F-104 intercept / G650ER - "One More Orbit" World Record Flight 

...now your father can fly in peace in heaven 🙏.....and will protect you and your family from a higher Level. Best regard from Germany

That is a beautiful sentiment, thank you for sharing

They just landed the day after yesterday

WORST AERODYNAMICS, LIKE FLYING A RATTLE TRAP BARREL. NICKNAMED THE WIDOW MAKER. THIS COMING FROM 104 AIR FORCE PILOTS. MAJOR DESIGN FLAW: WINGS TOO SHORT. (P-51 MUSTANG GALLOPING GHOST CRASHED DUE TO OVER MODIFYING WINGS: CUT TOO SHORT, LESS WING = LESS DRAG + LESS LIFT). I DO AGREE THE AIR FRAME SHAPE IS TIMELESS.

@Leo Peridot I prefer the Italian nickname "Spillone" (Big Pin). "Widow maker" was used by German publilc opinion due to the significant rate of losses suffered by its military aviation (292 losses over 916 planes total).

@@williampercival7662 Or the day before tomorrow.

@@seymourscagnetti1413 please..read NSTB report, before writing idiocy! read also about history...about nickname

Aluminum death tube

The mig-21 had similar bleed air flaps

Yes....very close. For the single seat, base turn speed with full flaps, is 200Knots min, speed on final 175 Knots min. With Flap T/O (no bleed) base turn min speed 230 Knots, final speed 195 knots min. No Flap, there is no base turn, only long final (15 NM or so min) speed on final, 230 Knots minimum. All these speeds are considered with no fuel. For each 1000# of fuel = speed adjustment of 5knots. Same concept for any additional weight (payload). The bird likes to go fast.

@@PiercarloCiacchi 1000ft 5nm ..... e ricordarsi di estrarre il parafreno sotto i 180kts 😉

Flaps in landing position: Bleed air comes right from the 17th compressor stage of the J-79s 8 and 4 o'clock bleed air outlet (uncooled), goes through the BLC (boundary layer control) valve, inside tubes in the wings and then directly on to the trailing edge flaps via a row of nozzles between the flaps and the wing itself. There is also a symmetric system with a cam which detects if the flaps are actually extended at the same time. If not the flaps automatically retract. I am currently working on 2-3 F-104G whose purpose is to act as practical exercises for us trainees. These are beautiful machines, but they are very hard to maintain because you literally can't reach anywhere without breaking your arms 😬

Reasonable speeds for a lawn dart. :-D

It was my first thought at the start of the formation flying. However I'm guessing the vortices put out by the Gulfstream are much less, especially with the winglets.

Yes, that was definitely very close. Deja-vu

Me too!

Though about that also, but didn’t roll it over the top😅

My Father had worked on the XB-70 inlet fairings and engine nacelles. He had some choice words for the Air Force Brass who approved an unnecessary photo shoot that led to the death of Walker in his F-104 and the XB-70 #2 and one of its pilots.

Dad did this often, once right over Cold Lake Tower.

did you see challenger in '86?

Don't associate this classic, artistic jet with that vulgar and idiotic low-brow franchise. It's an insult. If this jet was "Fast and the Furious" it would have neon lights and giant chrome wheels and a magical "NOS" button that makes the jet go Mach 4 whenever the button is pushed. The whole FF franchise is full of stupid gimmicks and unrealistic fantasy aimed at adolescent boy's imaginations. They are all trick shots and ridiculous, impossible stunts and cars dressed up like cheap whores. The F-104 is a pure performer, straight and simple, with lines of classic beauty, and with an air of actual tragedy and heroism around it.

More than 50

Very true....F104 not designed for dog fight.

@@PiercarloCiacchi a flight of 2 could turn with the Best of them!😉

Asa-m ex Ami

Yes, the panel was not designed to dazzle the onlookers.

Not that incredible. The M.C72 floatplane from the 1930s is still the fastest seaplane ever built. Because no one ever bothered to top it. Pretty much the same with the F-104. Afterwards there wasn't much need to go faster or climb faster (although the F-15 and F-22 and co. do in most categories). When the F-104 was built they needed to get the jet up and in attack position fast, since that was the only way to shoot the bombers down. Afterwards they started designing long range AA and SA missiles, and the need was reduced. Many later jets passed in incidentally in some areas, but no one was trying to built jets just to climb as quickly and fly as fast as possible anymore. So the F-104 has managed to keep a few records...because no one was really trying to beat them. Only militaries developing new combat aircraft have the kinds of funds needed to push a high-performance aircraft design project through, and if the military doesn't need speed and climb as the primary parameter any more, the jets the do built will be designed to other requirements. The military doesn't want manned missiles, and no one else can afford to build them. So here we are.

Too slow compared with UFO pliots

Ma grande Dario!! Un abbraccione!!! Che spettacolo!

Guess no Russian MiG then could catch it, huh? At Army National Guard Camp Robinson, Arkansas there is an old star fighter sitting there on static display. She has not been cared for like she deserves...

Russian MiGs were sitting on the ground during the Hungarian revolution. A very few helos flew with red stars, mostly VIP-transports to avoid having to use public roads. The rebels did not really have any anti-air capacities nor readyness. One Mi-4 was even mistaken by the folks as bringing the UN Secretary /I think it was Hammarskjöld/...but he was busy elsewhere. BTW: By last days of 1956 a limited-distribution, semi-secret Hungarian periodical of the army already reported a page-lon (incl. head-on photo) of the Starfighter. And as one result of this "visit"...Hungary received shortly some MiG-21 P13-s. /by April 4 1957 those appeared on the parade/. Until then the fastest interceptor they had were MiG-19 and Yak-25-s.

Yes sir! A year later they were in Thailand for about a year.

I’d give that and both of my kidneys to get a ride in one of them! XD

Yep its clear where they got the U2's shape from it from it - just stretch the wings. F-104 could zoom to 103kft. Some special versions, JF-104 and NF-104 went up to 120kft.

I doubt he flew the Streak Eagle. There was only one of those ever built, a special stripped down version of the F-15 meant to take back the world speed and climb record from the Soviets. It was never a normal operational aircraft, and it went right to the museum not long after they broke the records. Not much point in keeping it around, since it was useless for operational duty and was a famous plane now. You probably mean either the normal F-15 Eagle, or the F-15E _Strike_ Eagle, the later strike version of the plane. Either that our your grandfather was a big muckity muck, but I find that hard to believe. I thought for years that my grandfather served on "Heavenly Bodies", the B-25 that is now on display in the Smithsonian. I told all kinds of people about it. I asked him about it years later, and he was like 'no, no, it was just a regular B-25" (although it was a solid-nose gunship version). He took me into his office when I was a kid, because he heard I liked military aircraft and history, and he showed me a print he had hanging on his wall, showing the Smithsonian's "Heavenly Bodies". He said "that was my plane, the one I served on in WWII". I assumed that he meant THAT particular plane was his, and when I later saw the same plane in the museum, I was very excited. Turns out he just meant that TYPE of plane was his. I should have known better, but I was young and foolish.

Let's do it!!