Some time ago I read an article about a McDD Phantom that had an extremely long focal length camera fitted under the designation F4X. As I recall the installation required the Radar to be removed and part of the camera impinged on the cockpit. Can anyone enlighten me on the subject, How many were built, and who was the customer
By: Arabella-Cox - 31st March 2025 at 10:45
According to my information the F4X (also called RF-4X and F-4E (S)) was built for Israel but it was limited to 1 prototype built from F4E 69-7576 that flew but 3 were allocated from Israeli stocks, the problem was that the HIAC-1 camera was initially restricted technology and when the US goverment let them use it it was found to be too heavy and the aircraft had to have additional stiffening and reinforcement and also required a water injection system on the engines to get it all off the ground.
The camera was then tried in a pod attached to a RF-4C but was again so heavy it limited the aircrafts flight performance so both were a bit of a bust.
The aircraft were returned to Israel and rumour has it that the aircraft could have theoretically made mach 3+ due to the water injection system and the lack of weight (except in the nose) but no one knows if it did (or could) or what happened to the aircraft when they went back to Israel.
curlyboy
By: roberto_yeager - 31st March 2025 at 10:42
Read those post:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1394.0/highlight,f-4x.html
1Saludo
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February 21, 2010 at 5:24 pm