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history

The Navy chose the YF-17 over the YF-16 due to the number of engines

by Till Daisd February 27, 2024

‘We used to have a joke in flight training: “What happens to a prop aircraft when it loses its engine? It becomes a glider. What happens to a jet when it loses its engine? It becomes a rock.”’ Josh Bennet, US Navy Naval Flight Officer

The Lightweight Fighter (LWF) program of the US Air Force (USAF) aimed to create a day fighter with air superiority that was compact, lightweight, low-cost, and easy to maintain.

The Northrop YF-17 and the General Dynamics YF-16 competed one versus the other in the LWF program. Many in the fighter community felt that aircraft such as the F-15 Eagle were too large and expensive for many combat tasks, which led to the creation of the LWF.

Secretary of the Air Force John L. McLucas said at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) on January 13, 1975, that the YF-16 had defeated the YF-17 in the competition for full-scale development as the USAF’s next Air Combat Fighter. Notably, in October 1980, the F-16 Fighting Falcon was declared combat-ready. Since then, the F-16 has been acquired by other foreign countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Turkey, Egypt, and Israel.

The YF-17, also known as “Cobra,” was the last in a long line of Northrop designs that started with the N-102 Fang in 1956 and went through the F-5 family. Despite losing the LWF competition to the F-16, it was chosen for the new Naval Fighter Attack Experimental (VFAX) program and eventually became the F/A-18. In enlarged form, the F/A-18 Hornet was adopted by the US Navy and US Marine Corps to replace the A-7 Corsair II and F-4 Phantom II, complementing the more expensive F-14 Tomcat. Originally intended to be a small, lightweight fighter, this design was scaled up to become the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which shares a size similarity with the original F-15.

Why did the Navy choose the YF-17 over the YF-16?

‘I won’t dwell on this question for too long, but much of the reason why the navy chose [the YF-17 over the YF-16 for the VFAX program that evolved into the F/A-18] is that the [YF-17 and the subsequent] F/A-18 have 2 engines,’ Josh Bennet, US Navy Naval Flight Officer, says on Quora.

‘We used to have a joke in flight training:

‘“What happens to a prop aircraft when it loses its engine? It becomes a glider. What happens to a jet when it loses its engine? It becomes a rock.”

‘Without getting too deep into engines and aero, the aspect ratio (wing) of a Jet is much much smaller compared to that of larger commercial aircraft. Why? Because jets need to pull more Gs and they can’t do that with a wing that has good glide performance. The shorter, stubbier wing handles the force of the G’s much better ensuring that they don’t fall off in flight.
‘Without letting myself get too far off track, because of the lack of glide capability, if a jet loses an engine, it loses power needed to sustain lift. If this were to happen on a jet approaching a carrier on final approach, the pilot could very well not have time to eject before hitting the water. The F/A-18 has two engines, so if it loses one, it still has another working engine to get it home.

‘Other factors for why the F/A-18 was chosen over the F-16 include the size of the landing gear (landing gear is designed to fit the aircraft itself and the smaller gear on the F-16 wouldn’t be able to support the weight of the jet on a carrier landing), as well as how they conduct A2A refueling (drogue v boom).’

The YF-17 relied on the boom system for aerial refueling and lacked landing gear intended for aircraft carriers; nevertheless, after the Navy chose the Cobra, its design was modified for naval use. The F/A-18 Hornet is equipped with a drogue system for aerial refueling and landing gear made to operate on service flattops.

Bennet concludes;

‘For more information, google has hundreds of articles about 18 v 16, funding, joint aircraft, etc that delve into the details about how, when and why the Navy chose the F/A-18 and the Air Force chose the F-16, but personally, the number of engines is the determining factor.’

Photo by U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy

February 27, 2024 0 comment

History

F-16 Viper on celluloid — The Iron Eagle series

by Till Daisd February 26, 2024

written by Till Daisd

While the F-14 Tomcat was shown off in Top Gun, the F-16 Fighting Falcon used the questionable Iron Eagle series to demonstrate the machine’s agility to cinemagoers

While the F-14 Tomcat was shown off in Top Gun, the F-16 Fighting Falcon’s agility was showcased to cinemagoers in the questionable Iron Eagle series.

