Missile with a Man in it: The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

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A documentary about the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter which was also called the "Widowmaker".
The F-104 Starfighter was created by Kelly Johnson and Skunk Works and was a supersonic extensively deployed during the Cold War.
The F-104 was designed to use the General Electric J79 turbojet engine, fed by side-mounted intakes with fixed inlet cones optimized for performance at Mach 1.7 (increased to Mach 2 for later F-104s equipped with more powerful J79-GE-19 engines). Unlike some supersonic aircraft, the F-104 did not have variable-geometry inlets; instead at high Mach numbers, excess air was bypassed around the engine. This bypass air also helped cool the engine.

Designed as a supersonic superiority fighter, the F-104 was produced in two major versions. Armed with a six-barrel M-61 20mm Vulcan cannon, it served as a tactical fighter, and when equipped additionally with heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles, as a day-night interceptor. Development of the F-104 began in 1952, and the first XF-104 made its initial flight in 1954. On May 18, 1958, an F-104A set a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph, and on Dec. 14, 1959, an F-104C set a world altitude record of 103,395 feet. The Starfighter was the first aircraft to hold simultaneous official world records for speed, altitude, and time-to-climb.

The USAF procured about 300 Starfighters in one- and two-seat versions. In addition, more than 1,700 F-104s were built in the United States and abroad under the military aid program for various nations including Canada, West Germany, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Taiwan, and Japan.
The aircraft on display served with the USAF in California, West Germany, Spain, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand. It also was flown by the winning pilot of the 1962 USAF "William Tell" Fighter Weapons Meet competition. It was flown to the museum in August 1975.
Known as "the missile with a man in it," the stubby-winged Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was the first U.S. jet fighter in service to fly Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. Designed as a high-performance day fighter, the F-104 had excellent acceleration and top speed.

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 21 USAF pilots, including test pilot Captain Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr., failed to escape from their stricken aircraft in low-level emergencies because of it. The downward-firing seat was replaced by the Lockheed C-2 upward-firing seat, which was capable of clearing the tail, but still had a minimum speed limitation of 90 kn (104 mph; 167 km/h). Many export Starfighters were later retrofitted with Martin-Baker Mk.7 "zero-zero" (zero altitude and zero airspeed) ejection seats.

The Starfighter was designed for production rates of up to 20 airplanes per day from a single assembly line. The entire aircraft was designed for modular assembly and disassembly. The two principal fuselage sections were split along the vertical centerline and completely assembled in two separate halves. All equipment, including wiring and plumbing, was installed inside the two halves before being joined. The wings were then attached with ten bolts plus a fairing.

TECHNICAL NOTES:
Armament: One M-61 20mm cannon, two air-to-air missiles, nuclear or conventional bombs
Engine: General Electric J79 of 15,800 lbs. thrust with afterburner
Crew: One
Maximum speed: 1,320 mph
Cruising speed: 575 mph
Range: 1,250 miles
Ceiling: 58,000 ft.
Span: 21 ft. 11 in.
Length: 54 ft. 10 in.
Height: 13 ft. 6 in.
Weight: 27,853 lbs. maximum

#f104 #starfighter #aircraft
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This is one of Kelly Johnson's classics. Also big fan of his P-39, Constellation, and F-80 designs.

jameshoffman
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The F-104 just screams The Right Stuff. And I can’t help thinking of my test pilot heroes and Edwards every time I see one.

During the early development stages, where there were educated guesses and discussions, then engineering, followed by fabrication, assembly, testing in every imaginable scenario…iterative trial and error, and testing to failure. Then back to the meeting rooms to review results, make more educated guesses, then engineering…repeat til the Starfighter arises.

It must have been stupendously gratifying to be showing up for work every day knowing you were working towards something there was little prior certainty and established technologies to predict outcomes and guide the team to a next possible step. And that next step might be the start of a completely dead end direction, whereupon you head back to that meeting room.

These guys were establishing so many processes, aircraft shapes and structures, analysis procedures, things that are the bedrock of the predictive models we can take for granted and build upon. We don’t have to wonder if doing X will result in Y - these guys had figured it out! The data and analysis of that data form the basis of a library we use within our design tools and software to create a design and predict how it will operate in a myriad of different circumstances. This leaves us free to push the state of the art by developing new structures, metallurgy, structures, etc, and gather data through iterative testing and operation that can eventually be applied to the same library for future use.

We stand on the shoulders of giants, and by doing so, we build upon their efforts such that the next generation of engineers can stand on OUR shoulders.

