@ Lago Vista, TX
September 2026
On a trip to Austin, I was searching for aircraft on display and came across this RF-4C Phantom II (64-1000) displayed here at Rusty Allen Airport. Delivered to the USAF during the mid-1960s, its active service history included assignment to the 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing (TRW). After reitrement, this airframe was placed on static display as a Bergstrom Air Force Base (Austin, TX) gate guard, where it stood until Bergstrom closed in 1993. Static display aircraft on base needed new homes or risked being scrapped, so a group of Lago Vista community leaders, local military veterans, and airport advocates, working with the Lago Vista Airpower Museum organization, stepped in to save the jet. The “LV” tail code represents Lago Vista.
The RF-4C could carry a centerline pod for the HIAC-1LOROP (Long Range Oblique Photography) camera, capable of taking high-resolution images of objects 100 miles away. Reconnaissance RF-4Cs made their debut in Vietnam in October 1965, flying post-strike reconnaissance missions. 503 of these variants would be produced.