According to Bertie Simmonds’ story in his book F-16 Fighting Falcon, when Masters Senior was shot down, Doug Masters (Jason Gedrick) saved his father, Colonel Ted Masters (Tim Thomerson), from the clutches of a despicable, clichéd Middle Eastern regime in the first movie released in 1986. The plot that unfolds is ridiculous: Doug and his teenage friends obtain information about the prison in which his father is being held in the made-up Arab state of Bilya, and they use that information to prepare two F-16s that are fueled-up and bombed-up so that Doug and Colonel Charles “Chappy” Sinclair (Louis Gossett Junior) can stage a rescue attempt.

British actor David Suchet plays the film’s snarling bad guy Colonel Akir Nakesh. Suchet also plays the major opponent in the dogfight at the end, where Masters destroys his “MiG-23” and all ends well.

The kiln has its moments, even though it’s a bandwagon exercise after the far more polished Top Gun. When the USAF declined to assist with the film’s production, writer/director Sidney J. Fury was compelled to turn to the Israeli Air Force. This indicates that the action sequences include some amazing aerial footage of Vipers tangling with “MiG-23s,” played by IAI Kfirs, shot by Jim Gavin (of Blue Thunder fame).

Doug Masters is shot down by Russian “MiG-29s” in the opening scene of the second movie, which is imaginatively titled “Iron Eagle II,” as he strays into forbidden airspace. The scenario that develops is an American-Russian combined ground and air force action targeting a nuclear site owned by a rogue state.

Traditionally, toward the end of the movie, we witness both sides cooperating to complete the task, transforming what at first seems like a mission that could never succeed due to the warring, excessively competitive character of the pilots and soldiers of the two nations. In the second 1988 film, the MiGs were portrayed by the IAF’s F-4E Phantom II Kurnass aircraft from 69 Squadron (complete with blacked-out rear cockpits). Again, there is some excellent air-to-air footage showing these two fantastic aircraft in action together and in combat with the ‘bad guys’ played once more by IAI Kfirs.

Similar to the original movie, Iron Eagle II was shot on site in Israel at a number of different places, such as the Israeli Air Force base close to Haifa and numerous mountainous and desert areas, where a large portion of the exciting air-to-air scenes were filmed. IAF pilots were used throughout the whole filming process, and they were constantly on guard for potential threats from their Arab neighbors.

Aces: Iron Eagle III came next, and it was, to put it mildly, a terrible spectacle featuring `Chappie’ James in a moving mock air-combat warbird show. With the last episode, Iron Eagle IV: On the Attack, the formula became even more absurd. Doug Masters, who had apparently been lazing in a Soviet prison camp, returns and is recruited to assist Chappie in turning a group of idle kids into pilots when they come across a chemical warfare plant. Even if F-16s are employed once more (in combat against T-6 Harvards flown by teens, of all things), the series by this point lost much of the charm that made the first one a moderate success.

F-16 Fighting Falcon is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here.

Screenshot from the movies

February 26, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

F-4 pilot recalls having to do a 6-G pullup in order to avoid a pickup truck during a “snake check” down a jeep trail

by Till Daisd February 25, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘I assured him that I know his official green Chevy pickup very well and would certainly avoid him,’ David Storm, USAF F-4 Phantom II pilot

The F-4 Phantom II was first developed by McDonnell in 1958 for the US Navy as a defensive “top cover” for the fleet. Nevertheless, the F-4 was later used by the Air Force, Marines, and fifteen other countries worldwide. It served as a target drone, an air defense suppression platform, an interceptor, a fighter, a bomber, a close-support attack aircraft, and a reconnaissance aircraft. Four air forces are still using the Phantom as of 2022, 64 years after the first F-4 took to the skies.

Pilots of the F-4 were taught to fly the Phantom II at a very low level before it was deployed as a fighter bomber. Former USAF F-4 Phantom II pilot David Storm stated:

‘In the late ’70’s, I was in Stan/Eval (Flight Evaluation) in the F-4 wing at Nellis. When giving crews their Tactical Flight Eval, they would plan a low-level mission to the range. I would take off early and hide out in the mountains and desert and try to attack them to check their visual lookout.

‘As happens with any fighter, they occasionally were late or had to abort which left poor me with an F-4 full of gas and 3/4 of the state of Nevada to play. It was a good chance to practice ridge crossings, “ultra” low-level flying, and such. There were wild horses to chase and an occasional RV to avoid. One day, doing a “snake check” down a jeep trail as low as I could go, I came over a little rise and was eyeball to eyeball with a pickup truck. 6-G pullup, and hope he made it home with clean underwear!

