Future Ground running Phantom in UK?

I remember the Team that used to ground run the Phantom at Duxford ,Mark flew this Aircraft in the Falkland Islands when in service with the Raf i think,they did have a plan of flying this Aircraft at Airshows but it never came off ,i guess it would have been too expensive ,its in pretty good nick ,or it was last time i was at Duxford ,its a real shame Mark is not with us any more ,the very best Display Pilot i have ever seen ,sadly missed .

Terry

:)I would jump at the chance to help out if one was available.I worked on the 41sqn examples when on a weeks ATC annual camp at Coningsby during the mid 70’s, happy days!

I’m sure if someone were to put a package together David Walton would welcome it at brunty with open arms

I think that the IWM and MOD own the best of spey phantoms, any chance of these running again would be zero, my thoughts would have to be a privately owned example and they a few and far between for the moment

Yes the IWM bought the F-4 from the OFMC a couple of years ago as they had no further use for it and I think they had sponsorship to ground run it as you can still see team porsche titles in the paint work if you look close enough.

Also the phantom is covered under one of the disarmament treaties so should have all being scrapped lucky many were not, but the British phantom has a lot more than just engines as a lot of the electronics are British as well I did read somewhere that the FGR mk2 has only 25 to 30% commonality with the US operated F-4’s.

But I would love to see a live British phantom taxying about.

Curlyboy

Yup, hasn’t it been tranferred over to the IWM from OFMC now anyway…?

There’s a vid on youtube of Mark taking ‘his old’ F-4 for a trundle around DX… IIRC his sister was in the back seat for the ride.

What about ‘Black Mike’ at Leuchars….would that be a candidate….??

I think you are correct about the ownership of her so will definitely not move in a hurry now.

Mark Hanna used to run the Phantom there but i doubt it will be even towed out of the hangar now let alone power being hooked up to it.

Yup, hasn’t it been tranferred over to the IWM from OFMC now anyway…?

There’s a vid on youtube of Mark taking ‘his old’ F-4 for a trundle around DX… IIRC his sister was in the back seat for the ride.

What about ‘Black Mike’ at Leuchars….would that be a candidate….??

As long as Iran flies the F-4 (albeit a different engine) I think any chance of doing anything with them are remote (I’m still slightly surprised that OFMC were allowed to buy one)

Duxford would be your best bet for a runnable Phantom.

Mark Hanna used to run the Phantom there but i doubt it will be even towed out of the hangar now let alone power being hooked up to it.

Duxford would be your best bet for a runnable Phantom.

The fact that they were the backbone of the RAF for many years and RR engined makes them good candidates, I would have thought. I do not know about the politics or availability.