Spangdahlem 1980's F-4E Weapons Load

[lksavidge]

4 hours ago, Murph said:

It was attached directly to the internal release unit, no external pylon.  Special weapons were also carried on the inboard wing pylons, but the centerline station was the preferred one for various reasons.  The assumption behind Victor Alert was that it would have been preceded by a week or two of conventional combat, so air to air missile stocks would have been severely depleted or used up entirely by that time.  Additionally the missions were almost certainly one way, either due to fuel starvation or from being fratted by a "friendly" nuclear detonation, so the powers that be were reluctant to mount air to air missiles on the Victor Alert aircraft and basically throw them away.

 

Regards,

Murph

 

 

Makes great sense. No pylon it is. Thanks Murph.

 

Larry

[lksavidge]

Greetings everyone!

 

It's taken me a couple of years to get this project off the ground. Plus some assistance from Meng who has released a much better 1/48 version of the F-4E instead of the aging but reliable Hasegawa version. So my plan is to still load this bird with a single B-61 "silver bullet"  attached to the centerline. Just one new question; since no other A2A weapons were mounted, were the wing weapons pylons still mounted or were they removed while sitting ready on Victor Alert? I know the wing fuel tanks were still fully utilized. Any assistance from the old-timers would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Larry

[e8n2]

4 hours ago, lksavidge said:

Greetings everyone!

 

It's taken me a couple of years to get this project off the ground. Plus some assistance from Meng who has released a much better 1/48 version of the F-4E instead of the aging but reliable Hasegawa version. So my plan is to still load this bird with a single B-61 "silver bullet"  attached to the centerline. Just one new question; since no other A2A weapons were mounted, were the wing weapons pylons still mounted or were they removed while sitting ready on Victor Alert? I know the wing fuel tanks were still fully utilized. Any assistance from the old-timers would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Larry

Our Victor alert birds had a bit further to go than the ones at Spang, but even with no air-to-air missiles, they still had the inboard pylons attached.  The extra weight wouldn't have been that much and if they took them off and on each time they went on or off alert, it would take longer to get them alert ready or back to normal training flight status.  Up and down loading the special weapon took long enough as it was to begin with (especially F-4D 65-0736 that real dog of an aircraft always breaking when on alert).

Later,

Dave

[Finn]

Here is a video showing a F-4 with a B61 on the c/l, the caption says it's a C but i think it's a D as it has the AIM-4 launcher on the side of the i/b pylon. Also the video is reversed but still nice and it has a check outs of a B61 and B57:

 

 

Jari

 

[lksavidge]

Thank you both. Great video!

 

Larry