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WEB ADDRESSES
For more information on the museums mentioned in this feature, check out the
following websites:
Fleet Air Arm Museum http://www. eetairarm.com
Imperial War Museum Duxford http://www.iwm.org.uk
Midland Air Museum http://www.midlandairmuseum.co.uk
RAF Museum http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk
Solway Aviation Museum http://www.solway-aviation-museum.co.uk
Tangmere Military Aviation Museum http://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk
Ulster Aviation Society http://ulsteraviationsociety.orgAbove: Members of the Solway Aviation Museum have been busy
repainting FGR.2 XV406 into a camou age livery, replacing its
previous all-grey air defence scheme. This photograph shows the
progress made up to August 28. Another well-travelled machine,
XV406 served with 23, 41, 43, 54, 56 and 111 Squadrons before joining
the museum in 1998. Dougie Kerr
Below: The Midland Air Museum has two Phantoms at its base on the
edge of Coventry Airport, and both are former US military examples.
Only one is on display, F-4C 63-7699 is a distinguished combat
veteran, having served in Vietnam and has a MiG-17 ‘kill’ to its name,
having shot down the Soviet-built ghter with a Sidewinder missile
on May 14, 1967. The other, F-4C, 63-7414, is stored on site. One other
former US Phantom – USMC F-4S 155848 – is with a UK museum, but
it is also in store, this time at the National Museum of Flight Scotland
at East Fortune. Key-Nigel Price Above: The only example of an F-4J(UK) on public show can be found
at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. This aircraft, which carries the
US bureau number 155529, served with the RAF’s 74 Sqn as ZE359,
and is displayed in US Navy VF-74 USS America markings. It is in
Duxford’s impressive American Air Museum. Craig PriceLeft: The RAF Museum’s FGR.2 resides within Hangar 3 at its Hendon
site. This machine – serial number XV424 – has a colourful past.
Ordered in 1966, it joined the RAF in February 1969 and during its
long career served with a good many units, including 6, 29, 41, 54, 56
and 111 Squadrons. It was painted in a special colour scheme in the
summer of 1979 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Alcock and
Brown’s transatlantic ight – see page 44. The jet made its last ight
on July 31, 1992 and retired with 5,058 ying hours to its credit. It has
retained the markings of its last operational squadron, No.56. The
museum’s Cosford site also has the nose section of Phantom FG.1
XV591 on show – in the transatlantic colour scheme carried by XV424.
Nigel Price
Below left: The second complete FG.1 variant of the Phantom in a British
museum is XT864, which is displayed at the Ulster Aviation Society’s
home in Maze Long Kesh, Northern Ireland. The ghter has recently
emerged from two years of restoration work, being unveiled in its smart
new livery on April 28, 2018. The jet, previously at RAF Leuchars in
Scotland, has been returned to the colours it wore in the 1970s with the
Fleet Air Arm’s 892 Sqn on HMS Ark Royal. Stephen Riley