Posted on 06/14/2026 8:45:39 AM PDT by rlmorel
After 7 long years, the Collings F-4 Phantom is back in the air!
A MASSIVE thank you to the museum volunteers who made this possible. Without them, there's no way any of this could have happened. And a special thank you to Harry “D-Day” Daye for allowing me to backseat this flight! We are so excited for what this year has in store for both the VWFM and the Collings Foundation planes.
And as always, thank you to the Collings Foundation for allowing us to fix and fly this beautiful jet! If you want to see more of the Vietnam War Flight Museums' aircraft or support either of these amazing organizations, click here: https://www.vietnamwarflight.com
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Jim
Has the same power off glide slope as a pair of pliers.
Two J-79’s on afterburner?
The F-4 remains proof that even a brick can fly if you give it enough thrust.
Do you know the story behind the reason the Collings Foundation F-4D did not fly for seven years?
I, obviously, have not been keeping up because I thought it had been flying all this time.
Thanks for the post...
That was where they tied the planes down with their tailpipes pointing out over the water and would do high power testing there.
There were two large white signs with red letters on the beach that said DANGER-JET EXHAUST-KEEP BACK
Of course, I had to go RIGHT up to the signs and even into the exhaust area when they were testing those things and they were idling, but I was never stupid enough to try to walk through the zone at high power.
Like most young guys, the louder it was, the more I loved it. No wonder I am hard of hearing today-even now, my ears are ringing in unison at me!
I became an Aviation Machinists Mate in the Navy, and got plenty of experience close up and personal on the flight deck, once even stupidly getting caught behind a JBD while a Tomcat was taking off in full afterburner. Those twin TF-30's on the Tomcat were nowhere as loud as a pair of J-79s, but as I took refuge in a wheel well of an A-7 with my flight deck jersey pulled up around my mouth and nose in desperation, unable to breathe and feeling like I was going to fry, the difference felt trivial to me!
When the F-14 shot and I came out looking like a cat who had been unceremoniously shoved into a hot oven, my fellow White Shirt (Flight Deck Troubleshooter) grinned merrily at me through his goggled, mirthful eyes as his mouth bulged with a chunk of chewing tobacco, and shouted in my ear: "SEE??? THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU AREN'T PAYING ATTENTION!"
He was right...I hadn't been paying attention to THAT. After that, I always stayed attuned to when everyone else skittered out from behind the JBD when an F-14 was on the catapult!!!
Guessing probably money and/or legal issues with their other crash (B-17 in 2019)...
In the late 60s, as a young Airman-then-sergeant, I worked on RF-4s electronic warfare systems.
We didn't know that there were aerodynamic reasons for much of the cool/angry appearance of the aircraft. It turns out that the wings tilt up at the hinge point in order to increase the overall dihedral, thus for needed stability. And, the horizontal stab droops down into the thrust field in order to provide nose down recovery ability when SS in a muscle climb.
Great AC, thunderously noisy on TO (love it), and you should see the shock diamonds in the long thrust flames at night on full throttle.
Thank you for sharing.
— Old Phantom Phixer (libertylover)
Re walking around on the flightline: When I worked on F-4s a special badge was required to get on the flightline and once in a while, the SP would arrest someone trying to get on and would take them to jail. It was always some kind of paperwork screw up that would get resolved by the end of the day.
Getting into the alert area with planes loaded with nukes required a 2nd special badge.
What...a disgrace that soldiers in combat would feel joy that enemies who were trying to kill them in a firefight would feel joy at their the annihilation of their enemies?
Honestly, to me, that seems like human nature, especially for a 19 year old American soldier whose buddies have been freshly killed. It may not be right, or even appropriate to feel “joy”, but I suspect there are a lot of combat veterans out there who did indeed feel “joy” that they lived and their enemies died.
I saw a video of Marines in Iraq whose buddies had been killed by a strongpoint (fortified house) they were trying to assault, and when two iron bombs they called in demolished the house and turned it into rubble killing all inside, these Marines jumped up and down, whooping and hollering like they had just scored the winning touchdown in the big game.
I don’t think this reaction is somehow restricted to Marines in Iraq. I am pretty sure nearly every combat veteran who has faced death on a battlefield has had some variant of this emotion that seems like joy, even if in reality, it is only relief.
Having not been in combat, I refuse to judge men on this. Perhaps some other vets can comment on this. To those of us who have never served in combat, the things they find funny or joyful might seem totally deranged to the rest of us, or even disgusting as you say.
But who am I to judge that? It is just my opinion on that.
Hahahahah!
I worked on A-7s, and its nickname was “SLUF”, for “Short, Little, Ugly F**ker”!
Alabama Air National Guard flew them out of Birmingham back in the late 70s and early 80s. My dentist was one of the pilots.
I was flying a 172 from Birmingham to Columbus Georgia one day at 1500 and two crossed a couple hundred feet BELOW me! Guess they were using me for targeting practice.
Oh yes. Don't know what it is like now, but back in the Seventies when we did nuclear loading practice at sea, members of the Marine detachment aboard would station four Marines to each plane, and I even saw one unobserved sailor who wasn't watching where he was going and cut through the perimeter get taken to the ground hard by a Marine sentry.
