available to museums for the opportunity to be restored to flying status. I know the Air Force/DoD would never do that, but I would like to see more than one civilian operated F-4.

[The Inspector]

Seattles MoF requested years ago an Oregon Air Guard F-4 when it was phased out because it was a known mig killer, it sits in the Great Gallery in full SEA paint.