‘Second half of the story – I came home one day and my neighbor was outside to meet me. He was the State Brand Inspector for Nevada – yes, they had one. Most of his duties were up on the BLM land / Nellis ranges, investigating cattle rustling. He accused me of running him off the road in my F-4, which happened quite often to him.’

Storm concludes;

‘I assured him that I know his official green Chevy pickup very well and would certainly avoid him.’

Photo by Unknown

February 25, 2024 0 comment

History

Before the D-21, the A-12 had to be used as carrier for the Starfighter

by Till Daisd February 24, 2024

written by Till Daisd

By 1962, Kelly Johnson had done at least a few studies on using the A-12 as a carrier for a QF-104 Starfighter

The A-12 was the result of the military’s secret Project Oxcart, which aimed to create a high-altitude, high-speed reconnaissance aircraft. The A-12 was built by Lockheed’s Advanced Development Projects office, currently known as Skunk Works, and had its maiden flight in 1962. The A-12 could reach speeds above Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, while conducting sensitive intelligence-gathering missions. Up until 1968, the A-12 was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for surveillance missions. Through the 1990s, later models dubbed the SR-71 Blackbird, were used by NASA and the US Air Force (USAF) for test and reconnaissance missions.

In the book Origins and Evolution Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, Scott Lowther says that two of the A-12 airframes were initially constructed for an entirely different purpose. As the program was developed, the CIA was worried about the dangers of flying a manned vehicle over enemy territory, especially one as advanced as the A-12. As the shootdown of Francis Gary Powers plainly illustrated, the loss of a pilot and advanced technology over “denied” territory may prove to be both politically embarrassing and technologically devastating. As a backup, they asked Kelly Johnson and his group to research unmanned drones that could be launched from the back of the A-12.

Johnson had conducted at least a few studies on the A-12’s potential use as a carrier for a QF-104 by 1962. There is little more to go on than the simple description of the idea; therefore, it’s unclear how different the QF-104 would have been from the standard F-104. This diagram should be regarded as completely provisional.

On the other hand, the concept appears feasible enough initially. However, using a more or less stock F-104, which can reach a ceiling of 50,000 feet and a speed of around Mach 2, from an aircraft that can travel more than 50% faster and higher would be unusual. It is also probable that a ramjet, with modified aerodynamics and structure to allow for higher speeds and altitudes, would have taken the place of the J-79 turbojet.

It appears that the CIA was more interested in the AQ-12, a brand-new, highly optimized drone, rather than in the A-12/QF-104 concept. Under the program, the AQ-12 would be launched from the back of an A-12 designated “M-21,” where M stands for “Mother” and 21 is just the 12 reversed to avoid misunderstanding. The AQ-12 was renamed D-21, where D stands for “Daughter.”

During the fourth flight test, the mothership pitched up and collided with the D-21 at Mach 3.25 as a result of an “asymmetric unstart” that occurred as the D-21 went through the M-21’s bow wake. Ray Torick and Bill Park, two of the crew, were ejected from the M-21, but Torick drowned after his flight suit tore and filled with water.

The M-21 launch program was halted following the mishap. Under the secret Tagboard test program, testers still believed the D-21 would make a valuable reconnaissance vehicle and chose to launch the drone from B-52Hs. Senior Bowl was the new code name assigned to the D-21 project.

D-21s were used on four missions over communist China under Senior Bowl, although none of these missions was a complete success. In 1971, the USAF terminated the program and put in storage the remaining D-21 aircraft.

Origins and Evolution Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here.

Photo by U.S. Air Force and Scott Lowther via Mortons Books

February 24, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

F-100 Thunderbird pilot explains when his Super Sabre exploded during the Bomb Burst after the wings came off

by Till Daisd February 22, 2024

written by Till Daisd

“I start the aggressive [6.5-G] pull into the vertical—and the aircraft explodes… Any F-100 pilot who hears a loud ‘BANG!’ automatically thinks, ‘compressor stall,’” Merrill A. “Tony” McPeak F-100 Thunderbird pilot

The F-100 was the first production aircraft in history to surpass the speed of sound in level flight, reaching 760 mph. It was developed as an upgrade to the F-86 Sabre, which saw action in the Korean War. On May 25, 1953, at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the prototype, the YF-100A, took off for its first flight. More Ds than any other series combined made up 1,274 of the 2,294 F-100s produced until production ended in 1959. In Vietnam, the Super Sabre made its combat debut and saw extensive deployment as a fighter bomber in ground-support missions that included attacking troop concentrations, bridges, and road junctions.

