British Phantoms

[a4s4eva]

how different were the cockpits between the FGR 1 and FGR-2?

I have the Aires FGR-1 pit, can I get away with using that in my FGR-2

[Bobski]

how different were the cockpits between the FGR 1 and FGR-2?

I have the Aires FGR-1 pit, can I get away with using that in my FGR-2

I believe the front cockpits are both very similar, but the rear cockpits have quite a few differences. Not sure of the exact details off the top of my head - one of the Phantom buffs should be able to help.

As far as I'm aware, the cockpit in the Hasegawa kit is closer to an FG.1 than the FGR2.

[Scotsman]

go to airliners.net - and search on FRG cockpits - there are a number of excellent shoys of the FRG-2(?) at Hendon showing the 2 pits in superb details - as has been said the Pilots pit is a pretty standard F-4 fighter one, but the rear has some significant changes , including a foldout out main radar display , rather like the early F4B's - but the info is out there

[Jay Chladek]

Looking at the Verlinden book on the Brit Phantoms, they have no images of the FG-1 cockpits, just the FGR-2s from late in their operational lives. Looking at the 2's rear cockpit compared to that of an F-4J(UK), there are quite a few items crammed in the upper region of the panel mainly associated with countermeasures on the FGR-2 for its ground attack missions while the J model was intended more as an interceptor and its pit looks a lot cleaner by comparison. As I recall, it was a similar situation with the FG-1s as they were intended primarily for aerial intercept operations as well instead of getting down low and dirty, where a more extensive countermeasures suite would be useful. But I would say which pit features to use would also depend on which era of plane you are building as I imagine that when the RAF got ahold of the FG-1s, they probably crammed a bit more hardware into them then what the RN was utilizing for fleet defense.

The front pits do indeed look close with the majority of changes being on the location of equipment on the side consoles between the 2 and the J models.

Edited April 17, 2008 by Jay Chladek

[hooter]

Another thing that might be of interest is that certain FGR 2's had the facility to enable a second control column to be fitted in the rear cockpit as and when required. When I worked on 17 squadron Phantoms in Germany [1971-74] we had two or three with this capability. XT901 was one, and if memory serves then XV397 was another.

Hope this is of interest to you.