There is something about the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk that seems to contradict the normal development of military aircraft. Fighter and attack aircraft generally become larger, heavier, more complicated and more expensive as they evolve. The Skyhawk went in almost the opposite direction. It was small, light and relatively simple. It wasn’t supersonic and it didn’t have the size or technological sophistication of aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom. Yet the little Skyhawk became one of the great combat aircraft designs of the post-war period. It fought in Vietnam, the Middle East and the Falklands. It flew with the US Navy’s Blue Angels, became an aggressor aircraft used to

  McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom: The RAAF’s Interim Fighter While Waiting for the F-111C Few aircraft have earned the legendary reputation of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. Loud, smoky and immensely powerful, the Phantom served with air forces around the world and became one of the defining combat aircraft of the Cold War. Although the F-4E Phantom only served with the Royal Australian Air Force for just under three years, from 1970 until 1973, its impact on the RAAF was enormous. It wasn’t simply a temporary replacement for the delayed F-111C. It introduced Australian aircrew and ground personnel to an entirely new generation of supersonic combat aviation