Restored F-4E Phantom cockpit popular feature with residents

Southeast Missourian

Children and adults admired the craftsmanship and power of the planes at the Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival over the weekend, yet they were limited in how close they could get to some of them. Many wanted to feel what it was like to be in one.

Joe Steimann, owner of Little Pilots LLC, provided the opportunity to a feel what it is like to be behind the controls of an F-4E Phantom, complete with a photograph.

"They were going to turn this one into aluminum cans," Steimann said, "but I saved it from the scrap heap."

The simulator was simply a restored cockpit section that belonged to an F-4E built in 1972. In 1991, structural damage prevented the F-4E from flying, so the cockpit section was converted into a training simulator for German pilots who trained in New Mexico.

That training will end in December because Germany will soon retire the F-4s. The United States retired all F-4s in 1996.

Steimann bought the cockpit section in August, and after 10 months of restoring it, the simulator made its debut in Joplin, Mo. The Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival was its second air show.

To Southeast Missouri residents, it's a hit, Steimann said.

"The general consensus is that they like it, that it's the best thing in the air show because they actually get to climb into it and interact with it," he said.

He said regulations do not allow the public to climb into cockpits with live ejection seats.