[simpits-tech] Once again...

[Justin Messenger]

Once we can use the FTP again I have a video of the Point Mugu F-4 crash.
Justin
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"Los Angeles Times": 
VENTURA COUNTY
Navy Workhorse Is Stabled
The F-4 Phantom II aircraft, a key component of the U.S. military 
arsenal for decades, is about to be mothballed. 
By Steve Chawkins, Times Staff Writer

They served as state-of-the-art fighter jets in Vietnam, as reliable 
workhorses in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and, finally, as target 
planes over the ocean missile range at Point Mugu. Shortly, they'll 
serve as museum pieces and additional scrap for the fleet of 
mothballed American warplanes baking in the sun at an Arizona 
airbase. 
In its day, the F-4 Phantom II was notable for flying at more than 
twice the speed of sound and as high as 98,000 feet. But the plane, 
which last made news in a horrific crash at the 2002 Point Mugu Air 
Show, is about to be formally divested by the Navy, officials said. 
While the maintenance program for the aging aircraft at Point Mugu 
was beset with problems, an exhaustive Navy study concluded that 
human error caused the 2002 crash of a QF-4, so named because the "Q" 
denotes a target plane. However, the deaths of the plane's pilot and 
navigator before a stunned crowd of thousands had nothing to do with 
the Navy's decision to scrap its 20 remaining F-4s, said Doris G. 
Lance, a Navy spokeswoman.
"The planes are 35 years old and weapons systems have gotten a lot 
more sophisticated," Lance said. "They were put on the divestiture 
list several years ago."
No date has been set for the final flight of a Navy F-4, but the last 
of them could be bound for a military museum or the mothball fleet at 
David-Monthan Air Force Base outside Tucson within a year, Lance said.
When they go, efforts will be made to retrain about 28 civilian 
employees who now work on them.
The F-4 was a piece of machinery that many veterans came to view with 
a certain amount of affection. 
Manufactured from 1959 to 1978, it was derided as "a brick with two 
engines" for its short, squat appearance — but what it lacked in 
looks it made up for in responsiveness.
"It was a very honest airplane," said Chuck DeBellevue, a former Air 
Force navigator and pilot who flew 220 combat missions in F-4s over 
Vietnam. "If you listened to what it could tell you, you could make 
it do whatever you wanted it to do. If not, it was pretty deadly." 
DeBellevue now works for Del-Jen Services Group, a company based in 
Rolling Hills Estates that contracts for various management functions 
on military bases. In Vietnam, he was a top ace, participating in the 
downing of at least five enemy aircraft. He said the F-4 was a key to 
his record.
"Some planes would take a hit and catastrophically fail," he 
said. "This one would just burn, so if you could stay with it until 
it was out of the target area, you could be OK. I was very 
comfortable in it; I knew it would get me home."
That kind of durability — the F-4 also was nicknamed "the rhino" — 
helped extend its career beyond the point when it was replaced by 
even faster, more nimble aircraft. For years, it has been used as a 
target during weapons tests by both the Navy and the Air Force.
At Point Mugu, the planes are flown both as manned vehicles and 
as "drones" — unmanned jets electronically guided through aerial 
contortions by Navy technicians on San Nicolas Island, 60 miles off 
the coast. Missiles are aimed toward the elusive planes but generally 
are not meant to hit them, Lance said. Instead, if they come within a 
certain distance, the test is considered successful, she said.
The aircraft also are used as chase planes to shoot down missiles 
that veer too far off course, she said. After they're removed, they 
will probably be replaced by newer F-14s.
The planes still are actively used by the armed forces of Egypt, 
Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Turkey. 
In the U.S., veterans get together for F-4 Phantom conventions and 
flock to air shows for another glimpse of one aloft. 
"There's a very special feeling to it," said Bob Collings, whose 
Massachusetts-based Collings Foundation has the only civilian-owned F-
4 in the United States. 
 


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