F-4 Phantom
Boeing

The F-4. Phantom is a tandem-seat fighter-bomber designed as a carrier-based interceptor to fill the U.S. Navy’s fleet defense fighter role. Innovations in the F-4 included an advanced pulse-Doppler radar and extensive use of titanium in its airframe.

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The baseline performance of a Mach 2-class fighter with long range and a bomber-sized payload would be the template for the next generation of large and light/middle-weight fighters optimized for daylight air combat. Phantom production ran from 1958 to 1981, with a total of 5,195 built, making it the most prolific American supersonic military aircraft. The F-4 continued to form a major part of U.S. military air power throughout the 1970s and 1980s, being gradually replaced by more modern aircraft such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 in the U.S. Air Force, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat in the U.S. Navy, and the F/A-18 Hornet in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.