50 years of the F-4 Phantom in Turkish AF service

[aeropilot]

Turkish Airforce recently celebrated operating the mighty F-4 Phantom for 50 years, in some style, with an 'elephant walk' and pre-staging a pair of aircraft for lots of runs through the Turkish equivalent of the 'Mach Loop'.

Enjoy....

[Tony1963]

They’re celebrating 40 years with an airframe we moved on from 32 years ago!

[Geoff-70zwf]

What a beautiful piece of aviation history. Up there with the BAE Lightening and Harrier as the greatest planes. Amazing that it's still in service.
Yep, completely outclassed by the current machinery and if I was Turkish I’d be worried, but that’s not the point.

[aeropilot]

Tony1963 said:

They’re celebrating 40 years with an airframe we moved on from 32 years ago!

The USAF only stopped flying them 8 years ago in a 2nd line role......and they were flying the RF-4G Wild Weasel's in combat missions in the Gulf War in '91 when we were announcing the retirement of it..!

[Marshall878]

Awesome video, loving the livery on some of them!

[Tony1963]

Geoff-70zwf said:

What a beautiful piece of aviation history. Up there with the BAE Lightening and Harrier as the greatest planes. .

BAe

Lightning

[aeropilot]

Tony1963 said:

Geoff-70zwf said:

What a beautiful piece of aviation history. Up there with the BAE Lightening and Harrier as the greatest planes. .

BAe

Lightning

To be really pedantic it was never a BAe Lightning, it was a BAC Lightning, although the pre-production aircraft and first handful of production F1 were EE.

[Simpo Two]

Geoff-70zwf said:

Yep, completely outclassed by the current machinery and if I was Turkish I’d be worried, but that’s not the point.

It's over-qualified - you can bomb Kurds with a Vickers Vimy...!

[808 Estate]

Superb aircraft. I wonder if we could get 10 fighters in the air at the same time?

[Southerner]

aeropilot said:

Tony1963 said:

They’re celebrating 40 years with an airframe we moved on from 32 years ago!

The USAF only stopped flying them 8 years ago in a 2nd line role......and they were flying the RF-4G Wild Weasel's in combat missions in the Gulf War in '91 when we were announcing the retirement of it..!

Yeah but they’ve got Tom Cruise…

[Tony1963]

808 Estate said:

Superb aircraft. I wonder if we could get 10 fighters in the air at the same time?

Yes

Apaches? No.

[zorba_the_greek]

Love the F4.

I think Greece v.recently retired their F4's i believe after a very long service. Every summer would watch them fly over the Islands. You could spot them easily with the smoke trail.

Sadly several had been lost over the years. Latest was in 2023 on very low level flying exercises. Both pilots died.

Greece now waiting on x18 F-35's