The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom is perhaps the best known and most popular of all postwar military aircraft. Its extremely long and diverse history, the huge variety of roles it has undertaken and its international appeal - most notably with the US and UK - makes it incomparable with any other aircraft. When it first emerged towards the end of the 1950s, it represented a generational step from the first postwar jets and later 'Century Series' aircraft, to the modern high-tech fighters such as the F-16.

The Phantom was the most significant aircraft to serve with the US Navy and Marine Corps, and the US Air Force. It was also the most numerous and significant aircraft type to participate in the Vietnam War. Apart from being an iconic US aircraft it was also a hugely successful international design and was purchased by the UK, Australia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Turkey.

This detailed new volume provides an in-depth, comprehensive study of the development of the F-4 Phantom, tracing its full service deployment from the USAF and RAF to the air forces of a host of countries around the globe. The author also covers in detail the long and complicated story of the British Phantom. Purchased for both the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, it became a much-respected carrier-borne fighter-bomber. It provided the RAF with a nuclear strike aircraft and a ground attack/reconnaissance platform, and later became the RAF's standard interceptor.