Safe!

This is coolbert:

As extracted from a Strategy Page Internet article the slow but steady retirement of the ancient and venerable F-4 Phantom warplane.

Used widely by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War and continued to be a main-line warplane for USAF and  allied nations for DECADES!

And as generally accepted the first combat jet fighter with a safety record admirable.

"Attrition: Phantom Fades Slowly"

"The F-4 was also one of the first jet fighters to be quite safe to fly. Combat aircraft have, for decades, been getting more reliable, even as they became more complex. For example, in the early 1950s, the U.S. F-89 fighter had 383 accidents per 100,000 flying hours. A decade later the rate was in the 20s [twenty accidents per 100,000 flying hours] for a new generation of aircraft. At the time the F-4, most of which served into the 1990s, had a rate of under 5 [accidents] per 100,000 hours. Contemporary Russian aircraft (MiG-21/23/27) had a rate 10-20 times higher"

See my previous blog entry regarding the F-89 warplane:

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2017/07/f-89-scorpion.html

Additionally as extracted from the wiki and thanks to same.:

Regarding  the Soviet MiG-21 and deficiency that made the plane susceptible to accident:

"Like many aircraft designed as interceptors, the MiG-21 had a short range. This was exacerbated by the poor placement of the internal fuel tanks ahead of the center of gravity. As the internal fuel was consumed, the center of gravity would shift rearward beyond acceptable parameters. This had the effect of making the plane statically unstable to the point of being difficult to control, resulting in an endurance of only 45 minutes in clean [sans external weaponry, fuel tanks, etc.] condition . . . Additionally, when more than half the fuel was used up, violent maneuvers prevented fuel from flowing into the engine, thereby causing it to shut down [flame-out] in flight."

FLAME-OUT NO GOOD IN COMBAT! YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE AN EXPERT TO UNDERSTAND THAT!

coolbert.