Tamiya Modellbausatz Tamiya 1:32 F-4J PHANTOM II MARINES

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About the McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II Marines

When test pilot Robert C. Little prepared to take off in the YF4H-1 prototype on May 27, 1958, few onlookers could have guessed at the success story yet to unfold. Over thirty years from that faithful day, the successors of that prototype, the Phantom series of aircraft, would be protecting the skies over the free world and see adoption by eleven nations including the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines. The Phantom II was developed by McDonnell Douglas and first pitted against Vought's F8U-3 Crusader III to see which aircraft would be the Navy's next main carrier-borne fighter. In 1959, the selection was made in favor of the robust Phantom II. The early production model, the F4H-1F, underwent various tests and training exercises, eventually leading to the F4H-1 model, which was deployed to several Navy and Marine divisions. In 1962, in efforts to unify the names of Navy and Air Force aircraft, the F4H-1F and F4H-1 became designated the F-4A and F-4B respectively.

Just after its adoption by the Navy, the Phantom II showed the world what it was made of, breaking record after record, including top-speed, altitude, and time-to-climb. To top off these results, the U.S. Navy ran Project LANA, a transcontinental speed race. The roman L stood for the number 50, for "50th Anniversary of Naval Aviation". The contest was to demonstrate the Phantom's shocking speed and reach. Based on this impressive track record, and on comparative tests against Air Force fighters at the time, it was decided that the next main fighter of the Air Force would also be the Navy's Phantom II. The F-4B version was specially tailored to the needs of the Air Force, and became designated the F-4C. Further improvements to that aircraft resulted in the F-4D model.

The Navy continued to make improvements to the Phantom II. Mounting the F-4B with an automatic carrier landing system, yet another variant, the F-4G