F-4E -Grey Ghost 207-

F-4E -Grey Ghost 207-

This is a livery for the F-4E Phantom II replicating the unusual appearance of a certain USMC F-4B, which was worn for two-ish weeks under bizarre circumstances - British tail markings on a Marine jet...?

In early 1973, the USS Forrestal was in the middle of a Mediterranean cruise; its squadrons aboard were able to participate in friendly exercises with allied fleets during the cruise, including the United States Marine Corps' VMFA-531 "Grey Ghosts". One of their birds, an F-4B Phantom II BuNo 151477 / "Grey Ghost 207" was involved in what was supposed to be a routine exercise with the Royal Navy. After landing on the HMS Ark Royal, however, mechanical issues left it stranded aboard, unable to take off and return to the Forrestal. What was worse was that the Ark Royal was scheduled to dock in Malta soon, and Malta and the US were not on good terms. Having an American aircraft aboard a British vessel would certainly be bad optics for both parties...

Fortunately, however, the Ark Royal had a squadron of their own Phantoms - FG. 1s operated by the 892 NAS. Therefore, in an attempt to disguise the F-4B, it was decided to repaint its tail to match the rest of the 892 NAS aircraft, adding the characteristic red & white arrowhead and omega symbol. The US roundels and "USS Forrestal" markings were also hastily covered up. Thankfully, Maltese authorities paid no mind to the still-conspicuous jet, and after leaving port the F-4B was able to make its way back into American hands.

GREY GHOST 207:

• Recreation of USMC F-4B Phantom II, BuNo 151477, used by VMFA-531 and inadvertently stranded on a British carrier for a period of time.
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  As with my previous skins, textures use BC7 compression with mipmaps disabled to improve in-game quality. Let me know what you think and if you encounter any bugs.

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  INSTALLATION:

  Place the files you want to use in the AC7 game directory as follows:

  ACE COMBAT 7\Game\Content\Paks\~mods\

  If no ~mods folder is present then you can create one ther