New home for old favorites

A YF-4E Phantom II (left) can be seen next to a Vought A-7 Corsair II at the Air Force Flight Test Museum Sept. 23. The AFFT Museum recently acquired two remodeled historic aircraft, a YF-4E Phantom II and a Piper PA-48 Enforcer, during the end of September to add to its lineup of historic flight test aircraft. The YF-4E Phantom II is one of three prototypes built to test and evaluate the internally mounted M-61 Vulcan rotary cannon. The prototype was produced by modifying an existing F-4D to accept both the new nose mounted weapon and a smaller solid-state Westinghouse AN/APQ-120 X-band radar set. This aircraft was the first to fly with both the new gun and radar onboard and helped to usher in one of the most lethal variants of a legendary warplane. To find out more information about the Air Force Flight Test Museum, contact George Welsh at (661) 277-8050. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jet Fabara)