The F-100C was flown by the US Air Force “Thunderbird Flight Demonstration Team” from 1956 to 1964 when they switched to the F-105. But before the 1964 demonstration season, they had to change back to the F-100 (D variant) due to issues with the F-105.

According to Ted Spitzmiller’s story in Century Series: The USAF Quest for Air Supremacy 1950–1960, on October 20, 1967, a Thunderbird F–100D experienced an in-flight airframe failure while performing over Laughlin Air Force Base, which is close to Del Rio, Texas. Flying solo in position #6, the pilot was Merrill A. “Tony” McPeak, the future Chief of Staff of the Air Force. According to him (from “Tony McPeak Story”):

“…We approach the climax, the signature Bomb Burst. My job is to put ‘pigtails’ through the separating formation, doing unloaded, Max-rate vertical rolls… I start the aggressive [6.5-G] pull into the vertical, and the aircraft explodes… Any F-100 pilot who hears a loud ‘BANG!’ automatically thinks, ‘compressor stall,’ and unloads the jet to get air traveling down the intake in the right direction… SO INSTINCTIVELY, the explosion causes me to relax stick pressure to unload the airplane… [but—] That’s no compressor stall!!…

“In retrospect, the airplane had already unloaded itself, making my remedy superfluous, but there was some pilot lore at work here. No matter what else happens… fly the airplane. Forget all that stuff about lift and drag and thrust and gravity, just fly the damn airplane until the last piece stops moving. Good old 55-3520 has quit flying. But I have not.

“Now there’s fire, and I don’t mean just a little smoke. Flames fill the cockpit. I have to eject. I grab the seat handles and tug them up, firing the canopy and exposing ejection triggers on each side of the handles. I yank the triggers and immediately feel the seat catapult into the slipstream. …”

Despite having a damaged parachute, he landed safely even though he lost his helmet during the high-speed bailout. He talked to Mike Miller, Thunderbirds narrator, who said, “maybe we should leave ‘that thing, whatever it is,’ out of the show sequence.”

McPeak: “That’s when I learned I’d pulled the wings off the airplane.

“After I jumped out, my aircraft continued on a ballistic trajectory, scattering parts and equipment along the extended flight path. Most of the engine and the main fuselage section impacted about 2 miles downrange from my initial pull-up spot. All the bits and pieces landed on government soil, and there was no injury or property damage. My aircraft was destroyed—I signed a hand-receipt for $696,989—but if there is a good kind of accident, this was it. Nobody was hurt, and all the scrap metal was collected for post-game analysis.

“The F-100’s wings mate into a box at the center of the fuselage, the strongest part of the airplane. When my aircraft’s wing center box was inspected, it was found to have failed. North American Rockwell, the manufacturer, tested the box on a bend-and-stretch machine, and it broke again at an equivalent load of 6.5 G for the flight condition I was at when the wings departed.

“Later, specialists discovered considerable fatigue damage in the wing center boxes of other Thunderbird aircraft. USAF immediately put a 4 G limit on the F-100 and initiated a program to run all the aircraft through depot modification to beef up the wing center box. My accident almost certainly saved lives by revealing a serious problem in the F-100 fleet.”

From July 1964 to November 1968, the Thunderbirds flew the D series until upgrading to the F-4E Phantom II.

Century Series The USAF Quest for Air Supremacy 1950-1960 is published by Schiffer Publishing and is available to order here.

Photo by U.S. Air Force

February 22, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

An ex-USAF fighter pilot explains why, despite the Starfighter’s many problems, he would love to fly the Zipper

by Till Daisd February 22, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘For all the bad-mouthing the F-104 has received in the past if I had the money (and my wife would let me… which she definitely would not!) I would buy and fly the Starfighter,’ Roger Daisley, retired USAF F-89 Scorpion fighter pilot

The stubby-winged Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, also referred to as “the missile with a man in it,” was the first US jet fighter in service to reach Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound. According to the Smithsonian website, the Zipper (as her aircrews nicknamed the F-104) was built as a high-performance day fighter and had exceptional acceleration and top speed. Equipped with a six-barrel M-61 20mm Vulcan cannon, it served as a tactical fighter and, when equipped with Sidewinder missiles that detect heat, as a day-night interceptor.

