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planes

JP-7 was not the only fuel that the SR-71 could use in an emergency; JP-4 and JP-5 also limited the Blackbird’s top speed to Mach 1.5

by Till Daisd March 1, 2024

The first aircraft to use its own fuel for hydraulic fluid was the SR-71 Blackbird and it was called the fuel hydraulic system

The legendary SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3+ spy plane was powered by two 34,000 lbf (151,240 N) thrust-class J58 afterburning turbojet engines. Each engine contained a nine-stage compressor driven by a two-stage turbine. The main burner used an eight-can combustor and the afterburner is fully modulating. The primary nozzle area was variable. Above Mach 2.2, some of the airflow was bled from the fourth stage of the compressor and dumped into the augmentor inlet through six bleed-bypass tubes, circumventing the core of the engine and transitioning the propulsive cycle from a pure turbojet to a turbo-ramjet.

The SR-71 was the first aircraft to use its own fuel for hydraulic fluid, called the fuel hydraulic system.

An engine-driven pump provided 1800 psi of recirculating fuel to accurate various engine components and then returned it back to the aircraft fuel system to be burned. Fuel was used in the actuators to control the afterburner nozzles, maintain the proper exhaust gas temperature, and control the thrust output. The fuel was also used in the engine actuators to shift the two-position inlet guide veins from their axial position to the cambered position and back again. This was just another of the many first-ever inventions of the SR-71.

The J58 engine was hydromechanically controlled and burned a special low-volatility jet fuel mixture known as JP-7.

Emergency fuels could be used in the SR-71 if the crew was low on fuel and had to use ANY tanker (as already explained, the Blackbird relied on KC-135Q tankers [that could simultaneously carry a maximum of 74,490lb of JP-7 and 110,000lb of JP-4 for their own engines], but the SR-71 could also be refueled by standard Stratotankers in the event KC-135Qs were not available or if the Blackbird crew had to deal with an emergency situation) they could find to avoid the loss of the aircraft. The emergency fuels were JP-4 or JP-5, but they limited the Blackbird’s top speed to Mach 1.5. There were six main fuselage tanks. All 80,285 pounds of JP-7 fuel were carried in six main fuselage tanks. The tanks numbered one through six moved forward to aft (back) tank 6B It could hold 7,020 pounds of gravity-fed fuel and two tank sumps. This was also called the “doghouse” and was located in the extreme back portion of the fuselage.

These are just a few interesting facts found by reading Rich Graham’s “SR 71 Revealed the Inside Story.” This book was published in 1996 before some of the facts about the SR-71 became unclassified.

Fuel was the lifeblood of the world’s fastest manned aircraft.

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

Photo by NASA and U.S. Air Force

March 1, 2024 0 comment

History

How the U-2 got its name

by Till Daisd February 29, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘Tony LeVier [the test pilot who flew the first flight of the U-2] was sitting at Bob Gilliland’s bar when we arrived. The story of how the U-2 was named came up,’ Colonel Richard “Butch” Sheffield, SR-71 Blackbird RSO

From the beginning, the US Air Force (USAF) and the CIA co-managed U-2 development, testing, and missions. Nonetheless, the CIA employed civilians working for the agency as pilots for overflights over the USSR. Fighter pilots in the USAF Reserve voluntarily left the service to work for the CIA because President Dwight D. Eisenhower thought that sending military pilots over the USSR would be interpreted as an act of war. They were Lockheed test pilots, officially speaking.

On July 4, 1956, the first U-2 mission over the USSR took place, and the aircraft returned with pictures of the shipyards in Leningrad. The US concluded that there was no “missile gap” or “bomber gap” favoring the Soviets, as many had feared, after several additional flights and the pictures they produced. In the end, the CIA conducted 24 U-2 flights over the USSR and many more over other communist nations.

Its employment remained a secret until May 1, 1960, when Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while it was conducting a reconnaissance flight over Soviet territory.

Kelly-Johnson-U-2 — Kelly Johnson and the iconic U-2 spy plane

Colonel Richard “Butch” Sheffield, SR-71 Blackbird Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO), recalls how the U-2 got its name in his unpublished book, “The Very First”.

‘The first six SR-71 crew members (Gray Sowers, Cos Mallozzi, John Storrie, Richard Sheffield, Al Hichew, and Tom Schmittou) were invited to Bob Gilliland’s house, looking over Los Angeles.

‘Tony LeVier [the test pilot who flew the first flight of the U-2] was sitting at Bob’s bar when we arrived. The story of how the U-2 was named came up. During the first flight at the Ranch, Kelly [Johnson] was on the radio telling Tony how to land the U-2, front wheel first. Every time Tony tried landing the front wheel first, the aircraft would bounce up into the air. Kelly insisted, finally Tony gave Kelly the finger as he bounced by, Kelly returned, giving Tony the finger, and yelled, “U-2” [I.E. you too].

‘The staff quickly wrote down the name.’

“Butch” Sheffield continues;

‘We had been briefed not to tell anyone why we were in Southern California or that we were Air Force Officers visiting the Skunk Works (SW). We were told to stay at a hotel on Hollywood Way a few miles from the SW. After a few days, one of the people working at the hotel said; “Why are all you Air Force Officers visiting the SW?” ‘We guessed that because of our Air Force issued “hack” watches and our short haircuts that anyone could guess who we were.

