McDonnell FH Phantom

FH Phantom
An FH-1 Phantom landing aboard USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1946
General information
TypeCarrier-based fighter aircraft
ManufacturerMcDonnell Aircraft
Primary usersUnited States Navy
Number built62
History
Introduction dateAugust 1947
First flight26 January 1945
Retired1949 (USN, USMC)
July 1954 (USNR)[1]
Developed intoMcDonnell F2H Banshee

The McDonnell FH Phantom is a twinjet, straight-wing, carrier-based fighter aircraft designed and first flown during late World War II for the United States Navy. As a first-generation jet fighter, the Phantom was the first purely jet-powered aircraft to land on an American aircraft carrier[2][N 1] and the first jet deployed by the United States Marine Corps. Although only 62 FH-1s were built it helped prove the viability of carrier-based jet fighters. As McDonnell's first successful fighter, it led to the development of the follow-on F2H Banshee, which was one of the two most important naval jet fighters of the Korean War; combined, the two established McDonnell as an important supplier of navy aircraft.[4]

McDonnell chose to bring the name back with the third-generation, Mach 2-capable McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, the most versatile and widely-used Western combat aircraft of the Vietnam War era.[5]

The FH Phantom was originally designated the FD Phantom, but this was changed as the aircraft entered production.

  1. ^ Mills 1991, pp. 226-227.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Angel p298 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "First Jet Landing". Naval Aviation News, United States Navy, March 1946, p. 6.
  4. ^ USN F-4 Phantom II vs VPAF MiG-17/19: Vietnam 1965–73. Osprey Publishing.
  5. ^ "USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II Penguin Random House Books". Archived from the original on 2015-09-03. Retrieved 2015-09-03.


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