Picture of the day

AP said:
I had a discussion with a drunken CF pilot type in a mess one evening who flew 104’s in W.Germany and he explained how they ‘tossed’ the bomb while in a steep climb and then came out of the loop and then flew as fast as they could anywhere they wanted...the presumption being that every Nato airbase that had (or might have) nuclear weapons would have been already vaporized... so no going back there
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Yes, that was the "recommended" maneuver. Of course the shock wave from the nuke travels at about mach 3, so just before it overtakes you from behind you had to eject. Reality was there was no going back, effectively it was "kamikaze".
 
Rod B said:
The F104 had the nick name "Widow Maker". Many German pilots were killed in accidents while flying them.
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Yes —-in fact if they wanted a monument to a ‘zell’ starfighter to be a historically accurate representation they should have depicted it in an downward attitude - spearing the ground.
 
Rod B said:
The F104 had the nick name "Widow Maker". Many German pilots were killed in accidents while flying them.
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I know, when I was in Lahr a German joke was that if you wanted to own your very own F-104 fighter plane for yourself, all you had to do is buy some land and wait a while.
 
Deeply flawed, sure, but still a very pretty airplane:

F-104-US-NAVY-678x381.jpg


Canadair-CF-104-Starfighter--Serial-No--12770---Aug-1964--Bob-Jackson.jpg
 
XRCD011 said:
Wow those Germans just could not let that Manned V-1 idea rest now could they ?
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Iirc it was claimed the Americans originated the Z.L.L idea. Trialed with the Thunderjet & then the F100. The Russians tried it out with the MIG19. Supposedly all nations abandoned ZELL. I do not know if there was a follow on STOL project to give common fighter bombers an assisted take off other than some mysterious capabilities with fighter bombers & catapults on land bases. I don't know the name for that type of system. We all have seen the clips of C130's taking off with rocket assist.
 
BillOngena.jpg


Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Ognena. He successfully performed a maneuver called a 'touch - roll - touch' with his Belgian Airforce Starfighter.

All Starfighter pilots from every nation knew what their job was in time of war. Talk about a harsh reality. Theirs was to fight 'a war with no battles, no monuments - only casualties'. Casualties aplenty. It appears Starfighter squadrons were to be expended like ammunition when push came to shove. I therefore propose a toast to the 'last Starfighters' :)
 
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Rod B said:
The F104 had the nick name "Widow Maker". Many German pilots were killed in accidents while flying them.
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The F-104 ejection seat story is a classic story of the evolution of egress systems over the service life of an aircraft. In those days, the USAF would specify to the aircraft manufacturers (e.g. Lockheed) the requirements of the aircraft subsystems. In the case of the egress system these specifications would include such items as minimum/maximum altitude and minimum/maximum airspeed envelope. In the early days of the XF-104 program, it was decided due to the limitations of the available ejection seat catapults, the ejection seat should fire downwards. This allowed for the best capability of clearing aircraft structure, including the vertical fin at higher speeds. It also effected the windblast on the pilot.
Later the seats were replaced with an upward firing seat, once capable catapults were available. These seats served well in USAF service, but were still not considered suitable for extreme low level ejections with high sink rates. This was a particular problem to the German Luftwaffe, which used the F-104G as a low level attack plane. They initiated programs to have the seats upgraded, and eventually decided to have the seats replaced with a seat of Martin-Baker design.

High speed interceptor turned into a low level attack plane didn't bode well.

Grizz
 
For those curious as to what the hell a "touch-roll-touch" manouvre is:

[youtube]jyBDEG9dg-Q[/youtube]

Frickin' nuts-insane-nine-martinis-for-lunch-crazy is what it is.
 
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Dark Alley Dan said:
For those curious as to what the hell a "touch-roll-touch" manouvre is:

[youtube]jyBDEG9dg-Q[/youtube]

Frickin' nuts-insane-nine-martinis-for-lunch-crazy is what it is.
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big f’ing deal! — I did that in my car once - and it was ‘end over end’ - AND I was cold stone sober (well a little hung over) on the 401 .... ok so it wasnt a full 360 just a 180 but I got enough air for a 360 .... and the touchdown was pretty slick cause I launched while traveling backwards
 
Might have been a maneuver to cope with the downwards ejecting early Lockheed seats at low altitude. Better than splattering the pilot against the tarmac.
 
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ptz5kl0ba7321.jpg


This from Reddit:

This a picture of Ethiopian war hero Ebeneser Lembe who was renowned for his tactics and skills as a marksman. He was also known as "Genchuka Belik" meaning Crocodile Skin in Ethiopian, because he was shot many times and managed to survive.
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Digging the Tactical Afro.

Any ideas re: the Mauser? Not a standard issue Ethiopian model...
 
FN and Mauser did sell Mausers to Ethiopia before war.Did CZ Brno also sell them there?They sold ZB vz 26,maybe some Vz 24 rifles were send there as well.

Except for Mauser made,all those rifles looked much like one on picture above.
 
fat tony said:
BillOngena.jpg


Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Ognena. He successfully performed a maneuver called a 'touch - roll - touch' with his Belgian Airforce Starfighter.

All Starfighter pilots from every nation knew what their job was in time of war. Talk about a harsh reality. Theirs was to fight 'a war with no battles, no monuments - only casualties'. Casualties aplenty. It appears Starfighter squadrons were to be expended like ammunition when push came to shove. I propose a toast to the 'last Starfighters' :)
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I've told this Starfighter story before on CGN ....

The Sennelager DZ in Germany was off limits to fixed wing aircraft except for the DH Rapide (Rheingold, aka "Ringo") of the Rhine Army Parachute Association. One afternoon a lone 104 with German markings made a tight, low level pass over the DZ. The Chief Instructor immediately got on the horn to RAF Gutersloh demanding an explanation.

His wingman had just suffered a flame out over the city of Bielefeldt and he was circling back to see what happened to his mate. The pilot of the flame out 104 ignored instructions to bail out and chose to fly his aircraft into the ground, flying it into a sports field in the heart of the city.

That was heroic.
 
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