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Touch-roll-touch in a F-104
This is rather old but I thought it was interesting enough to share anyway. The legendary Belgian Air Force pilot Bill Ongena used to do something with his F-104G that even Lockheed and its test pilots deemed impossible: a touch-roll-touch with an airplane notorious for its lack of aerodynamic friendliness at low speeds. (www.youtube.com) Mehr...
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Well that was pretty awsome. I don't know what an F-104 uses for a climb speed, but I'll bet there is a hell of a lot rudder involved in this manouver! Great clip.
400Knts-.85 Mm, and I bet you are right about the rudder. Always and still my favorite century series airplane.
Have watched the Starfighter team of Comrade and Sharkbait quite a few times. The 104 sounds as mean as it is fast.
They used to be based at Moses Lake WA years back, at the yearly armed forces show there one would come by just off the runway. Go into full burner and climb out vertical to about 30K watched it once on there radar.
I was putting on the green just off the runway at MQY when Sharkbait came over treetop (sob). He told me later he almost screwed up and broke the sound barrier. Lol.
I'd love to,go supersonic that is!
However . . . at Andrews AFB in 2000, the weather was not good on the practice day the day before the airshow. The Thunderbirds did a practice demo, wrapping it up as it started to rain lightly. The Blues took to the runway anyway for their practice and it was raining steadily though lightly when they were doing their EOR checks. The solo did his usual roll, in-the-rain, and came within a couple of feet or so of making contact with the runway. Everybody watching no doubt got wide-eyed, anticipating what was about to happen. Even with the sound of the rain, you could hear his engines at full throttle trying to climb. A very close call, and I'm sure there was some bravado involved with the Blues practicing during a steady rain. I thought for sure I was about to witness a crash and thank goodness, I didn’t. A crash is not something I want to see. Ever.