A look at what made the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II so special.

“The first time here, you see flak bursting around your aircraft and uh not like that you’re gonna think, this is for real.” Navy Captain John Ensch’s words, spoken across the jungles of Vietnam, ...

Developed for the US Navy in the late 1950s, the Phantom platform would become one of the most prolific American-made aircraft ever produced. The Cold War-era F-4 “Phantom” platform may be rapidly ...

“The Phantom still can carry a punch as a bomber,” noted Business Insider in 2014, referencing an aircraft that took to the skies for the first time in 1958. But in 2025, the McDonnell Douglas F-4 ...