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.BuNo 151008soldiered on until a November1978 flying accident (whilstserving with VF-171) ended its76career.(US Navy) By the time the conflict in Vietnam finallycame to end in 1975, the US Navy was alreadybeginning to deploy the Phantom II s successor,the Grumman F-14A Tomcat.It had beenconceived in 1969 when the F-4 s MiG-killingrecord was a less impressive one-to-one incombat with MiG-21s.By the mid-1970sthe Phantom II was already approachingobsolescence after 15 years of fleet service.Thefirst two Tomcat units flew CAP missions forthe evacuation of Saigon in April 1975.TheF-14A combined longer-ranging Phoenixmissiles and a far more sophisticated fire-control radar for fleet defence within a larger airframe, but one which was more MiG-21s took over the bulkof the VPAF s fighter dutiesmanoeuvrable than the F-4 due largely to its variable sweep wing.It preserved thetowards the end of the war,proven two-seat crew arrangement, and added an integral 20mm cannon to its arsenal.and they remain in service inDespite the arrival of the Tomcat, surviving Phantom IIs continued to serve in the2009.The type s performancefrontline for some years to come until VF-161 made the last F-4 carrier launch onadvantage over the earlierMiGs, and many F-4s, wasMarch 25, 1986 from Midway.That aircraft was an F-4S, one of around 265 that werehighlighted by Capt Johnre-manufactured F-4Js with a slatted wing for better low-speed handling and combatNash, who flew both MiG-21smanoeuvring, updated avionics and smokeless J79-GE-10 engines.They wereand Phantom IIs. On my firstpreceded by 228 F-4Ns (refurbished F-4Bs), and both types continued to fly withMiG-21 flight I was chased byUS Naval Reserve squadrons until the mid-1980s.a USAF RF-4C.We levelled offat 40,000ft and both lit theIn the VPAF, the MiG-17 s frontline service was also extended into the 1980s, albeitburners and unloaded.By theas a ground-attack type.Fighter duties had passed to the MiG-21 by 1973, and increasingtime I hit Mach 2 the RF-4Cnumbers of these supersonic fighters relegated the MiG-17 to the training role.was five miles behind me atThe success of this small, simple aircraft was certainly in the minds of WesternMach 1.45 .This line-up of921st FR MiG-21MFs alsodesigners as they pursued different aims from those who produced the large, costlyincludes a MiG-21UM trainer.F-14 and F-15 fighters.Lightweight, agile designs that led to the Northrop F-20A,(via Peter Mersky)General Dynamics F-16 and, eventually, the McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 all benefitedfrom the experiences of those who fought MiGs over North Vietnam.All of these aircraft were originally conceived as dogfighters, and they added bettercockpit visibility, fly-by-wire controls (overcoming the F-4 s tendency to depart fromcontrolled flight in high angle-of-attack manoeuvres) and cockpits that minimisedthe pilot s work-load, while letting him keep his eyes on the sky instead of hunting forswitches and dials.Thanks to the development of more powerful turbofan engines, allof them boasted a power-to-weight ratio that made the MiG-17 seem sluggish.The Fresco s ease of maintenance was also an influence on later fighters.Groundcrew who had been used to delving in the dark, inaccessible innards of an F-4to fix elusive faults could now merely pull out a self-tested faulty module and replace it.The MiG-19 s VPAF combat career was over by the autumn of 1972, but a deliveryof 24 jets in 1974 enabled a new composite Air Division, the 370th, to be formed thefollowing year.This organisation included the 925th FR, which continued to serve as77a training unit until 1980. FURTHER READINGBOOKSBelyakov, R.A.and Marmain, J., MiG 50 Years of Secret Aircraft Design(Naval Institute Press, 1994)Bugos, G.E., Engineering the F-4 Phantom II (Naval Institute Press, 1996)Butowski, P.and Miller, J., OKB MiG (Specialty Press, 1991)Clodfelter, M., The Limits of Air Power (The Free Press 1989)Cunningham, R.and Ethel, J., Fox Two (Champlin Fighter Museum, 1984)Davies, P.E., Gray Ghosts, US Navy and Marine Corps F-4 Phantom IIs(Schiffer, 2000)Drendel, L., & And Kill MiGs (3rd edition) (Squadron/Signal 1997)Drendel, L., US Navy Phantom IIs in Combat (Squadron/Signal 1988)Elward, B.and Davies P.E., Osprey Combat Aircraft 26 US Navy F-4 Phantom IIMiG Killers 1965 70 (Osprey 2001)Elward, B.and Davies P.E., Osprey Combat Aircraft 30 US Navy F-4 Phantom IIMiG Killers 1972 73 (Osprey 2002)Ethell, J.and Price, A., One Day in a Long War (Greenhill Books, 1989)Francillon, R.J., Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club (Conway, 1988)Friedman, N., Carrier Air Power (Conway Maritime Press, 1981)Gordon, Y., Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (Aerofax, 2002)Gordon, Y., Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (Aerofax, 2003)Gordon, Y.and Dexter, K., Mikoyan MiG-21 (Midland Publishing, 2008)Grant, Z., Over the Beach The Air War in Vietnam (W.W.Norton, 1986)Gunston, B., Fighters of the Fifties (Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1981)78Hobson, C., Vietnam Air Losses (Midland Publishing, 2001) Lake, J.(Ed.), McDonnell F-4 Phantom II, Spirit in the Skies (Aerospace 1992)Lawson, R.L (Ed.), The History of US Naval Air Power (Temple Press, 1985)Levinson, J.L., Alpha Strike Vietnam (Presidio, 1989)Long, A., Tail-End Charlie (1st Books Library, 2000)Martin, P., Hook Code (Martin, 1991)McNamara, R.S., In Retrospect (Times Books, 1995)Mersky, P., Osprey Combat Aircraft 7 F-8 Crusader Units of the Vietnam War(Osprey, 1998)Mersky, P.B., and Polmar, N., The Naval Air War in Vietnam (Nautical andAviation Publishing, 1981)Michel, M.L., Clashes (Naval Institute Press 1997)Nichols, J.B., and Tillman, B., On Yankee Station (Naval Institute Press, 1987)O Connor, M., MiG Killers of Yankee Station (New Past Press Inc., 2003)Osinski A., MiG-17F/Lim-5 (Topshots, Lublin 2005)Peake, W.R
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