Manhorne

I doubt it will even be in 2023 . We will be lucky to see it in the next 3 years...

Ever since the war through a wrench in the whole project I pretty much am of the belief it will be another 1 to 2 years before we will see it. If even then. The reason I feel why is that EA seems to be doing constant improvements to DCS and if the Phantom is not ready within the next 6 months those improvements will force further delays to it and it will keep getting pushed further and further down the road....I am not optimistic at all about it at this point.

There are collector groups on FaceBook that are just aviation collectors. I got lucky in getting mine. It was listed on an auction site and I was able to get a deal on it...I am restoring an instrument panel for an F-4C Phantom right now and that is becoming an expensive endeavor because it seems its a popular hobby right now and the Phantom is a popular aircraft and parts are getting scares.... But when you join groups online you meet people and there are many that have helped me out finding stuff. It can be a fun hobby but also draining on the wallet too...

I have a Phantom H7 ejection seat sitting in my office. I only paid $2500 for mine. What Boeing is asking is about twice what it is really worth IMHO... It was 95% complete when I got it. Took me about 3 years to find the few pieces that were missing. They have gotten expensive due to the fact that the bone yard stopped releasing surplus parts to civilians from the Phantoms and everything is destroyed now days

Back years ago when there was supposed to be a Phantom and it just fizzled out and vanished it was a big disappointment for me..I figured at some point it would come back to life from someone. When HB said it was them I was so happy they were doing it because of what they accomplished with the F-14. However, until it is out it still could never see the light of day . There is nothing written in stone still. So I wait watching the sand in the hour glass with fingers crossed....

LOL....Ever since they said there was going to be a Phantom I slowly loss interest in all the other modules I have to the point I have not played anything in DCS for about 5 months now. I currently have ZERO interest right now in any other aircraft I have in DCS . I tried to jump into the F-14 a month ago and I flew for about ten minutes and just exited the program . As I have stated before in all my years of flight-sim flying I have wanted to see a detailed F-4 . So Until it is released or there is a fixed date shared when it is going to be released I am just going to wait until then before I start up DCS to play again...I know it sounds crazy but that is how I feel about it....

Same Here...The Sea King is much needed.....

With all the Vietnam Era aircraft that are in the works it seems there has to be a Nam map on the board somewhere. It would make no sense having all these aircraft and not having a proper map to use them in....

No....Its my private collection....I finished restoring a Matin-Baker H7 Ejection Seat from an F-4E/G last year. This panel when done will go nicely with it with the Flight Helmet and gear I have from a Phantom pilot that flew F-4's from Vietnam up into the late 1980's....

Not a model but I am in the process of restoring a pilots instrument panel for an F-4C Phantom that last flew with the 93rd. Tactical Fighter Squadron "The Makos" out of Homestead AFB, Fla....As you can imagine parts are hard to come by but I am getting closer . Some pieces I have had to reproduce like the Master Caution and Fire warning lights covers. Also made a reproduction of the Missile and Bomb control panel and working on making a Missile status panel right now.. ..

It would be so much easier if I was not so existed that there is an F-4 coming. Its the #1 aircraft I have wanted in a high end sim for 30 years LOL..... The anticipation is killing me....

Thanks for the clarification.... You are right and its why I am not very optimistic of seeing it any time soon if at all. I mean even the F-14 had more information out while in development than they have done for the F-4. I guess they just do not want to have to be answering questions about it is why they are silent on it.

Why they have not made a comment here like that to explain what is going on is beyond me. The situation is totally understandable IMHO they should make a statement here on where it stands since its obvious we will not see it any time soon. I know it seems they are saying they are making every effort and speeding things up to get it out but on something as complex as developing a Hi-Fi flightsim module doing that can create more issues than it solves and cause further delays. I am not optimistic we will see the F-4 any sooner than a year from now or longer. Mainly because of the silence from HB on it. But then again I am the Glass half empty kinda personality so I am hoping and praying I am wrong....

Like I said I did not base on that one single statement but several from them that have been made over the last few months. In any case its just my feeling on it reading the tea leaves and my experience of similar situations on other modules over the years. I think their tight hold on any kind of information on where it even stands is not a good sign for it being released anytime within the next year. If nothing is said by them by November on it I do not expect to see it before next summer at the earliest. There is a history of such things in the past.

Heatblur on the FB page posted a response to a comment to someones question and the comment was "Still a while yet; but we're working hard!". So from that I take it that it is no where near being anything that can be considered "close" for release. I feel its a year or more off at this point . It will sure not before the end of this year. I lost any optimism after seeing that comment and putting it with some other comments made a few months ago. Take this for what its worth. I am always the glass half empty type of personality so I hope I am wrong but I doubt it.

Same here. I have been playing flight sims since the late 1980's and in the early 2000's I stopped because nothing had really advanced much. When War Thunder came out I started playing that. Mainly the Tanks side and then I discovered DCS and never went back. DCS is what I had always wished military flight sims could be like. There is nothing even close to it IMHO....

If we get this Phantom and once I have it I probably will not be flying anything else .LOL....I have waited so long for a Phantom I am afraid it may somehow not even happen...

Hopefully someone will know for you. You may want to contact the museum directly I am sure some there remembers and could tell you where it went. outside of that without knowing the air frame number it will be impossible to know what happen to it. All the F-4's went to the boneyard. Most were converted to QF-4 drones after 1996 and were used as targets until 2016 when the last USAF Phantoms were retired from service. the survivors now are ones of historical significance or ones requested by museums....

I know that museum has no Phantom on Display .But there is an F-4D (airfram # 64-0972) on a pedestal at that airport for the ND ANG unit there 119th. Wing. They did fly Phantoms from 1977 to 1990 as part of Air Defense Command.(That is the paint scheme the phantom in the pic is in)....

I am just glad that it "seems" we will be getting a Phantom no matter what model it is...I am not a big fan of the E but I will take it. I wish the first release was a J/S or B/N. Outside the Naval version I would rather have a C/D but I know the reason for them doing the E is many more counties use it and they are the main version still in use.

Some guys have set up their cockpits and panels with power for display purposes. One guy has a F-4 cockpit simulator i believe he has rigged up to work with a flightism.... I am going to try and get power to my Panel when I am done restoring it so it lights up...Some parts however , are near impossible to find these days. I am having to make reproductions of some of the stuff. Especially when it come to anything weapon systems related.

On the subject of getting a F-4C/D. I am restoring an F-4C Instrument Panel and I am a member of an F-4 Instrument Panel/Cockpit collectors group. A friend of mine in the group has a restored F-4D front fuselage with a completely restored cockpit... He provided photos to HB of the cockpit . So it may or may not be a sign that there will be C or a D Phantom...

Here is a cool vid with a F-4G rear seater who flew during Desert Storm. Gives a pretty detailed tour of the rear cockpit.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTF8JyCxqiM

I will post some pics up on the Phantom thread here when I get some of the parts I am making done...I also have a Martin-Baker H7 Ejection Seat from an F-4E that was converted to a G in the 80's That I have restored. It came from Phantom AC#69-0297 and was a combat veteran aircraft.... I had been flying the F-14 a lot along with the A-4 . I may try and motivate myself and jump back into a cockpit or two.

Like i said . Its just how I feel. I could go into a long drawn out explanation to explain it I suppose. I guess its just my pessimistic change in my mind with age. LOL...... I am working on restoring a F-4C pilots instrument Panel (which is not an easy task these days) at the moment that is taking up a lot of my time as some parts I am having to make because the real parts are near impossible to find. So that has also contributed to me not powering up DCS too...