Aero Detail Co.
US Navy Phantoms Pt.1

Reference CD

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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Phantom!  To me, the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom summon memories of a thundering violent noise that shook the ground and vibrated your chest a hundred times more than the loudest rock band ever could!

As a modeller and enthusiast of U.S. Naval aircraft of the 60’s and early 70’s they invoke memories of the halcyon days of a gull grey canvas splashed with the brightest of colours and the gaudiest of designs.  Remember the red and white striped vertical stabilisers of VF-111 Sundowners F-4 B’s and Ns or the red “supersonic can opener” with its multi coloured tail feathers that were emblazoned on the flanks of VF-51 Screaming Eagles’ F-4Bs aboard the USS Coral Sea, as well as the black spines and huge red lightning bolts of VF-161 Chargers F-4s?   Ah yes, those were the days!

This new CD from Aero Research Co. will take you back to those days with its 151 full colour images of U.S. Navy F-4 Phantoms.  Coverage is reasonably complete with the images starting with VF-11 and working their way through the units that flew the F-4 right up to VF-302.  All types of the Phantom make an appearance too from the B through to the S.

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The best part about this CD is that many of the images seem to have come from private collections, no doubt taken by serving squadron members, as well as official government sources so there are many images that will not be familiar to the hard bitten Phantom nut.  To be truthful, the quality of some of the images is less than perfect but these are in the minority.   The images themselves have been saved on the large side and range from the smallest at 854kb to the largest at six meg but the average size is between two to three Meg.   Each of the images is titled with the F-4 sub-type and the unit that it belonged to, and in some cases the ship it was assigned to at the time the image was taken.  I have included a couple of the images with this review to give you an idea of what you get for your money.

Whilst you can not really use the images a reference source for fine details you can use them as reference for markings worn by a particular unit at a particular time period.  Personally, I have loaded the images onto my hard drive and they are now running as my screen saver.

Nice stuff from Aero Research Co. and at the USD $11.95, well worth the asking price as far as I am concerned.

Recommended.