British Phantom Group, Kemble
A volunteer group at Cotswold Airport preserving the story of the Phantom in British service.
The types
McDonnell Douglas aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| McDonnell Douglas PhantomFG.1, FGR.2, F-4C/J | 1958 | 5,195 | 16 |
| McDonnell Douglas DC-10forward fuselage | 1970 | 386 | 1 |
| McDonnell Douglas F-15 EagleA | 1972 | ~1,200+ | 1 |
The firm
McDonnell Douglas in brief
McDonnell’s F-4 Phantom II first flew on 27 May 1958, and 5,195 were built. Britain bought Phantoms for the Royal Navy and RAF as the FG.1 and FGR.2. The merged company built the DC-10 wide-body airliner, the F-15 Eagle, the F/A-18 Hornet and the C-17. It developed the AV-8B Harrier II from the British Harrier.
Defence budgets fell after the Cold War, and the company lost the contest for the Joint Strike Fighter. It merged with Boeing on 1 August 1997.
Where to go
Museums holding McDonnell Douglas aircraft
| Museum | McDonnell Douglas types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 2 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Bentwaters Cold War MuseumWoodbridge, Suffolk | 1 | £7.50 | 9 | Bentwaters Cold War Museum occupies the actual USAF hardened command post — war room, battle cabin and decontamination showers intact —… |
| British Phantom Group & Bristol Britannia XM496 (Kemble)Cirencester, Gloucestershire | 1 | Seasonal | 5 | A working restoration compound at Cotswold Airport (Kemble): the only place on Earth with F-4J, K and M Phantoms together, plus Britannia… |
| City of Norwich Aviation MuseumNorwich, Norfolk | 1 | £9 | 33 | City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith: Norfolk's largest, ~30 airframes including a Vulcan and Nimrod with bookable… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 1 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 1 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| Montrose Air Station MuseumMontrose, Angus | 1 | £10 | 14 | The 1913 fabric itself, plus the resident ghost stories (Montrose is Britain's most famously haunted airfield, a claim the volunteers… |
| MorayviaForres, Moray | 1 | £8 | 35 | Nimrod XV244 (complete, and the crew who operated her sometimes give the tours) alongside a Sea King in RAF SAR yellow — the machine that… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 1 | £15 | 47 | Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 1 | £10 | 65 | Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 1 | Free | 88 | Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 1 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Runway Visitor Park, Manchester AirportAltrincham, Greater Manchester | 1 | £6–£15 | 5 | Concorde G-BOAC, British Airways' flagship (the 'OAC' registration was no accident), enthroned in her own glass hangar with tours from… |
| Solway Aviation MuseumCrosby on Eden, Cumbria | 1 | £8 | 21 | Vulcan XJ823 with pre-bookable crew-compartment visits; a Phantom, Lightning and Canberra (whose three-crew cockpit reviewers describe as… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 1 | £10 | 73 | The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| Tangmere Military Aviation MuseumChichester, West Sussex | 1 | £15 | 23 | Hawker Hunter WB188 in one-off scarlet, in which Neville Duke took the world air speed record to 727.63 mph off this coast in 1953;… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 1 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
Questions
Frequently asked
Did Britain fly the Phantom?
Yes. The Royal Navy flew the Phantom FG.1 and the RAF flew the FG.1 and FGR.2.
Is McDonnell Douglas part of Boeing?
Yes. The companies merged on 1 August 1997.
Who built the DC-10?
McDonnell Douglas, carrying on the Douglas Commercial line after the 1967 merger.