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Sad news from Turkey


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Daniel

Sad to see more Phantoms retired, even sadder that it took the loss of lives to bring the move about.

:salute:/> X6 and condolences to their families.

I was fortunate enough to see a pair of Turkish RF models when they were brought around these parts in September last year. The crews were really nice guys, I'd hate to think it was one of those fellows particularly that was lost.

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Good God they lost 60 phantoms in 41 years! That is 25% of the total available Phantoms according to the article. I wonder what the American loss rate is for Phantoms in peace time?

Edited by gonzalo
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While at Konya last year I was told they were scheduled to be withdrawn in June of this year. It seems the unfortunate loss has accelerated that by a few months.

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60 losses does not sound right - I will check my records this weekend. Even if true, it corresponds to fewer than 2 airframe losses per year for a fleet; which after the 1990s was largely composed of older, hand-me-down aircraft transferred from the US and Luftwaffe, serving in a busy operations tempo of a larger NATO air force.

From a modeling standpoint, a disappointing implication of the sudden retirement is that we will never see the spectacular RF-4E retirement scheme that was in the works. I am told that one of the RF-4E pilots who died in the most recent crash was actually tasked with the coordination and execution of the retirement paint scheme.

Hopefully the 100th anniversary of Dardanelles (Gallipoli) scheme planned for the F-4E/2020 is still going to happen.

Edited by KursadA
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Good God they lost 60 phantoms in 41 years! That is 25% of the total available Phantoms according to the article. I wonder what the American loss rate is for Phantoms in peace time?

Doesn't sound that unreasonable. Its only 1.5 aircraft per year, for a large fleet of aging aircraft that were maintenance heavy and unreliable when they were brand new. The RAF lost something like 1 in 3 Lightnings it had over the course of its 30 year career.

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When it comes to high loss rates, I think the F-100 is probably tops on the list.

2,294 total F-100s built

889 lost in accidents with the loss of 324 pilots between 1954 and 1971.

116 lost in 1958 alone with the loss of 47 pilots

The F-100F two seater was designed to train new pilots and reduce this horrific loss rate.

74 F-100F aircraft were lost between 1958 and 1970 to accidents

Edited by yardbird78
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In a comment following the crash, Erdoğan Karakuş, a retired three-star air force general told Today's Zaman that RF-4Es have to fly in close formation because they do not have radar.

Am I missing something? Was the AN/APQ-99 removed?

Cheers,

Andre

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