Phantom Boys cover art

Phantom Boys

True Tales from Aircrew of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Fighter-Bomber

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Phantom Boys

By: Richard Pike
Narrated by: Roger Davis
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

From Richard Pike, best-selling author of Hunter Boys and The Lightning Boys, comes the newest addition to Grub Street's popular Boys series: Phantom Boys. Originally developed for the US Navy, this twin-engined supersonic long-range fighter-bomber first flew in the spring of 1958. It then entered service for the US Navy in 1961, and in 1969 with the Fleet Air Arm and RAF in the UK.

Regarded as one of the most versatile fighters ever built, the Phantom F-4 was the US Navy's fastest and highest-flying aircraft. It was flown by both US military demonstration teams (Navy Blue Angels and the Air Force Thundercats) from 1969 to 1973. It ended its service in 1991 with the RAF. But it continued to serve a variety of air forces across the world, with some still in service 50 years after its first flight.

Throughout the 20 chapters of this book, 13 contributors will take listeners across the world with adventures in the Falkland Islands, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Far East and Germany. There are anecdotes of reconnaissance missions, encounters with the Russian Tupolevs, record-breaking flights and life on HMS Ark Royal. The scope, flair, and pace of the writing in this book will appeal to the general listener as well as to the enthusiast.

©2015 Grub Street (P)2016 Grub Street
Air Forces Armed Forces Military Military Science Modern Aviation Warrior Haunted United Kingdom US Air Force Ghost

Listeners also enjoyed...

Buccaneer Boys: True Tales by Those Who Flew the 'Last All-British Bomber' cover art
Tornado Boys cover art
The Lightning Boys: True Tales from Pilots of the English Electric Lightning cover art
Harrier Boys, Volume 1 cover art
Vulcan Boys cover art
Jaguar Boys cover art
Cold War Boys cover art
Victor Boys cover art
Hunter Boys: True Tales from Pilots of the Hawker Hunter cover art
Typhoon cover art
Valiant Boys cover art
Eject! Eject! cover art
Meteor Boys cover art
Concorde cover art
Scram! cover art
Viper Pilot cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Another fascinating audio history of a RAF classic.

Attention to detail very well done. Bravo

Excellent ! Davis narrates well !

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Many gems of information amongst much rambling. Not as good as some others in the series but the Phantom didn't see much action in the UK aside escorting Bears away from UK airspace. That made for good content but the rest of the book spent much time talking about the Lightning and general accidents and mishaps. I got the impression the Phantom was desperately unreliable from this book. I know it had an unreliability reputation in service but I guess the best stories and anecdotes would be based around this theme rather than anything else given it's history. I liked the narrator, I know some folk find him to be an acquired taste but he works well for my ears.

Worth a listen but nothing special

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Very entertaining and good to hear about my fav aircraft taking me back to my school days


Great entertaining short stories

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed the Vulcan Boys, I was expecting some background into the introduction of the Phantom into UK service. The book was also not as long as I anticipated and also included tales of flying Lightning aircraft which as much as I enjoyed listening to them were a bit off topic, bearing in mind that the book was about the Phantom 2.
It was however an interesting and enjoyable listen.

Not as good as expected.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Yet another from the fighter aircraft flying “boys” series and an excellent book it is too. The narration is first class, full of death of feeling from that of complete dread to utter elation and an excellent book it is too. Each chapter, with its own story, or collection / amalgamation of related stories, is a true life account or occasionally combination of recollections, which can often be very eye opening.

All in, a very good lesson for everyone with an interest in that era of fatal jets and flying during the Cold War up until more modern times.

A very frank and truthful view of the lease of the legendary Phantom from those who flew it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews