 F-4 Phantom II Mascot  Air Show Phantom
The McDonnell Aircraft Company's (later named McDonnell-Douglas Corporation) F-4 Phantom II is a supersonic, all-weather, tactical aircraft, which may be utilized as a fighter, bomber, or interceptor. It has the capability of delivering a combination of missiles, bombs and/or rockets. The aircraft saw action with the US Navy, USMC and later by the USAF from 1961 until its retirement in 1995. Currently the US Military is using the F-4 in a training role as a drone. However, it is still in use today in over eight different countries around the world.
Strangely enough, it wasn't the F-4's service in the US Military that allowed me to get hands on training. Instead, it was while I was in Korea as a member of Transient Alert. It was our responsibility to perform Combat Cross Servicing (CSS) on our host nation's aircraft as part of our wartime training requirement. This included recovering, inspecting, servicing and launching the aircraft to allow it to continue with its combat operations.
During that time, I created the contents of this page as a training guide to stay familiar with the procedures we were required to accomplish. While it doesn't go into complete detail, it should be enough to give you an idea of what it is like to work on the F-4 Phantom II.
F-4 Phantom II Ejection Seat Safety
Working in or around the F-4's Martin Baker ejection seat has to be one of the most intimidating parts of doing maintenance on this aircraft. After all, with a reputation of being called "Martin Baker-Widow Maker", countless stories of the seat inadvertently firing and the shear number of safety pins (8) required to safe the seat, is more than enough to make anyone a little hesitant about performing maintenance on it. However, as part of our F-4 CSS training, we were required to accomplish this task in a proficient and timely manner.
Now as I stated earlier there are eight (8) safety pins, that need to be installed (in order) prior to the seat being considered safe for maintenance. Below is a complete listing of the pins and the gallery on the left will show you their location.
- Face Curtain
- Seat Mounted Initiator
- Rocket Motor Initiator
- Drogue Gun Bulkhead Mounted Initiator
- Cockpit Mounted Initiator
- Guillotine Firing Mechanism
- Lower Ejection Handle Guard
- Emergency Oxygen Cylinder
|
 View Safety Pins
|
 Landing Gear Safety  F-4 Tailhook Installation  External Power
 AuxAir Door  F-4 Drag Chute  Flight Controls
|