Grey-Sowers-Butch-Sheffield — SR-71 pilot Grey Sowers and SR-71 RSO Richard (Butch) Sheffield

‘The first six crewmembers did not have any time in the simulator before their first flight it wasn’t ready yet.’

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

Photos by U.S. Air Force, Lockheed Martin, and Linda Sheffield Miller

February 29, 2024 0 comment

Cold War

On his first Intruder hop, A-6 B/N’s pilot performed two dirty rolls while lined up for the final approach to NAS Whidbey Island runway

by Till Daisd February 28, 2024

written by Till Daisd

“I remember looking up out of the canopy at the cars passing under us on Highway 20. After we landed and got out of the plane I was really hyped – my first flight in the A-6 Intruder, the best plane in the known universe.”

The world’s first fully all-weather attack bomber, the A-6 Intruder, could locate and identify tactical or strategic targets in zero visibility and deliver conventional and nuclear weapons on them. Even though the Intruder didn’t win any beauty contests, it was very good at the task that it was given. With its five external store stations, the A-6 could carry all air-to-ground weapons of the United States and NATO, for a total payload of 18,000 pounds.

Two crew members operated the Intruder: a pilot and a bombardier-navigator (BN), who were seated next to each other. Service with the A-6A began in February 1963. Early on, the KA-3B Skywarrior was replaced by dedicated KA-6D tankers, which were converted from high-time A-6A aircraft to perform aerial refueling duties. Eventually, buddy stores made it possible for any A-6 to serve as a tanker.

As told by Mark Morgan & Rick Morgan in their book Intruder the Operational History of Grumman’s A-6, Cmdr. Arthur N. “Bud” Langston, known as “Buffalo, – or “Buff,” was something of a legend in the Intruder community, considered by many to be larger than life, and occasionally known for doing interesting things with the aircraft… and his B/Ns. During a tour with VA-52 in the mid-1970s he’d taken a “stash Ensign” [After receiving your commission as an officer in the Navy or Coast Guard, you must be stoked. But sometimes, there’s no room or money to train you, and you get stashed doing odd jobs. Sometimes you can get stashed places you would like and then suddenly it’s awesome] up one day for a fam hop in one of the Knightriders’ tankers. Years later the future B/N – who, like all stashes, was spending time in a fleet squadron while waiting for his school date at Pensacola – recalled a most unusual introduction to Naval Aviation courtesy of the Buffalo:

“The other two Ensigns and I took turns getting hops in the KA-6D. Actually, one other guy and I fought for flight time; the third guy wasn’t really interested in the Intruder and wanted to fly E-2s. Anyway, we both flew with several pilots and quickly determined who our favorites were, but generally they were all good. They treated us well, like regular members of the squadron, made sure we had Sierra Hotel flight jackets and name tags and ensured we were properly trained, both professionally and socially … usually at the O’ Club.

“The day of my first flight with the squadron our schedules officer, Bob Gibson, put me in a plane with Langston. I didn’t know much about him, but hell, flight time was flight time, even in the right seat of a KA. I don’t remember much of the flight; I think we just took off and tooled around Puget Sound and the Cascades for about an hour, then started back for Whidbey [Naval Air Station Whidbey Island]. Then it got interesting.

“Some of the pilots had us try communications, while others let us just sit in the right seat and take it all in,” he continues.

“On this hop, Langston did all the work. We lined up for final to runway 31 at NUW [3-letter code for NAS Whidbey Island], dirtied up – flats, slats, gear, etc – and then he called out a checklist item: ‘Ensure controls are free to the left,’ or some-thing to that effect. Wham! He slams the stick over and we quickly roll inverted, with everything normally hanging down now hanging up. I believe I thought something to the effect of, `Hey! This is neat!’ After we rolled around he called out, ‘Check controls to the right’ and around we went again. I remember looking up out of the canopy at the cars passing under us on Highway 20. After we landed and got out of the plane I was really hyped – my first flight in the Intruder, the best plane in the known universe, and all that. I felt like a true Knightrider and fairly bounced into the hangar. There was our skipper, Daryl Kerr, standing with his hands on his hips, looking out toward the ramp. With a big smile I walked up and waited for him to congratulate me on my first hop in the Intruder, but without shifting his gaze he just quietly said, ‘Go wait inside.’ I thought it was kind of curious, but didn’t say anything. In retrospect, I did get some strange looks from the other officers and some of the enlisted men after I got back in the squadron spaces.

“It was some time later I learned Skipper Kerr felt the need to have a private session with Lt. Langston; safety of flight issue or something like that. All I know is I didn’t fly with Langston again, and I don’t think the other two stashes did either.”

“Buffalo” survived his “go forth and sin no more” session with the skipper and went on to bigger and better things, assuming command of VA-145 on Dec. 7, 1984. Over the following years, he occasionally added to the legend as he moved up the career path, eventually making flag rank.

Intruder The Operational History of Grumman’s A-6 is published by Schiffer Publishing and is available to order here.

Photo by Rob Schleiffert from Holland via Wikipedia and U.S. Navy

February 28, 2024 0 comment

History

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

by Till Daisd February 27, 2024

written by Till Daisd

‘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

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