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F-4 v. F-16

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lowtimedriver

Marmott Stalker
Joined
Jan 24, 2006
Posts
4,224
Talked with a retired F-4/F-16 pilot. He said that the F-4 was better at low altitudes than the 16. Thoughts?
 
I'd take a fighter with two guys vs. one any day. At least when you get back from the mission you don't have to sit at the bar alone.
 
What does a gun have to do with anything? Plus, the F-4E had an internal nose mounted 20mm cannon. Earlier F-4s like the D had gun pods. I just don't see the correlation though.
 
Talked with a retired F-4/F-16 pilot. He said that the F-4 was better at low altitudes than the 16. Thoughts?

Haha...If there are any old timers (F-4 Drivers) on here, this could get interesting! I'm going with the Viper, but I may be a little biased... It's hard to compare, they're two totally different generations. The F-4 may be faster, but that's not really a huge factor anymore. If I'm going into combat...i'm going with the Viper any day of he week!

As far as him liking the F-4...

It is appearances, characteristics and performance that make a man love an airplane, and they, are what put emotion into one. You love a lot of things if you live around them, but there isn't any woman and there isn't any horse, nor any before nor any after, that is as lovely as a great airplane, and men who love them are faithful to them even though they leave them for others. A man has only one virginity to lose in fighters, and if it is a lovely plane he loses it to, there his heart will ever be................

- Ernest Hemingway, 'London Fights the Robots,' written for Collier's, August 1944



I'd take a fighter with two guys vs. one any day. At least when you get back from the mission you don't have to sit at the bar alone.

That's why we have a wingman! I can't stand flying the two seater, with the backseat empty....it's even worse when there is someone back there!


What does a gun have to do with anything? Plus, the F-4E had an internal nose mounted 20mm cannon. Earlier F-4s like the D had gun pods. I just don't see the correlation though.

A gun has everything to do with it. Putting a gun in the F-4E was the smartest thing they ever did to that jet. As we have seen, every fighter since then has a gun...lesson learned! Unfortunately, that lesson is written in blood.

A fighter without a gun . . . is like an airplane without a wing.

— Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF

This was in reference to the F-4! If you have no idea who Gen Olds is...google him then read his book!

One of the first things the guys wanted was a gun put in the F-4. The pod was a bandaid to get by until a gun was installed.

If you want to talk about a real mans plane, we need to be discussing the THUD!
 
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A gun has everything to do with it. Putting a gun in the F-4E was the smartest thing they ever did to that jet. As we have seen, every fighter since then has a gun...lesson learned! Unfortunately, that lesson is written in blood.

Only the AF version (A model) of the F-35 will have a gun (built in). The Navy and Marine version will have a pod.
 
Nolo Contendere

I've flown both. My first love was and always will be the F-4 (last of the real men's fighters). That being said, If I had to go to war today either down low or up high, I'd choose to go in the F-16 over the mighty Rhino any day of the week.
 

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