Airforces Monthly - February 2017

ARTICLE SUMMARY
NEWS
NORTH AMERICA
Final flight of F-4 in US Air Force service
A FINAL flight and retirement
ceremony for the last F-4
Phantom II in the US Air Force
active duty inventory took place
at Holloman Air Force Base,
New Mexico, on December 21.
The last operational Phantoms
remaining were QF-4E Full Scale
Aerial Targets flown by the 82nd
Aerial Targets Squadron (ATRS),
Detachment 1, at Holloman.
During the public event on
December 21, a four-ship flypast
of QF-4s was performed. The
final flight by the type then took
place, when Lt Col Ronald King,
82nd ATRS Det 1 commander,
took to the air in QF-4E 74-1638
‘AF-349’, ending 53 years of
USAF Phantom II operations.
The type entered USAF service
in 1963. In the early years, it
served as the air force’s primary
fighter-bomber until aircraft
production ended in 1979. On
top of its combat record, the
Phantom was also optimised
to fly more specialised
missions. The RF-4C was a
reconnaissance version
built for speed, while
the F-4G Wild Weasel
version attacked enemy antiaircraft
missile installations.
The Phantom also became
an icon of air superiority. It
set 15 world records including
aircraft speed (1,606mph) and
absolute altitude (98,557ft).
It is also the only machine to
have been flown by both the
US Air Force Thunderbirds
and the Navy Blue Angels.
Its operational life ended
in 1997, but it continued to
serve as a full-scale aerial
target after being modified
to QF-4 configuration by BAE
Systems. Over its many years
at Holloman, the QF-4 flew
145 unmanned missions, and
70 aircraft were destroyed
in service. It carried out its
last unmanned sortie on
August 17 and will be replaced
by the QF-16 in 2017.
A full feature on the QF-4
retirement appears on
page 94 of this issue.
US Air Force QF-4E Phantom II
74-1638/AF-349 ‘TD’/‘82 ATRS’ returns
to Holloman Air Force Base, New
Mexico, on December 21, marking
the final flight of a Phantom in USAF
service. USAF/Staff Sgt Eboni Prince
New aerial refuelling
capability for E-2Ds
NORTHROP GRUMMAN has
completed the first flight of
an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye
equipped with an aerial
refuelling (AR) capability. The
company announced the
flight on December 15.
An engineering, manufacturing
and development (EMD) contract
was awarded to Northrop
Grumman on September
27, 2013, for the design,
development, manufacture
and testing of several subsystem
upgrades necessary
to accommodate an aerial
refuelling capability on the E-2D.
The modifications include a
refuelling probe and associated
piping plus long-endurance
seats that will enhance field of
view in the cockpit and reduce
fatigue over extended sorties.
The aerial refuelling programme
will modify three aircraft for testing
through to 2018. Production
cut-in and retrofit plans are
scheduled to begin in 2018.
Above: The new refuelling probe fitted to the first development E-2D Advanced
Hawkeye, 166501 ‘SD-501’ (AA1), seen on November 9. Northrop Grumman/John
Germana
New titles applied to Royal
Canadian Air Force aircraft
Above: The first Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) aircraft to appear in the
new bilingual RCAF/ARC titles is leased King Air 350 C-GPDC from 8 Wing, CFB
Trenton. RCAF/Corporal Rod Doucet
ROYAL CANADIAN Air Force
(RCAF) aircraft are beginning
to take on a new look with
the adoption of revised
titles that will be applied as
they come up for routine
scheduled maintenance. The
new markings will include an
updated roundel, with ‘RCAF’
applied on the left-hand side
and ‘ARC’ (for Aviation Royale
Canadienne) on the right.
The move continues a
process that began in 2011
when, to recognise Canada’s
military heritage, the historic
names of Canada’s three
military services were
restored: the Royal Canadian
Navy (RCN), the Canadian
Army (CA) and the RCAF.
The application of the new
titles to RCAF aircraft is
expected to be completed
in four-to-five years, as the
changes will be made in
a way that minimises any
additional cost and does not
take an operational aircraft
out of service unnecessarily.
As of November 1, just one
machine had received the
new titles. This was King
Air 350 C-GPDC, a leased
aircraft allocated to 8 Wing
at CFB Trenton, Ontario.
14 FEBRUARY 2017 #347 www.airforcesmonthly.com