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Old 05-18-2020, 11:23 PM
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Panther Al Panther Al is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cawest View Post
I have an idea for a WW or RF-4. How about replacing the W79s with F-100s-PW229 or the like

the J79 has 11905ibf and about 17800 wet (afterburner)
dry weight 3850 pounds
38 inch around at its widest.

the F100 PW229 has a dry of 17800 and more at afterburner
dry weight is 3230 pounds
34.8 to 46.5 inch around.

this would make the parts more compatible with other units and frees up parts for the other F4 units.

the lower weight would help with WW mission and the engine power would help the RF-4s. I would not put them in front line f-4s the airframe mods would take awhile. 8inchs on each side of your ears is not something that would be easy to deal with.

what do you think?
The Israeli's did exactly that with one Phantom.

As a test bed for what they called the "Super Phantom" they put the F4 on a diet by replacing old bulky and heavy wiring looms with newer lighter ones, a modern state of the art (Mid 80's) radar, digital cockpit, all the agility upgrades they could think of, improved bits and pieces throughout, Conformal Fuel Tanks with more fuel and less drag than the standard drop tanks as an option, and most importantly, new engines.

They talked to Pratt and Whitney and had them make a more compact F100 series engine that was currently in use in their F15's, The same amount of thrust, 70% parts commonality, and all in a somewhat smaller package and called it the PW1120.

With both engines installed the Super Phantom had a T:W ratio of 1.04. Yes, more thrust than weight, with the conformal tanks, allowing it to break the sound barrier without burners and super cruise. It had a roughly 36% faster climb rate, and a 15% improvement in sustained turns. It could fly further, accelerate faster, and use a shorter runway than the then brand new F15E Strike Eagle.

In 87, they demo'd the Super Phantom at Paris, to the amazement of all that saw it with its insane performance.

However, it wasn't meant to be. The cost of upgrading an F4E to "0" Hours and with all the upgrades was estimated to be 12 million dollars: to buy a then brand new F18, you would be looking at about spending 30 million for an admittedly newer, but inferior aircraft. And since MacDonald Douglas built both the F4 and the F18, it is widely rumored that they pushed P&W to kill the FW1120 program to kill any chance of such a package being on the market to outsell its own F18.
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