An F-104A established a global speed record of 1,404.19 mph on May 18, 1958, while an F-104C set a world altitude record of 103,395 feet on December 14, 1959. The Starfighter was the first aircraft to hold simultaneous official world records for speed, altitude, and time-to-climb.

As he recalls on Quora, retired USAF F-89 Scorpion fighter pilot Roger Daisley loved the F-104 but never had the chance to fly the Starfighter.

‘I have flown a wide variety of Air Force aircraft, including Century Series fighters… but never the F-104.

‘My first assignment, as a second lieutenant, was with the 84th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (F-89). at Hamilton Air Force Base, California. (Often referred to as the Garden Spot of the Air Force!)

‘[When I graduated from Flight School, I was #3 in the Class Standings. The first two graduates grabbed the F-86 and F-100 assignments, so my only choice was the F-89… or B-47, C-54, or “other” multi-engine prop aircraft. I chose the F-89 at Hamilton.]

‘There were two squadrons at Hamilton AFB: the 83rd FIS and the 84th FIS. The 84th, my squadron, had the F-89. The 83 FIS had the F-86D. About a year after I arrived at Hamilton. The 83rd FIS transitioned to the F-104A… the first F-104 squadron in the Air Force.

‘As the first F-104 squadron, they went through a few tough times! For example, the Squadron Commander was killed when he ejected on final approach to Hamilton, using the ill-conceived downward ejection seat. There also was a problem with the J79 variable engine fuel nozzles. They had a bad habit, every once in a while, of leaking flaming JP-4 fuel and burning a hole through the side of the aircraft.

‘All the above aside, watching a flight of two F-104s in a formation takeoff was a sight to behold! At the departure end of the runway, they would pull up to what “looked like” 90 degrees straight up (probably more like 45 degrees) and disappeared out of sight. Even more spectacular was a night formation takeoff … two blue-tinged twenty feet flaming afterburners disappearing into the night! To an F-89 pilot, these guys seem like a combination of Superman and Astronauts (Actually Astronauts hadn’t been “invented” yet … Sputnik had just made an appearance!)

‘Yet, for all the bad-mouthing the F-104 has received in the past if I had the money (and my wife would let me … which she definitely would not!) I would buy and fly the F-104. I saw a civilian-owned F-104 at Nellis Air Force Base, several years ago. What a beauty! Either he was single or a very “understanding” wife.’

So if you ask Daisley:

‘As a pilot, what’s a plane you’d love to fly?’

His answer is clear:

‘No question: F-104.’

Photo by U.S. Air Force

February 22, 2024 0 comment

History

The cost of the Raptor today would be comparable to that of the F-15EX Eagle II if the F-22 production line hadn’t been torn apart years ago

by Till Daisd February 21, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘It may very well be the biggest procurement blunder in the history of the Air Force, the Army Air Force, the Army Air Corps, and even the Balloon Division of the Army Signal Corps,’ Gregg Gray, former USAF SNCO

With its supercruise, maneuverability, integrated avionics, stealth, and improved supportability, the F-22 Raptor represents a revolutionary advancement in warfighting capabilities. Due to the Raptor’s ability to conduct air-to-ground and air-to-air missions, operational concepts essential to the Air Force of the twenty-first century can now be fully realized.

An essential part of the Global Strike Task Force, the F-22 is built to project air dominance quickly and over long distances, defeating adversaries trying to prevent the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps from entering the country. There isn’t a fighter aircraft that can compete with the F-22, either current or planned.

But in 2009, even with the Raptor’s unique capabilities, government officials decided to officially stop producing the F-22 because of the aircraft’s exorbitant cost per unit and shifting military needs in response to post-Cold War challenges.

However, was it the right choice to stop F-22 production?

Gregg Gray, former US Air Force Senior Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO) who worked at the White House, explains on Quora;

‘Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in the Bush 43 and Obama Administrations was willing to move both heaven and hell to cut the production of the F-22 off. Unfortunately, President Obama didn’t see the mistake that was being made by doing this and happily allowed Gates and company to convince Congress to move the funding to other areas. Gates believed that the future was in the F-35, and that is where we should be moving towards.

‘It may very well be the biggest procurement blunder in the history of the Air Force, the Army Air Force, the Army Air Corps, and even the Balloon Division of the Army Signal Corps.

