ORIGINAL: mesae
That's way cool. Was he the guy who decided to try the Coke bottle shape to alleviate the standing wave drag on the fuselage?
LOL! Nope.
He WAS the guy who developed the variable geometry inlets for it though (the modification that, eventually, sold the Air Force on the plane, and was later incorporated into the Eagle)
That was a FAST airplane. Even some modern fighters have trouble keeping up with it flat out in a straight line. I used to love the disticntive howl those engines made when I and they were still at Hickam AFB.
Yeah...I used to confuse friends in my early days in the military...we'd be out somewhere on some exercise or something, and I'd say "Hey...here come some Phantoms", and sure enough....zip, there went a couple. They'd always ask how in the **** I could have known that before seeing them...I'd tell them "Nothing in the world sounds like an F-4 Phantom." it was true then, and is STILL true.