Point of order... the F-4's 600-gallon centerline only held 4K of fuel (poor memory on my part) ...
Going into burner in the F-4 could run you out of gas in a hurry. I remember someone saying that the two J79s in burner could drain a full bag of gas (17K or so) in less than 15 minutes.
Tanker posit!!!
True.
IIRC, a static F-4 in full blower burned 1500#
per minute!
Thus 'statically', a fully fueled with centerline tank F-4 on deck in max AB would run out of gas in 11.8 minutes!
(17,677lbs / 1500lbs burn-per-minute).
Of course airborne fuel flow was less…… but not all that much less, low altitude.
It was very rare as you said for an F-4 to go burner on a wave-off or bolter. Just didn't need to.
However it was not all that infrequent to see someone briefly tap the burners
on a bad night on a waveoff……. Or occasionally in the wires........... which led to howls of laughter from the RR's packed, popcorn eating, pre-night's movie, plat-camera-watching, ersatz LSOs.
BTW, we usually had many tankers..... A-3s, A-6s, and A7s airborne. 'cuz we were always thirsty.
