Well the last U.S. F-4 Phantom made it's last flight. The F-4 wasn't excellent at any thing but was good at them all. Interceptor, air superiority fighter, deep strike missions, battlefield interdiction, close air support, bomber, reconnaissance, wild weasel missions, target drone.
A key to the Phantom's success was it's big multi-purpose radar. I remember playing an air war boardgame 35 years ago and it ran rings round all other aircraft..
I did get an occasional chance to work Avionics on F4 C models at Phu CAT AB Vietnam. I usually worked the Carbou and F100. It's sad in a way that we only have two real aircraft companies that build military aircraft. Gone are the days that you could see the family resemblance in fighters just as we once did in American cars. The F101 Voodoo looked like the older brother of the F4 because it was. It was almost like in the 50's and 60's you could tell a Chevy or a Ford or an Olds or Chrysler auto. Oh well it wasn't efficient but the completion did produce the best in the fly offs.
That is not surprising after all the Century series fighters were still flying well into the 80 and some of them into the 90's for sound countries.
