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More F-4 Phantom questions ?


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Hello everyone... Im building an F-4D and i know the early ones had the towel bar antenna on the spine of the aircraft. My question is how long were those towel bar type antenna's in service ? And were they replaced by this antenna  ? 

539Tvk0.jpg

Or were these used on a different variant of the Phantom all together ? Any help as always is very gratefully acknowledged. 

 

Dennis

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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The "towel rail" antenna is for the ARN-92 LORAN system, applied to a select number of F-4Ds, referred to as the "Pave Phantom" mod. Per Joe Baugher's Phantom site:

 

"A total of 72 aircraft from blocks 32 and 33 were so equipped. In Vietnam, the primary mission of these Pave Phantom F-4Ds was the seeding of the Ho Chi Minh trail with sensors, which required the precise nighttime navigational capability provided by LORAN. The primary operators of the "towel-rail" F-4Ds were the 25th and 497th TFS of the 8th TFW and the 555th TFS of the 432nd TFW. Subsequently, these planes were passed along to the 457th TFS of the 301st TFW, the 23rd TFS of the 52nd TFW, and the 704th TFS of the 924th TFG."

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f4_10.html

 

The elongated hexagonal antenna in yiur photo is for the later ARN-101 Nav/Attack system, as fitted to some 180 F-4Es starting in 1977.

http://joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f4_11.html

 

There were also RF-4Cs fitted with the same systems and antennae concurrent with the respective upgrades.

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Dennis,

 

According to the McDonnell F-4 website, 72 F-4D's were converted to Pave Phantoms; an AN/ARN-92 Loran D unit was fitted, which required a towel rail antenna to be mounted on the spine behind the cockpit. Primary function was to seed the Ho Chi Minh Trail with sensors, and this required the much more precise navigation capability of the Loran unit. The 25th and 497th squadrons of the 8th TFW and the 555th squadron of the 432nd TFW were the units that used it. Later on these F-4D's were passed on to the 457th squadron  of the 301st TFW, the 23rd squadron of the 452nd TFW, and the  704th squadron of the 924th TFG. Hope this helps!

Mike 

 

Whoops- CT7567 got his post in as I was typing mine- either we're both pretty good, or we're both wrong! (But at least we're both fast!) Here's a photo of one in the link below,

 

http://www.8tfw.org/images/66-8745.jpg

Edited by 72modeler
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8 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Thanks to @CT7567 and @72modeler. Its good to know so i don't need to scratch build the hexagonal spine antenna. Since those are used on F-4E's. 

 

AN/ARN-101 (or "Arnie")  was fitted to F-4G's and RF-4C's as well.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre 

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50 minutes ago, Hook said:

 

AN/ARN-101 (or "Arnie")  was fitted to F-4G's and RF-4C's as well.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre 

 

As often as that is stated I can't recall ever seeing a photo of an F-4G Wild Weasel fitted with the AN/ARN-101 system.

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3 hours ago, whiskey said:

 

As often as that is stated I can't recall ever seeing a photo of an F-4G Wild Weasel fitted with the AN/ARN-101 system.

The G didn't have the whole of the ARN-101 kit installed, hence the lack of the 'dog house' antenna seen on the spine of the E and RF-4C and not all G's received the upgrade either, I have a list of all the G's that did receive the upgrade.

 

-Daz

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Yes it is Mike ironically photographed at a U.K. air show of all places. someday it will get built im currently doing two phantoms this one is a C**n*ss Militia Bird from Louisiana's 122nd TFS. I figured since the scheme I'm doing is from the March of 83 Red-Flag why not add a Maverick to it. The other is an F-4EJ out of Komatsu in 82. 

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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Don't forget the offset UHF antenna (à la F-4G, and visible in that pic of the IL ANG F-4D). It was added as the ITT AN/ARN-92 LORAN antennae were originally located in the F-4D's fincap. The offset UHF antenna came first, then the Towel rail to improve signal reception.

 

Tony 

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Now you know why I stick to airplanes with big fans in front and not weenie cookers- I don't see how you guys keep track of all that stuff...a lot more complicated than B-24 turret and window variations, if you ask me! 😜

Mike

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So digging around i found photo's of both Luftwaffe F-4F's and USAF aircraft from the early 80's using the LAU-117's with AGM-65's. I know the LAU-88's were in use at the time, so i can go either route. And thanks @Finn i was going to paint it up as a training round to match the training winder's and sparrows. Many thanks to all that helped. Mike id rather not deal with the "Consolidated" mess truthfully. 

 

Dennis

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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6 hours ago, 72modeler said:

Now you know why I stick to airplanes with big fans in front and not weenie cookers- I don't see how you guys keep track of all that stuff...

 

And another good excuse to build models "clean"!  (My primary excuse, though, is sheer laziness.)

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4 hours ago, gingerbob said:

And another good excuse to build models "clean"!

GB- true, true! My biggest obstacle, in addition to finding decent-looking stores to hang under my models, is painting the yellow rings and making 1/72 fuses in the nose and tail of U.S. things that go 'boom!' I think I have tried every trick in the book I have read or came up with to do them cleanly and evenly, and they never seem to work! Intention here is NOT to spark a topic discussion on how to paint external ordnance, as I have saved Selwyn's posts for RAF stores and I have an OOP issue of Replica in Scale that had diagrams, photos, and scale drawings of US bombs/depth bombs in  three scales. Some airplanes, however, just don't look right  clean, like an SBD or an F-105. 

Mike

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