They took it very seriously.
https://www.collingsfoundation.org/aircrafts/?tab=tab-one
Collings Foundation aircraft:
Curtiss TP-40N Warhawk (dual control/dual cockpit)
Consolidated B-24J Liberator
Messerschmitt ME-262 (dual control/dual cockpit)
North American B-25 Mitchell
Douglas A-1E Skyraider
McDonnell TA-4J Skyhawk (trainer version)
F-4D Phantom
North American F-100F Super Sabre
Bell UH-1E Iroquois
Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress (under restoration)
TA-4J Skyhawk Flight Training – Student must have at least a current, valid FAA Private Pilot Certificate with a current and valid FAA Class 3 Medical Certificate. Student Pilot, Recreational Pilot, and Sport Pilot Certificates are not permitted.
Program Cost: $8,000 for Ground Training and 45 Minute Flight – 50% deposit required for scheduling
Me-262 Dual Control Flight Training – Student must have at least a current, valid FAA Private Pilot Certificate with a Multi-Engine Rating with a current and valid FAA Class 3 Medical Certificate. Student Pilot, Recreational Pilot, and Sport Pilot Certificates are not permitted.
Program Cost: $5,500 for Ground Training and 45 Minute Flight – 50% deposit required for scheduling
F-4D Phantom Flight Training – Student must have at least a current, valid FAA Private Pilot Certificate with a Multi-Engine Rating with a current and valid FAA Class 3 Medical Certificate. Student Pilot, Recreational Pilot, and Sport Pilot Certificates are not permitted.
Program Cost: $18,000 for Ground Training and 45 Minute Flight – 50% deposit required for scheduling
Walked around a lot of these at MacDill AFB, FL, in the 1970’s. (1st Tactical Fighter Wing and 4501st training, 56th Combat Support group)
wy69
Good old F-4 Phantom. Totally outclassed by modern designs but still the king of cool.
F4C. Worked them 72-73, Luke.
When an F4 made a low pass over you with the burners lit you Know you have been Airplaned. Thunderbirds, Luke, 72 I think.
Many thanks for the prompt reply.
Should have dug deeper before I troubled you. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Follows is a part of a long post by ChatGPT on the question of why the big bird was down so long:
“I dug deeper, and the interesting finding is that there does not appear to have been a single grounding event. Instead, the airplane seems to have entered what became a multi-year, open-ended restoration and return-to-flight project.
What can be established from public sources is:
What we know for certain
The aircraft flew again on June 7, 2026 after approximately seven years out of the air. Reports from both aviation media and local observers consistently describe the effort as a restoration conducted by volunteers from the Vietnam War Flight Museum with support from the Collings Foundation.
The first post-restoration flight lasted about 35 minutes and included touch-and-go landings at Ellington Field in Houston. Aviation journalists characterized the flight as the culmination of “years of work” by volunteers.
The airplane is maintained by the Houston-based Collings Foundation volunteer group at Ellington Field, where the Foundation specifically notes that volunteers perform ongoing maintenance and restoration on the F-4D and several other Vietnam-era aircraft.
The strongest clues about why it took seven years
The best evidence comes from understanding what it takes to keep a civilian F-4 flying.
The Collings Foundation’s own history of the aircraft explains that even its earlier return to flight required:
• a major 600-hour inspection,
• replacement J79 engines,
• avionics upgrades,
• hydraulic-system overhauls,
• structural testing and repairs,
• sourcing ejection-seat components,
• and thousands of labor hours.
That description refers to the original 1990s restoration, but it reveals the scale of work involved whenever this aircraft undergoes a major maintenance cycle. An F-4 is vastly more complex than most civilian warbirds, and nearly all parts support infrastructure disappeared decades ago.
What enthusiasts close to the project have been saying
Local Houston aviation followers repeatedly described the aircraft as being worked on for six to seven years by the Vietnam War Flight Museum volunteers. One local commenter noted that volunteers had been trying to get it flying again for “the last 6–7 years,” which aligns with the restoration timeline reported elsewhere.
A plausible reconstruction
While I have not found an official statement listing every task performed between roughly 2019 and 2026, the available evidence suggests the grounding was probably a combination of:
Major scheduled inspection requirements on a 60-year-old supersonic fighter.
Engine and systems work involving the J79 turbojets and associated support equipment.
Hydraulic and fuel-system refurbishment, common on long-idle military jets.
Airframe inspections and structural repairs required before FAA approval.
Parts sourcing difficulties, especially for a type no longer supported by the U.S. military.
Volunteer manpower and funding limitations, since much of the work was performed by museum volunteers rather than a commercial restoration shop.
What I have not found
I found no evidence of:
• a crash,
• a runway incident,
• an engine failure that permanently grounded the jet,
FAA enforcement action,
• or any specific mechanical event that started the seven- year downtime.
That absence is notable. Aviation media covering the return-to-flight story almost certainly would have mentioned a major accident if one had been the cause.
Where the real answer may be hiding
The most promising sources are likely not news articles but:
• Vietnam War Flight Museum restoration updates,
• Collings Foundation volunteer newsletters,
• Facebook posts from the Houston restoration crew,
and YouTube videos documenting the work at Ellington.
Those often contain details like “replaced both J79s,” “rewired the rear cockpit,” “completed ejection-seat inspections,” etc., that never make it into press coverage.
The F-4 was a Navy experiment on how to turn jet fuel into smoke and noise. Flight was an unexpected but ultimately useful side effect. 😁
Two J-79s on afterburner. F-4 rules!
The first time I could reach out and touch an F-4 I was stunned at its size. It pretty much ended the days of those cute little fighters. The F-4 is a remarkable aircraft in so many ways! On top of being beautiful, it could deliver a serious multi-role punch.
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