‘The cost of R&D is all front-loaded and then it is effectively spread out over the entire production run. The first aircraft in the production run effectively costs the cost of all the R&D plus its own production costs, this price almost halves with the second aircraft, and so on. The original production run was supposed to be 750 aircraft. Instead, it was cut to 187 production aircraft. So, when R&D was figured in each aircraft cost $361,000,000 instead of $90,000,000 or even less as the run moved forward.

‘Another reason that the aircraft cost as much as it did as Congress prohibited foreign sales (which I agree with on an aircraft like this). Foreign sales would have spread the R&D cost out even further.’

Gray concludes;

‘It was shortsighted on the Obama Administration’s part. They were trying to cash in a Peace Dividend as the Russian and Chinese didn’t have a Stealth Aircraft program that was going anywhere, and it was felt that our limited number of F-22s combined with F-35s would be able to handle the air superiority role against anything the other nations might put up. The F-22 was supposed to replace the F-15, but of course, that couldn’t happen with just 187 of them. So, the lifetime of the F-15 was extended while the F-35 was being brought online. Now that program is hugely behind, so guess what?

‘We are buying new 4th generation F-15EX models—the very family of aircraft that the 5th generation F-22 was supposed to replace. They are going to cost $84 million each, about what brand new F-22s would have cost us (If the F-22 production line hadn’t been torn apart years ago).’

Photo by Lockheed Martin, Boeing, U.S. Air Force

February 21, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

SR-71 pilot recalls when his RSO ‘gave the birdie’ to a French Air Force Mirage III pilot

by Till Daisd February 20, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘My RSO had given him “the bird” with his middle finger: I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel,’ Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr., former SR-71 Blackbird pilot

The Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft served as the basis for the development of the SR-71, also referred to as the “Blackbird,” or long-range, advanced strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California, received the first SR-71 to begin service in January 1966. The first SR-71 flight occurred on December 22, 1964. On January 26, 1990, the US Air Force (USAF) retired its fleet of SR-71 aircraft.

For almost two decades, the SR-71 held the record for being the fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft in the world. It could cover 100,000 square miles of the Earth’s surface per hour from 80,000 feet.

Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr. has some of the most interesting stories about flying the SR-71. He talks of a mission he flew over Lebanon in 1982; according to SR-71 pilot Stormy Boudreaux, Tom Henichek was Burk’s RSO for that mission

The story appears in both this post’s video and Ben Rich’s book Skunk Works.

That time a French Mirage III unintentionally buzzed (and scared) a U-2 flying at 65,000ft during a mission aimed to monitor France’s nuclear facilities

‘In the fall of ’82, I flew from Mildenhall on a mission over Lebanon in response to the Marine barracks bombing. President Reagan ordered photo coverage of all the terrorist bases in the region. The French refused to allow us to overfly, so our mission profile was to refuel off the south coast of England, a Mach 3 cruise leg down the coast of Portugal and Spain, a left turn through the Straits of Gibraltar, refuel in the Western Mediterranean, a right turn into Lebanon and fly right down Main Street Beirut, exit along the southern Mediterranean with another refueling over Malta, supersonic back out of the straits, and return to England. Because Syria had a Soviet SA-5 missile system just west of Damascus that we would be penetrating (we were unsure of Syria’s intentions in this conflict), we programmed to fly above 80,000 feet and at Mach 3+ to be on the safe side, knowing that this advanced missile had the range and speed to nail us.

‘As we entered Lebanon’s airspace, my Recon Systems Officer in the rear cockpit informed me that our defensive systems display showed we were being tracked by that SA-5. About 15 seconds later, we got a warning of active guidance signals from the SA-5 site. We couldn’t tell whether there was an actual launch or the missile was still on the rails, but they were actively tracking us. We didn’t waste any time wondering, but climbed and pushed that throttle, and said a couple of “Hail Kellys.”

‘We completed our pass over Beirut and turned toward Malta, when I got a warning low-oil-pressure light on my right engine. Even though the engine was running fine, I slowed down, lowered our altitude, and made a direct line for England. We decided to cross France without clearance instead of going the roundabout way.

‘We made it almost across, when I looked out the left window and saw a French Mirage III sitting ten feet off my left wing. He came up on our frequency and asked us for our Diplomatic Clearance Number. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I told him to stand by. I asked my backseater, who said, “Don’t worry about it. I just gave it to him.” What he had given him was “the bird” with his middle finger. I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel.’

Check out Habubrats SR-71 and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Facebook pages for further Blackbird photos and stories.

