F4 breaking speed of sound

My cousin sent me this picture of an F4 breaking the speed of sound.

Thats a nice pic. Cool. Though i have never herd of the aircrft "F4"

[Edited on 15-5-2004 by AD5673]

The F-4 Phantom, I have a question thou mate ???
Why did the American A/F firsts jets were labelled lik the F86 saber, then we had F4 and F5 etc then during the late 70's we had F111 F14 F15 F18 etc ???
Why did they not follow any numerical line like 1 2 3 etc ?

Originally posted by colec156

The F-4 Phantom, I have a question thou mate ???
Why did the American A/F firsts jets were labelled lik the F86 saber, then we had F4 and F5 etc then during the late 70's we had F111 F14 F15 F18 etc ???
Why did they not follow any numerical line like 1 2 3 etc ?

Don't ask me. I was just posting hte picture i got. I'll email my cousin and see if I can get an answer.

It's a good pic.
Thought it would have been to low to safely go at that speed.......

Ash

I thought the same thing to ash. I always thought that would cause a very loud noise.

That has to be one of the kewler pictures i have ever seen. He is damn close to the ground...that would be freaky, but fuuuuuuuun!

I thought this picture was really cool. Thats why I posted it. My cousin works designing military weapons and stuff. He sent this picture to me.

text of photo:
This photo of a visible shock is rare

People are never going to stop falling for that "photo taken at the exact moment it broke sound barrier" crap.

If you don't want to be secretly chuckled at, read and learn.

[Edited on 16-5-2004 by Amet Khan]

Originally posted by cpr12r

Originally posted by colec156

The F-4 Phantom, I have a question thou mate ???
Why did the American A/F firsts jets were labelled lik the F86 saber, then we had F4 and F5 etc then during the late 70's we had F111 F14 F15 F18 etc ???
Why did they not follow any numerical line like 1 2 3 etc ?

Don't ask me. I was just posting hte picture i got. I'll email my cousin and see if I can get an answer.

OK... first things first...

AD, yes, we have an F-4 Phantom, many many many models.

Next up colec...
We never really followed the list in order, just like the F-117 should've been the F-19 and the F-14 should've been the F-13. They are skipped for specific reasons. Initially, we have: F-2, F-4, F-5, F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18, F-20, F-22, F-23, F-32, F-35, F-86, F-89, F-101, F-104, F-106, F-111, F-117, and talks of F-121 which however is an engine.

There are more that should be on that list, I kinda slacked on it a little.

Here's a link to missing designations:
www.designation-systems.net...

Not only that you've got the basics:
A = Attacker
B = Bomber
C = Cargo
D = Drone (If I remember correctly)
E = ECM (Jamming) (EWS)
F = Fighter
P = Fighter (way back in the day)
R = Recon
T = Trainer
U = Utillity (Exception of U-2)
X = Experemental

Oh and Khan is quite right, Shock Photo's are exceptionally common. In fact I've got one right here by my computer of the F/A-18E breaking the barrier. Trust me, it is not rare. But, they are still very cool to check out.

[Edited on 16-5-2004 by Shugo]

once the us air force had gotten past the "century series" of fighters they rationalized the designations of their aircraft. you may notice that the last of the series, the f-111 is directly followed into service by the f-12(original single seat sr71), f-14,f-15 etc. the reason the airforce had an f-4 was because it originally belonged to the navy, who had (until the rationalisation of designations) had their own designations. for instance there were more then one f-4 or f-6. the f4u corsair and f4d skyray were completely different aircraft. the last letter denoting the manufacturer. (u for vought as in the f4u and f7u cutlass, and d for douglas as in the sbd dauntless on ad skyraider.) this was also the case with the a-7 corsair another navy plane procured for the airforce. incidentally the f-111b was to have been a navy aircraft but was beaten into service by the f-14

oh and by the way the f-4 was originally to be named the f-110. the f-113 never made it off the drawing bord and the f-117 was so named for reasons concerning its secretive nature. maybe we could draw parallels with the a-26 invader replacing the retired b-26 marauder and itself becoming the b-26. maybe the nighthawks name replced the yf--17 cobra, its name reverting back to the century style name to cause some confusion. drone is designated by the prefix Q

Everyone thanks for explaining alkl this stuff to me. You learn something new everyday.

Originally posted by colec156
Why did the American A/F firsts jets were labelled lik the F86 saber, then we had F4 and F5 etc then during the late 70's we had F111 F14 F15 F18 etc ???
Why did they not follow any numerical line like 1 2 3 etc ?

The US used to have two separate aircraft numbering systems--one for the USAAF/USAF and one for the Navy. When Robert McNamara became Defense Secretary in 1961, he ordered the services to come up with a common system for the Army, Air Force, and Navy that would be easier to understand. The new Tri-Service System was essentially the same as what the Air Force was using at the time, so USAF planes retained their old designations (like the F-111, B-52, and C-141). All Navy planes then in service were renumbered either to the USAF designation or starting back at 1. That's why most of the low-numbered aircraft are Navy/USMC planes (like the F-4 Phantom, A-1 Skyraider, C-2 Greyhound, and H-3 Sea King). All newer Air Force planes where also numbered under the new system, (like the F-15 Eagle, B-1 Lancer, and KC-10 Extender). You can read more at the following sites:

home.att.net...

www.designation-systems.net...

www.aerospaceweb.org...

There have also been a number of cases that violate the naming system, as described here:

www.aerospaceweb.org...

In addition to aircraft, a similar numbering system was also adopted for missiles at the same time. This system is used for vehicles like AIM-9 Sidewinder, AGM-154 JSOW, and MIM-104 Patriot.

www.aerospaceweb.org...

www.designation-systems.net...

A related system is used for bombs and other munitions-related devices:

www.aerospaceweb.org...

www.designation-systems.net...

Thanks for the info aerospaceweb.

Not only the fighters can do the same thing...

I thought that in the USA it is forbidden to exceed the speed of sound. I also thought that you did not need to exceed the speed of sound for the atmospheric moisture to fog up around the plane. I believe that the dew point and barometric pressure have something to do with it. If I remember someone much smarter than I am pointed it out in a thread here awhile back.

don't forget the famous videoclip of the F-14 tomcat going Mach 1 at sea.
passing very low the ship the videoclip was made from.

I've never heard of a regulation of it being forbidden to exceed the speed of sound. It'd have to been a rule that came out last month if that is true.

why do you think the concorde could not fly supersonic over the USA,EUROPA or ASIA ??