When the McDonnell YF4H-1 was rolled out in May 1958, it represented the very last in fighter technology. It was everything the Navy wanted in their fleet defense interceptor. Large for a fighter aircraft at over fifty-eight feet in length, with a thirty-eight foot wingspan, the YF4H-1 was almost twice the size of contemporary fleet aircraft such as the Grumman F11F Tiger and McDonnell F3H Demon. The YF4H-1 was powered by a pair of General Electric J79-2 turbojet rated at 16, 150 lbs. of thrust in afterburner. The 32,000+ lbs. of thrust would enable the big fighter to reach speeds of Mach 2.