Photo by U.S. Air Force and French Air Force Via FAST Museum Twitter Account

February 20, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

After the radome came off during an ACM encounter, the pilot managed to land his Tomcat aboard the USS Eisenhower

by Till Daisd February 19, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘We started an ACM engagement and as soon as I got a little G on the airplane, that [radar dome] failed…’ Joe Edwards, VF-142 F-14 Tomcat Pilot

Established on August 24, 1948, US Navy Fighter Squadron 193 (VF-193) Ghostriders flew F4U Corsair. Before transitioning into the jet era in 1953 with the F2H Banshee, it made two deployments to Korea with the Corsair. It went from the F3H Demon in 1958 to the F-4 Phantom II in 1963, when it was redesigned as the VF-142. Following eleven years of flying the Phantom, which included multiple combat tours in Vietnam, the squadron switched to the F-14 Tomcat in 1974. The Ghostriders successfully intercepted a Soviet Tu-95 Bear bomber with an F-14 for the first time in 1976. Before being disestablished in 1995, the squadron flew the F-14 for a total of twenty-one years.

That time a VF-142 F-14 Tomcat with missing radome made an emergency landing aboard USS Eisenhower

The pictures in this post were taken on Nov. 13, 1991, and depict a U.S. Navy Grumman F-14B Tomcat (BuNo 161433) from Fighter Squadron 142 (VF-142) “Ghost Riders” on board the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). At 8,200 meters over the Persian Gulf, the crew—led by LtCdr. Joe F. Edwards and Lt. JG Scott C. Grundmeier—had to perform an emergency landing after the nose cone came off due to a latching mechanism failure.

On Full Disc Aviation, Joe Edwards had an insightful interview regarding this episode. This is what Edwards said to the FDA staff at Full Disc Aviation.

FDA: Do you feel comfortable talking about your F-14 convertible landing? The radome broke off, correct?

Joe: Yeah, there was a locking mechanism at the 6 o’clock position underneath the fuselage on the F-14 where you lock the radome down… radome is radar dome… there’s a flat radar antenna back behind there, and the locking mechanism had corroded, and actually fell out into the ocean. We started the day with an ACM engagement about 25–35 miles from the ship with the CO of my squadron – Dick “Weasel” Gallagher. I ran the Operations and Maintenance departments for him during my department head tour in VF-142. Weasel is a great American and a great friend and we always had a fine time wrestling with each other during close-in dogfighting. Most importantly, I was flying that day with Scott “Grundy” Grundemier, a Naval Academy classmate of mine (and also a former squadron mate, as was Weasel, in VF-143 a few years before this). Grundy was one of the finest RIOs the Navy ever had, and his experience, headwork, and decision-making skills were critical to our ability to safely land the airplane on IKE. It’s too lengthy a story to tell here, but after landing on the ship, I found that my eye’s iris had prolapsed and extended out of my eye through a 3 mm cut in the cornea. I was medevac’d to the International Hospital of Bahrain where surgery was performed on my eye. I was released 10 days later. Anyway, we started an ACM engagement and as soon as I got a little G on the airplane, that [radar dome] failed..the hinge for the radome is at the 12 o’clock position and it was put there so that you could raise that thing up and sit it back on top of the airplane on a crowded carrier deck or hangar deck, so when that thing failed it rotated on its hinge and if you ever go to the [Udvar Hazy] Air and Space Museum here at Dulles, and you look at that radome [on the F-14] and you turn it 180 degrees, you see that the angle of attack probe is right in front of the pilot’s face, so that’s what hit me. It crashed through the canopy, that hit me in the face and took out my right eye, broke my collarbone…

FDA: What speed were you flying when that happened?

