![]() ![]() ![]() Just a few years ago this highly unorthodox, “space vehicle” flying was considered far too hazardous for any but the most experienced test pilot to attempt as an experiment, much less for sizable groups of Air Force personnel to perform routinely. Its purpose was to expose the students to exactly the same landings they would have to make in any type of advanced reentry vehicle or aerospace craft under consideration by the USAF. Obviously this training had little to do with normal airplane flying. But all were extremely rapid and the ‘104s consistently were hobbled until they could develop little lift. Some used circling X-15 style approaches. Some of the landings were of the straight-in dive type. He logged ten more such landings that morning, along with his fellow students from the Aerospace Research Pilot School who were flying the other aircraft in the F-104 formation. As the engine rpm nudged 100 percent’ he lifted into an easy climb to return to altitude. The pilot relaxed and eased in his seat as he gently pushed the throttle forward and ran along the ground for five seconds, waiting until the J79 turbojet ran up to full power. As the nose came up over the horizon, he held five degrees on the angle of attack indicator and the ‘104 dropped to the runway, with its tires streaking smoke as they smacked down in a 195-mph touchdown. The ‘104 rounded into its flare and the pilot picked up his second aiming point, a large white stripe on the edge of the runway. Automatically, his attention shifted to the accelerometer, the only gauge that could guide him in completing the “landing.” Steadily he increased back pressure on the stick until the accelerometer showed two Gs, and he held it without a waiver. Precisely at 1,400 feet altitude, less than six seconds from the desert that seemed to be climbing into the cockpit, he began a smooth pullup. He was taking one breath every two seconds, and beginning to sweat in the light flying suit. His heart was beating 170 times a minute. If the rate-of-climb gauge had still been functioning, it would have shown that the rate of descent was just above the 15,000-feet-per-minute mark.Īs the dive stabilized, the pilot concentrated on his aiming point and the whirling altimeter needle, oblivious to the fact that, as he approached the most crucial part of his piloting task, the tension was driving his pulse and respiration rate up to more than twice normal. He fixed his eyes on a small patch of green foliage, his first aiming point, 500 feet from the edge of the runway and 5,500 feet from the prescribed touchdown point on the runway.ĭuring the next few seconds, as the Rogers Lake bed accelerated its upward rush, he held the gunsight on the aiming point while adjusting his speed brakes to maintain 340 mph indicated airspeed. ![]() Turning the ‘104’s long nose down to a dive angle of about thirty degrees, the pilot double-checked his course to see that it lined up with his target-the 15,000-foot-long main runway at Edwards Air Force Base. As the drag-heavy ‘104, with its lift power hobbled, began to drop “like a rock,” the rate-of-climb needle circled around to the negative side and banged to a stop, indicating that the rate of descent was more than 6,000 feet per minute. Raising the nose he killed off speed, and when the indicated airspeed reached 330 mph, the pilot dropped and locked his landing gear. He extended the speed brakes full out, nearly doubling the aircraft’s drag and killing the lift over most of its stubby wings. With practiced deliberateness he pulled the throttle back to idle and killed his power. On command, one dropped out of formation and turned leisurely down toward the broad expanse of the dry lake bed.Īt 20,000 feet, the pilot began to break, one after another, the most sacred rules of F-104 flying. Shortly after first light on a morning not long ago, a loose formation of F-104As circled high above Rogers Dry Lake, sixty-five miles northeast of Los Angeles. ![]()
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