For years the CANUKS kept one of their CF-104 in this tiger stripe color scheme. I always loved it.
For the truly interested, the CL-1200 Lancer was prototyped as a follow on design, but was never ordered.
Posted on 02/15/2009 1:26:24 PM PST by mowowie
The F-104 Starigher and all it's variants. Todays Sunday reading obsession.
I wanna hear from the FR pro's!
From what I have read so far, The plane had spectacular abilities coupled with very un-desired effects.
I always thought the same, once I learned the Brit meaning of PRANG. However, having literally grown up around the pilots and maintenance folks at Muniz ANGB (my Dad was a fixture at Muniz for 42 years,) I would fly with them any day of the week.
Yes it was operational and in active duty from 1958 to 1967 and then with the AF National Guard to 1975. Designed by the legendary Kelly Johnson of P-38 through U-2 and SR-71 fame, it was tasked as an interceptor against incoming Soviet Bombers. Thus it wasn't designed for long ranges and heavy weapon loads, 'get up and scoot' was its purpose.
If you saw the movie "The Right Stuff", you saw the dramatization of Chuck Yeager flying the NF-104 with an added rocket motor that could and did reach 120,000 feet. His flight in the movie ended badly but these flights continued as training until 1971.
Understood it was the first jet to break the sound barrier going straight up ....
The Canadian variant, built by Canadair, had an upward-firing ejection seat. When briefing visiting American pilots, they had to point this out and warn them NOT to roll before bailing out.
I also believe the F-104 design was modified with a reverse vertical stabilizer, using the forward slanted wings, they called it the X-27 Lancer. they also installed a larger and better engine. (General Electric J79) This was a much better design and stability problems inherent of the F-104 completely disappeared. They hoped this version would be ready for production by 1972. All in all it was a dream to fly from test pilot reviews.
I’m wondering how much this plane would benefit with modern flight control computers.
Still obsolete but it would be an interesting and exciting experiment.
YUP!!!!!
Dihedral is when the root of the wing is lower than the tip of the wing. The more dihedral, the faster a plane snaps back to horzontal flight after being rolled to one side or the other.
It’s similar to rake and trail on a motorcycle...the way it afects handling.
The Turks use to fly the 104 and crash them on a regular basis.
>When briefing visiting American pilots, they had to point this out and warn them NOT to roll before bailing out.
Just like the Big-Endian vs Little-Endian debate in computers... ;)
For those who don’t know what that red rocket-looking thing was, that’s the North American Eagle. It’s driven by a guy named Ed Shadle, and the team is based out of Seattle. They took a junked F-104 fuselage, got it all repaired, took off the wings, added some wheels...and they plan to try to go for the World Land Speed Record. They KNOW it goes over Mach 1 easily, which is why they wanted to go for that fuselage.
Problem is...even if they do make it, the new Bloodhound SSC is designed to go another 200 mph faster.
Not surprisingly it was fast as hell. It was the first Mach 2 aircraft and the first aircraft to simultaneously hold the world speed and altitude records.
The USAF cut their order from over 900 to around 250 when they realized that there was more to being a great interceptor than raw power. It then went on to a much more prolific foreign sales career. However, it ran into trouble when the Germans used it as a fighter-bomer (G model). The already high wing loading became an even greater problem and less skilled pilots had a tendency to mort themselves in it.
The Starfighter’s J-79 had a thrust of almost 18,000 lbs. in afterburner and I've always wondered just how fast that airframe would go if you could make a PW F-100 fit into it with 25,000 lbs. of thrust.
Italy used them as well.
Same here
I was looking at that long fusalage and then looking where the Vulan cannon was mounted thouhgt “Sh!t, that thing looks like it could turn into it’s own bullets!”
For years the CANUKS kept one of their CF-104 in this tiger stripe color scheme. I always loved it.
For the truly interested, the CL-1200 Lancer was prototyped as a follow on design, but was never ordered.
The planform for supersonic performance changed significantly after their production, so except for power/weight was way obsolete in a few years subsequent.
I'll bet that approach from post 17 was impressive though.
I can't imagine the thing staying aloft much more than an hour.
Is it true thrust/wght was greater than one?
The simulator officer had a large greenbar print out and he explained that the Star Fighter had a T tail and required controlled inputs for pitch up. I had exceeded the speed and ptich up angle and had torn the tail off. I asked if I had survived and he just grinned!
SICK!
Thats a very interesing pic.
Seen this pic before but but never realized the conection.
SAme engine? J79, maybe an older J-65?
Madmen both the same air and land. What badasses pilot these things?
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