Quote:
Originally Posted by KieferRhys
The Mig-27 Flogger was built to counter the F-4, ie build a Phantom and then some..
Flogger was the NATO code for it, and it came from the acronym Flying Lump Of Guns.
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The MiG-27 Flogger was a ground attack version of the MiG-23 Flogger. It was the MiG-23 which was designed as a counter to the F-4 Phantom II. There was a ground attack version of the MiG-23 also, which had a similar nose to the -27, the easiest way to tell the two apart is by the inlet. The -23 had a rectangular, split inlet, while the -27 had a smaller, fixed inlet. Look closely at the inlet of the Flogger in question. If the inlet is large and a portion of the upper edge covers a slight amount of the canopy, it is a MiG-23.
The first time I met an F-4 face-to-face, was when the 43rd Tactical Fighter Squadron had moved from Tyndall AFB, Florida, to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska in 1970. The F-4Es of the 43rd replaced the F-102 which had been "top defense" for years in Alaska. I was in one of the first R-5 refueling trucks dispatched to gas them upon their arrival.
After setting up for the transfer, the crew chief was busy, so I decided to get a good look at the aircraft. I walked around the fighter, peering into every nook and cranny and running my hand over the skin. When I got around to the opposite side of the aircraft, the pilot, who was finishing some paperwork, turned to me and said, "First 'Double Ugly' you've seen?"
I said, "Yes, sir...she's a beaut." He then said, "Yeah, but she handles like a brute. Want to see the cockpit?"
I couldn't turn that down and after climbing the ladder and looking around for a few minutes, the crew chief yelled up that he was ready to receive fuel. I climbed down, went over to my truck and proceeded to fill the Phantom up.
I always wondered why the pilot called the aircraft, "Double Ugly." Then, five years later, I had a squadron commander who flew the F-4 in Vietnam (had a couple of kills if I remember correctly). One day when he was bragging about how great the aircraft was compared to the then, new F-16 (He called a film clip of an F-16 and F-4 taking off side-by-side and the Viper getting off the ground before the Phantom rotated, fixed), I asked him why it was called "Double Ugly."
According to him it was because it had two wings, two horizontal stabilizers, two engines, carried two types of missiles and had two "idiots" in the cockpit. Combine all those "twos" together and you get one ugly aircraft...but a damn beautiful one to fly.