1/48 Hasegawa F-4E Phantom II

IAF 30th Anniversary

by Naor Avitbul

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This model is based on the Hasegawa kit F-4E Phantom II in a 30th anniversary paint scheme.  The model made almost out of the box.

 

The decals are from Sky decals.  The Kurnas 2000 is an improvement of  Kurnas.

The kurnas plane is came to Israel in 1969.

A multi-task fighter that entered service in Heyl Ha'avir in 1969, and makes an important contribution to its power to this day. The plane participated in the Yom Kippur War and is credited with more than 100 kills.

The Phantom was developed by McDonnell Douglas - now Boeing - as an aircraft-carrier based multi-task plane. The prototype took off on May 27th 1958 and received good reviews from the Navy, which ordered 45 planes.  In 1961 it became the standard fighter and photo-recon plane in the Tactical Air Command.  It was thus that a long history of production began - a history that would encompass 23 years and 5,000 planes in 15 different models.

The Phantom is powered by twin General Electric J79 engines, mounted side by side along the length of the fuselage. Of the engine's sub-models, the most important is the J79-GE-17. Each engine delivers a thrust of 5,385 kg. without using its afterburners, and 8,210 kg. of thrust with the afterburners.

McDonnell Douglas and the Israeli Aircraft Industries had both considered replacing the J79's with Pratt & Whitney PW1120. The IAI experimentally installed the new engines in a Phantom, and its performance was markedly enhanced, in terms of cruise speed and range.

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The Phantom is a two seater, with the navigator/WSO sitting behind the pilot.  In case of an emergency, the WSO can fly the plane from his seat.  The plane has tremendous and varied attack capabilities, from ground targets - for which it uses bombs and air-to-surface missiles at a total weight of 7,257 kg. - to threats from the air, which it deals with by employing Sparrow, Sidewinder, or Python, missiles.  In addition, the Phantom has a six-barrelled 20 mm. cannon with 640 rounds.  On September 5th 1969 the first quartet of Phantoms landed on Israeli soil, and the 'Ahat' ('One') Squadron was founded.  A few weeks later, additional planes equipped the 'Patishim' ('Hammers') Squadron.  Heyl Ha'avir now possessed the world's no. 1 fighter.  The Phantom was faster than the Mirage, carried almost 6 times more armament, was equipped with advanced radar and a wide range of air-to-air missiles, and its range was almost double that of its French counterpart.

The Yom Kippur War was the war of the Phantom. The planes attacked tanks, SAM's and bunkers, shot down hostile planes, and carried out scores of reconnaissance and photography missions over Egypt and Syria, as well as air-to-surface missions like attacking airbases, Egyptian pontoon bridges on the Suez Canal and Egyptian front line forces.

In Operation 'Dugman 5' the Phantom array suffered heavy losses: six planes were shot down while attacking Syrian SAM's.

During the war, Phantoms carried out 500 depth attacks in Egypt and Syria. The most famous of these was the strike against the Syrian General Staff.  On October 9th 1973, two Phantom quartets attacked the General Staff Headquarters in the heart of Damascus.  The attack was a success, but had a heavy price tag: two planes were hit and one pilot killed. Another plane was damaged by AA fire but managed to make it back to base. The sortie's leader, Col. (Res.) Arnon Levoshin, was later awarded the Citation of Excellence for the successful attack. The IAF received additional Phantoms during the war, as part of the airlift from the US. The planes were quickly fitted for service in the IAF, and some of them even managed to take part in sorties before the war ended. The Phantom Squadron lost many of its planes during the war, and a significant proportion of crew members were either killed or taken prisoner by Egypt, Syria or Lebanon.

Naor

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Photos and text © by Naor Avitbul