Joe: Ground speed we were going about 600 knots at 28,000 feet, so it was a loud boom, explosive decompression, and the airplane was damaged, a lot of glass in the cockpit, a lot of glass in my eyes… so at 28,000 feet, I didn’t have any oxygen and I didn’t realize it at the time. When it hit me in the face I’d probably be severely disfigured today had I not been wearing an oxygen mask; the plastic form of the oxygen mask was intact but I lost the hose, so I didn’t have any oxygen, I was breathing ambient air. So I quickly circled down, pulled the throttles to idle, put the boards out, circled down, didn’t have any canopy around me, couldn’t see out of the front of the airplane because the plexiglass was so cracked with pieces missing…the captain of the ship was a guy named Bill Cross and he became an admiral after that tour, and Admiral Cross…when I came by the ship at flight deck level, I couldn’t talk to anyone of course because I didn’t have any communications fittings going up to my microphone that’s still in the hard shell of my mask…so I dropped the gear, dropped the flaps, lowered the tailhook, came up the side of the ship to tell them I needed to land immediately, and Bill Cross immediately started turning the carrier back into the wind to give me a chance to recover the airplane. Of course I couldn’t talk to anyone, and I didn’t even know the nose of the airplane was missing because you can’t see it from the cockpit; it’s a Navy airplane, gotta be able to see the ship when you’re landing. So I did two practice approaches in the 10 minutes it took the aircraft carrier to turn around and steadied up on a base recovery course 322 degrees and I flew an approach and landed on the ship; trapped…that was my last carrier landing; I knew it was going to be because I was blind in my right eye, and I knew I’d never fly again. But, they medevac’d me out after a few hours and the helicopter landed there at night, I had two IV’s swinging, I was laying wrapped in stokes litter when a Navy nurse from San Diego, California, named Gail Little…met me at the helo, and we were on this ambulance riding through the narrow middle eastern streets like we were in the move “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, I actually told Gail to tell the ambulance driver I’m not going to die on the way to the hospital, but I might die if he wrecks the ambulance, he needs to slow down [laughter] so he slowed down, took me right into surgery…they sewed up a 3mm cut with six stitches and four years later I showed up to Johnson Space Center as an astronaut. We used to say sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Special thanks to Full Disc Aviation Staff

Photo by U.S. Navy and U.S. Navy via HOME OF M.A.T.S.

February 19, 2024 0 comment

History

Why the Blackbird had engine and afterburner fuel control cable pulleys and its inlets had to be labeled “L” and “R”

by Till Daisd February 18, 2024

written by Till Daisd

The SR-71’s engineering was so advanced that new tools had to be created in order to build the Blackbird

The SR-71 Blackbird collected intelligence in some of the world’s most dangerous environments during its service.

The SR-71 was designed to fly at very high altitudes, very fast speeds, and very high temperatures. In fact, it was the first aircraft built entirely of titanium since the air molecules’ friction against it at Mach 2.6 would have melted a conventional aluminum frame.

There are lots of fascinating details regarding the legendary Blackbird.

Former Blackbird RSO Butch Sheffield would say “Minter,” while pointing to the “L” on the SR-71‘s inlet. Colonel Minter gave the order to identify each SR-71 in the inventory so that it would be obvious which was the left or right.

SR-71-Inlet — SR-71left inlet labeled “L”

An accident occurred on SR-71 #964 early in the Blackbird program; the engines suffered damage from being placed in the incorrect inlet. Floyd Jones, a former crew chief, provides additional details on the narrative;

‘They will fit, but they are canted outboard instead of inboard. It happened on 964; she flew with no problem until checking the inlet’s major damage on the spikes and center body also FOD the engine.

‘Reason it happened was they did something out of the usual. Both spikes were left on one side of the hangar. Usually, when a spike was removed, it was left on that side of hangar.’

SR-71-R-inlet — SR-71 right inlet labeled “R”

Expert on SR-71 engines John Olp said something about the Blackbird’s cutting-edge engineering that you might not know.

‘The right engine throttle linkage was connected to the afterburner fuel control, and the left engine throttle linkage is connected to the main fuel control!

‘The aircraft throttle linkage was connected to the afterburner fuel control on the left engine and the main fuel control on the right engine (inboard side of the engines).

‘It absolutely did matter because of the two different functions.’

Olp adds further details;

SR-71-pulleys — SR-71 Blackbird engine and afterburner fuel control cable pulleys.

‘The two fuel controls were interconnected by a pulley and cable system in order to be fully synchronized. There was a pulley on each fuel control with a steel braided cable running underneath the engine, around more pulleys, so that, whatever position you set one fuel control at, the other one moved with it!

‘Afterburner fuel control on the right, main fuel control on the left. The aircraft throttles were connected to the threaded portion sticking out of the pulley shaft.’

You will now understand a little history behind the markings on an SR-71 when you approach the inlets and search for the “L” or the “R.” And keep in mind! The primary fuel control is located on the left of the Blackbird, while the afterburner fuel control is located on the right.

Check out the Habubrats SR-71 and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Facebook pages for further Blackbird photos and stories.

Photo by William Franklin Cely, Linda Sheffield Miller, John Olp and U.S. Air Force

February 18, 2024 0 comment

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