Great detailed look at the Flight Control System in the F4 Phantom.

Its interesting to see how the aircraft designers in those days got over the problems of using hydro-mechanical controls in aircraft that exceeded the speed of sound and how they dealt with the artificial feeling of such controls, using bob weights and dampers.

Even the computer in these planes is electro-mechanical and looks more like a transmission than a laptop. Nevertheless these old hydraulic techniques give the F4 many abilities that modern fighters have, even without fly-by-wire controls, they can still automatically hold pitch, roll and yaw and even auto stability, all with gears and cams attached to a gyro.