Supercruise Aviation - Article

Tyndall’s Rhinos

Tyndall AFB is located close to Panama City, NW-Florida and is one the USAF’s major airbases. It is home of the 325 FW providing training for the F-22 Raptor. Its operations as an F-15 training unit ended last September when the last 3 F-15’s left.

Tyndall AFB is also home of the 82 ATRS flying the E-9 and of course the venerable QF-4 Phantom. Right now the 82 ATRS has about 50 Phantoms and will keep flying them for some time to come until the QF-16 will start replacing them by 2015.

I visited Tyndall AFB last September during Phancon. The QF-4’s are divided in three groups.

The first group is located on the main ramp, flying manned support missions for the 53 WEG. Some Phantoms are painted in the jungle scheme dating from the 70’s.

 

The second group can be found two miles down the road from the main airbase. This group is waiting for their final call on death row. These QF-4’s are about to be shot down during their last flight. At the moment they are shooting them down by approximately one a month.

 

The third group can be found opposite the main runway. These QF-4’s have just arrived and are about awaiting there acceptance.