And who said the F-4 Phantom is obsolete?

[dryheat]

https://aviastar.org/index2.html

Lockheed made lots of planes we know but it looks like everything Northrup made was an experiment.
We had an A-7 park at our hanger. While I was on night guard duty I climbed inside the intake and crawled all the way to the back just for fun.

[Art]

There is a difference between "obsolete" and "obsolescent." Obsolescent (meaning more modern and efficient stuff is available) equipment can still be quite useful. For example MiG 17 and 19 aircraft, both clearly obsolescent in the 1960s gave us a good bit of trouble in the Viet Nam war. As late as the Gulf War Phantoms, while not used by us much in their original role did good service for us in the "Wild Weasel" electronic warfare mode.

The Phantom remained in US frontline service from 1961 to 1996, that's 35 years, an almost unequalled record for a fighter aircraft. The Japanese just retired their Phantoms in 2021!! A remarkable record and one of histories great aircraft.