 NASA used the F @-@ 4 to photograph and film Titan II missiles after launch from Cape Canaveral during the 1960s . Retired US Air Force Colonel Jack Petry described how he put his F @-@ 4 into a Mach 1 @.@ 2 dive <unk> to the launch countdown , then " ' walked the ( rocket 's ) contrail ' up to the intercept , tweaking closing speed and updating mission control while camera pods mounted under each wing shot film at 900 frames per second . " Petry 's Phantom stayed with the Titan for 90 seconds , then broke away as the missile continued into space . NASA 's Dryden Flight Research Center acquired an F @-@ 4A on 3 December 1965 . It made 55 flights in support of short programs , chase on X @-@ 15 missions and lifting body flights . The F @-@ 4 also supported a biomedical monitoring program involving 1 @,@ 000 flights by NASA Flight Research Center aerospace research pilots and students of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School flying high @-@ performance aircraft . The pilots were instrumented to record accurate and reliable data of electrocardiogram , respiration rate and normal acceleration . In 1967 , the Phantom supported a brief military @-@ inspired program to determine whether an airplane 's sonic boom could be directed and whether it could be used as a weapon of sorts , or at least an annoyance . NASA also flew an F @-@ 4C in a spanwise blowing study from 1983 to 1985 , after which it was returned . 
