"touch and roll" in an F-104

[nougabol]

crazy stuff at that speed, been reading about the F-104 lately, it was either O mph or "to the moon" mph, everything between that was dangerous in an F-104 nice bird, hoping to build some models in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyBDEG9dg-Q

[Flagg]

I think I read somewhere about the F4 Phantom that with enough thrust you can make anything fly.

I think in the case of the F104 with enough thrust you can make a lead pipe fly.

Crazy.

[West Texican]

Both the F-104 and the X-15 had near identical landing speeds which made it the perfect chase plane for the X plane. Since the X-15 pilot had restricted visibility he needed the F-104 to fly chase all the way to landing. The F-104 pilot would fly beside the X-15 to give the pilot a better idea of how far he was above the desert runway. That was critical information for landing since the X-15 settled hard.

[TT1]

I think I read somewhere about the F4 Phantom that with enough thrust you can make anything fly.

I think in the case of the F104 with enough thrust you can make a lead pipe fly.

Crazy.

^Really looks like a leadpipe or rather a rocket actually
The Cold War brought us the coolest stuff along with the weirdest.

[4X4Driver]

^Really looks like a leadpipe or rather a rocket actually
The Cold War brought us the coolest stuff along with the weirdest.

Don't know if this has any truth in ıt, but I was once told by an X USAF pilot that F-104 was ment to be a rocket at the beginning

[TT1]

Don't know if this has any truth in ıt, but I was once told by an X USAF pilot that F-104 was ment to be a rocket at the beginning

I wouldn't be surprised if it is true. Here are some other rather fun info I found on the Wiki-page on F-104:

The wing's leading-edges were so thin (0.016 in/0.41 mm) and sharp that they presented a hazard to ground crews, and protective guards had to be installed during ground operations. The thinness of the wings required fuel tanks and landing gear to be placed in the fuselage. The hydraulic cylinders driving the ailerons had to be only 1 inch (25 mm) thick to fit.

Early Starfighters used a downward-firing ejection seat (the Stanley C-1), out of concern over the ability of an upward-firing seat to clear the "T-tail" empennage. This presented obvious problems in low-altitude escapes, and some 21 USAF pilots failed to escape their stricken aircraft in low-level emergencies because of it.

The last sentence is not as fun, of course.

Then again this is from Wikipedia, so I can't tell how accurate it is or if it's true at all.

[Bleifuss]

They used to have a saying in Germany that if you wanted a F-104 you just had to buy a block of land and wait.
Some high ranking officers left the Luftwaffe because they bought this bird , took a fair while to learn how to operate it safely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_bribery_scandals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubi_Hartmann

Hartmann considered the F-104 a fundamentally flawed and unsafe aircraft and strongly opposed its adoption by the Luftwaffe. Although events subsequently validated his low opinion of the aircraft (282 crashes and 115 German pilots killed on the F-104 in non-combat missions, along with allegations of bribes culminating in the Lockheed scandal), Hartmann's outspoken criticism proved unpopular with his superiors. General Werner Panitzki, successor to General Josef Kammhuber as Inspekteur der Luftwaffe, said, "Erich is a good pilot, but not a good officer." Hartmann was forced into early retirement in 1970.^[48]

[West Texican]

JF-104A (formerly YF-104A, serial # 55-2961) was modifed with a hydrogen peroxide reaction control system (RCS). Following a zoom climb to altitudes in the vicinity of 80,000 feet, the RCS system gave the aircraft controllability in the thin upper atmosphere where conventional control surfaces are ineffective.
JF-104 ground testing reaction control system (RCS) jets

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/pho...TML/ET-95.html

The Lockheed NF-104A was an American mixed power, high-performance, supersonic aerospace trainer that served as a low-cost astronaut training vehicle for the X-15 and projected X-20 Dyna-Soar programs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_NF-104A

The only time the five ship fleet of NASA Dryden’s F-104 Starfighters was ever airborne at the same time. Pilots were: F-104N #811-Bill Dana; F-104N #812-Tom McMurtry; F-104A #818-Einar Enevoldson; F-104A #820-Gary Krier; F-104B #819-Fitz Fulton and Ray Young. Photo taken from T-38 #821 flown by Fitz Fulton.

Through the years, Dryden has used a variety of chase and support aircraft. First acquired in August 1956, F-104s were the most versatile work-horses in Dryden's stable of research and support aircraft, with 11 of them flying mostly research missions over the next 38 years. Tail number 826 flew the last of these missions on 31 January 1994. By then the 11 F-104s had accumulated over 18,000 flights at Dryden in a great variety of missions ranging from basic research to airborne simulation and service as an aerodynamic testbed.

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Pho...EC76-5145.html

[timetraveller]

[Flagg]

I wonder if there's any footage of F104's training for the low level strike mission.

As I understand it, trying to stop a well flown F104 in the weeds would have been a serious handful for even a modern fighter.

[Bleifuss]

I remember holidaying in Denmark in the 70's and they would fly along the coastline 2 up supersonic .
You would see the planes , they would pass you in total silence and then you'd go near deaf after.
Low enough that you could smell the exhaust.

[JCR]

There was a story about german navy RF-104Gs that when one returned to base, the pictures of its vertical camera showed only sky interrupted with strange shadows at serveral instances.
It turned out the pilot had flown along the Kiel canal and and the shadows were bridges because he had been flying along the canal upside down....

[Niedendeze]

http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/index.html

They used them as spaceships as well, just fly your way up there

[West Texican]

The F-104 was also the star of one of the most popular short videos ever, High Flight. There were several versions of the video with different aircraft but this seems to be the one everyone remembers. Everybody knows it's a starfighter even if they don't know anything about aircraft.

[C.Puffs]

I wonder if there's any footage of F104's training for the low level strike mission.

As I understand it, trying to stop a well flown F104 in the weeds would have been a serious handful for even a modern fighter.

The Red Baron Starfighter holds the low altitude speed record to this day: 988 mph. They actually broke 1000 mph on one pass.