20 Cold War-Era Warplanes of the U.S. Air Force

F-4 Phantom II

McDonnell Aircraft produced one of the finest warplanes ever built with their F-4 Phantom II. Originally designed for the Navy, it also served the Air Force and Marine Corps on air superiority, ground attack, reconnaissance, and Wild Weasel missions. During 20 years of production, McDonnell assembled an incredible 5,000 Phantoms, serving 11 other nations. It used the same J79 engine as the F-104, but carried two of them — pushing the fighter to incredible records of 98,556 feet and 1,604 miles per hour. 150.5 enemy MiGs were downed by Phantom Phlyers, earning it the nickname “The World’s Largest Distributor of MiG Parts.”