5 ms·

Yeah. The F-4 was fine for the Navy and Air Force, but the VTOL was a step too far.

• mgarfias 6y ago
  No, the f4 could do the job, but it wasn’t fine.
  • protomyth 6y ago
    Making more than 5,000 was probably good indicator of its value.
    • mgarfias 6y ago
      Read what Boyd had to say about it. It was of value to MD and GE, but a good fighter it wasn't. Nor was it a good bomb truck. It kinda did both, but not well. The DoD of course, followed it on with the F-111 (thanks McNamara!) that tried to do everything, but the only effective thing it really did was to cause the Soviets to build the MIG-23 and waste a bunch of cash on that.
    • ch_123 6y ago
      A lot of politics go into deciding what gets adopted, which leads to some very questionable aircraft getting adopted in large numbers. The F-104 was effectively forced onto a lot of European countries (particularly Germany) and mostly succeeded in killing lots of pilots.
      • GekkePrutser 6y ago
        Indeed, they called it the lawn dart :D It was used in the netherlands too. I don't know why they even wanted an interceptor. I suppose the soviets were still a thing. But a handful of F-104s wouldn't have stopped them. In the Netherlands there was also a huge corruption scandal involving the queen's husband who was paid to lobby on Lockheed's behalf.