But these guys were at the dawn of an aircraft golden age, where almost everything was brand new and there many, many unknowns to work through. What an absolutely fascinating time to have been an aircraft engineer.

ronjon
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The flying manned missile, incredible 1950's aircraft that holds so many records

leokimvideo
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Loved that supersonic jet.
Mr Johnson the

paulscotchsmychannelyourch
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I never realized the f-104 was produced for that long

tomeickhorst
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Also the coolest name for a fighter plane, ever.

Cheka__
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RIP Ivan Kinchelo, who died Before the ejection problem was solved, as detailed around 1:02. “the wingless wonder”, holds a special place in my heart. Although I’m not a pilot, I acquired a kneeboard checklist for an RCAF 104. Emergency procedures were pretty short before ejection. 😉 “Chuck” Yeager, liked it but did “give one back to the taxpayer”, when it entered an unrecoverable spin.

Barclay
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I wish they had some actual audio of the engines spooling up; love the sound of the whoooop

RickPMandel
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Interesting to see the story about that gun.
Reminds me of a true story:
The Dutch airforce used to have the F104. In 1977 there was a train hi-jacking. Negotiations went on for weeks. The hijackers shot 1 hostage. That's when our government decided that the army commandos had to storm the train to free the hostages. From observations rhey knew that most hijackers slept in the cockpit area of thevtrain. Seconds before the storming started 2 F104's did low fly-overs and completely shot up the cockpit area of the train. After that they pulled up sharply with afterburners on. This was very effective. Most hijackers were already dead. The commando's took out the rest. There were only 2 victims among the hostages but overall it was a succesful end of the situation.
1 of the F104 pilots was Dick Berlin, he later became the chief of staf in the Dutch armed forces.

jfv
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It's one of my favorite planes of all times.

martincalero
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I got the chance to watch one do an aerobatic demonstration in 2015 at the TICO Airshow in Titusville, Florida. Such a fantastic aircraft. To this day one of my favorites. It was a beautifully restored F-104 owned by Starfighters. I guess they have a few of them in flying condition. A huge thrill to see one in the flesh.

usethenoodle
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I think it’s is amazing that these aircraft were made with a slide ruler and a tape measure. Even the Awesome sr71 was developed this way and years later when the smartest of the smart people think they can improve on the design because of all of the advanced systems we have today they found out that there was not one single thing they could improve on.

tomeickhorst
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It is an absolutely gorgeous and stunning aircraft to behold. People trash talk how dangerous these were to fly, and it is understandable, especially considering how many Germany crashed alone because they were not given any real warnings about the tricky slow speed characteristics. However, supersonic aircraft in the 1950s all had their own dangers, it was all new tech and each plane was pushing the boundaries of what was known at the time in EVERY category from aerodynamics to metallurgy. At the time, the faster you wanted to go, the more compromise you had to make in low speed handling, and there were no fly-by-wire computers to help keep you from doing something the plane didn't like. At least here in the States, the men that flew these planes new and understood the dangers, and they took the risks because, at the end of the day, going fast is fun. And no matter if it is a plane, boat, car, modern or old, when you push into unknowns, it is dangerous, but it is fun when things work!

Carstuff
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The F-104 Starfighter RCAF, JASDF, BAF, TAF, Italian air force, USAF. Unique aircraft.

neilhaas
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Outstanding. Favorite jet fighter with the Su 27 in close second. The competition of which country's creation, became the prelude of space flight and created vital data crossover technology. Those were exciting times and even though I was quite young, nothing moved my imagination as much as these tech marvels. Thank you for this!

nicolaskrinis
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THANK YOU for being the first video to give Jackie Cochran her incredible achievements, although in a Canadian owned airplane.

sarahbrown
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When I watch video documentaries like this one I often wonder if anyone had the foresight to take a few examples of the aircraft along with multiple spares of everything and just set them aside for posterity so future generations can have them as examples of how things looked exactly as as they were manufactured at the time! It would be absolutely incredible to look at a brand new P-38 along with spare engines and parts still in there original shipping containers as they came off the assembly line!

Mtlmshr
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I know from experience that the leading edge of the wings was so sharp that when refueling the fuel hose would be cut or damage the hose so careful handling was a must. I loved this aircraft.

ynotme
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The golden age of jets must've been a truly exciting time to be alive. The flying Stiletto is such an incredible machine, back when power and muscle was everything before stealth and advanced computing became the next evolution in aerial weaponry.

adzbasslines
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Pretty wild that they used a sodium pentothol enhanced debriefing for one of the test pilots, that's committment to your job right there!

paulelephant