In the late 1960s, during the War of Attrition, the supply of F4E Phantom jets embodied the emerging strategic ties between Israel and the United States. Israel developed great confidence in the Phantom's power to guarantee the country's survival. A campaign under the slogan “Your Part in the Phantom”, urged citizens to purchase special bonds to procure the aircraft. The foreign airplane became entangled with national loyalties and public feelings, and its domestication involved both material and symbolic dimensions. The article explores the Israeli encounter with American military hardware, airmen, and know-how. The seeming “Americanization” of the air force sometimes bred ambivalence and even resistance, but along with the state-of-the-art airplane new types of authority, knowledge, and sensibilities entered the force's daily practice.