Help & advice required about 19 Squadron all blue Phantom

[Black Knight]

I've just started a build of a F-4 Phantom II to be done in the all blue scheme as worn by XT899 of 19 Squadron in 1991 (?)

 

My questions are about what it carried underneath

Firstly, I'm a numpty when it comes to various missiles etc carried by jets. I can recognise an AIM-9 Sidewinder type but an AIM 7 from an AIM-120 AMRAAM, uh, no

 

On to the 19 squadron Phantom.

Most photos show it with an auxiliary fuel tank (aka a 'drop' tank) under each wing. I presume these would be mounted on the outer wing hard points, as

1. some photos show it with a pylon (blue painted) on the inner side of the tank. On this pylon, some photos show what looks like the front of 1 or 2 Sidewinders, mounted side-by-side, but some photos show more of the length of these 'missiles' and they appear not to have any fins, so what might they be?

1a. is the pylon a TER with just the sides being used? 

A photo of XT899 from overhead shows it with Sidewinders on this pylon (a white one), two side-by-side, but no tanks on the outer stations. The rounds appear to be live ones. Although this pylon is white it seems to be the same type as the one painted blue

 

2. Some side on photos seem to show it having a larger auxiliary tank under the belly. Would this be correct? or am I just seeing the other wing mounted tank?

 

3. What would it have carried in the under fuselage missile recesses?

3a. If it carried missiles what type would they have been?

3b. if it carried any missiles would they have been live or inert?

 

All help and advice appreciated

[iainpeden]

I'll try to answer your queries but happy to be corrected as it's a mixture of memory and a quick trawl through far too many books!

 

You are probably aware that 92 had a blue jet too.

 

I have a launch photo of both jets (RAF Germany since 1945 by Bill Taylor) together. They each carry the outer wing tanks (370 gallons I think). They are both carrying the inner wing pylons with the twin Sidewinder launch rails and appear to have a live Sidewinder on the outer launch rail under both wings. (it's not a TER). The 92 a/c also appears to have the gunpod under the centreline but I can't make out if the 19 a/c has the same. It looks like they have live Sparrows in the front missile wells as I can make out fins on the missiles.

 

I have a photo of the 19 a/c with inner wing pylons with bare Sidewinder launch rails and no outer tanks - can't see the centreline.

 

The inner pylons and launch rails are painted blue.

 

They tended to carry blue painted ballast sparrows (no fins) in the front missile wells.

 

I can't remember ever seeing a photo with them carrying the centre line fuel tank (600 gallons I think) - but that doesn't mean they didn't.

 

Hope that starts a conversation.

 

[Phone Phixer]

Missiles carried at the time were AIM-9L Sidewinders on the Lau 7a launchers (wing pylon) and Skyflash in the fuselage recesses.

The Lau-7a launchers were bolted to the sides of the inboard pylons, down at the lowest point. The RAF didn't use TER's as such, but modified versions called CBTE's (carrier bomb triple ejector) to take into account of the larger diameter of British 1,000lb bombs. These were only for the Phantoms ground attack role, not for air defence.

 

As Ian says, in normal use "ballast sparrow" rounds were carried in the forward missile wells for C of G purposes. They were just shaped as sparrow missiles without the wings and fins, and painted oxford blue.

 

The Sidewinders without wings and fins are acquisition rounds. The missile seeker head on a tube body, (some painted deep saxe blue, others a very light grey), so the pilot would be able to lock on to targets and get the "growl" tone in his headset.

 

If there are photo's of more than 1 Sidewinder on the same pylon they are either acquisition or drill examples.

The only time I know of live missiles being carried were for the final "Battle Flight" period before both Squadrons were disbanded. Both the blue jets were loaded for that time and carried out a ceremonial final battle flight scramble prior to being stood down.

Explosive regulations were tightened up in 1989, there was a German farmhouse too close to the battle flight HAS's to have the full load of 4 x Sidewinders, so only 1 was loaded on each outboard lau on the inner pylons.

The standard battle flight (QRA) load then was Sergeant Fletcher fuel tanks on the wing outboards, 1 Sidewinder on each inboard pylon, 4 x Skyflash on the fuselage stations and the SUU-23a gun pod on the centreline.

 

Hope this helps.

Rob (ex 19(F) sqn armourer).

[Black Knight]

Thanks very much chaps