When test pilot Robert C. Little prepared to take off in the YF4H-1 prototype on May 27, 1958, few onlookers could have guessed at the success story yet to unfold. Over thirty years from that faithful day, the successors of that prototype, the Phantom series of aircraft, would be protecting the skies over the free world and see adoption by eleven nations including the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines. The Phantom II was developed by McDonnell Douglas and first pitted against Vought's F8U-3 Crusader III to see which aircraft would be the Navy's next main carrier-borne fighter. In 1959, the selection was made in favor of the robust Phantom II. The early production model, the F4H-1F, underwent various tests and training exercises, eventually leading to the F4H-1 model, which was deployed to several Navy and Marine divisions. In 1962, in efforts to unify the names of Navy and Air Force aircraft, the F4H-1F and F4H-1 became designated the F-4A and F-4B respectively.