Originally posted by Guppy35
Had that poster on my son's wall for a long time. Back in college I used to get a chance to watch the Happy Hooligan F4D's take off from Hector field. Talk about power. Can't not like the Phantom 
One of the coolest things I've ever seen involved a pair of Phantoms.
While stationed in Alaska one winter, we had some Phantoms visit us for a couple weeks. The Phantom's exhaust nozzles are angled slightly downwards and during early morning takeoffs (it was still dark) the afterburners would literally ignite the de-icing chemicals on the runways. (Well, it happened every time but it only looked really cool early in the mornings while it was still dark.
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The effect looked like something you would see in a cartoon or in a movie.
*edit* If you want to talk power, then you need to see an F-15 takeoff and go into a max climb. Very, very impressive.
When an F-15 is going to do a max climb right off the runway it will get airborne very quickly. Just as soon as the gear leave the runway they are tucked away and the F-15 maintains level flight about 10 feet or so above the runway while he gains speed. Just as the plane reaches the end of the runway the pilot will stand that bird on it's tail and climb through 30,000 feet in under a minute.
