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Airline / Aircraft Location and Date Photographer
US Air Force Thunderbirds
McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom
 Cleveland - Burke Lakefront (BKL/KBKL)
USA - Ohio, - -, 1972		 Kenneth Koehn
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Registration/Serial No. | Remarks & Notes
Unknown / 3 (cn Unknown) Thunderbird F-4E #3 taxis in at the conclusion of the 1972 Cleveland Air Show. Note the open drag chute canister at the tip of the tail- those chutes were a must for the F-4 on Burke's runway. The Thunderbirds flew the F-4 at CLE in 1969, 1972, and 1973. If you want to get a good look at the F-4 in Thunderbird colors, travel down to the Aviation plaza at Burke where a Thunderbird and Blue Angel F-4 are on display. I wish I had the s/n on this jet, but it is not visible, and the Thunderbirds would change position numbers on their jets as maintainence required, so a different jet could be No. 3 even at the very next show.


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Kenneth Koehn January 21, 2010 at 01:03PM Rating: 9
Its much easier identifying with the Blues- their Bu No. is plainly visible on their aircraft, but like the T-Birds, they rotate their aircraft as well.

707guy January 21, 2010 at 12:17PM Rating: 10
Great pic - switching numbers on jets is still done today - we all had a heck of a time figuring them all out last year at the air show!

Kenneth Koehn January 18, 2010 at 01:13PM Rating: 9
The T-Birds flew their F-4's using white smoke, which would disappear when they were in burner. With the white smoke off, the F-4 still left a very black smoky trail behind it. At Burke, the F-4's took off in diamond formation- that was eight J-79's in burner at the same time- very impressive!

Richard Lee January 18, 2010 at 06:04AM Rating: 10
Wait..Found something..Check out how the white smoke goes off and it turns to black :) What a beautiful plane! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyLy6u64bh4

Richard Lee January 18, 2010 at 05:57AM Rating: 10
I really cant imagine an aerobatics demonstration done with the F-4...Had to be amazing with the natural black smoke and noise!...Did they have the white injected smoke trails back then too?

Chuck Slusarczyk Jr. January 18, 2010 at 05:45AM Rating: 9
I used to LOVE the F-4's! So big and noisy...awesome!