Now you don't have to buy the farm

Yes its the same machine imported in exchange for a Whirlwind .

Helicopter I trust ?????

Yes its the same machine imported in exchange for a Whirlwind .

Helicopter I trust ?????

Gunther Rall was very involved in the Starfighter project. In his book, My Logbook, Rall describes the project and all the mountains they had to climb during the development of the aircraft.
Also in the book, Rall mentions the resignation of Hartman. Rall makes it sound more like a clash of personalities rather than anything else. There was certainly no love lost between the two – a situation unchange since October 1942!!

Looking up Gunther Rall this morning – wiki says he was the one involved in the star fighter.

Saw a nice bit of unused Starfighter at Speyer – but was too expensive.

Wasn,t Hartman involved with getting the program up and running?

Erich Hartmann was a very outspoken opponent to the German F-104 program as I recall, and eventually resigned from the Luftwaffe over it, having clashed a number of times with senior brass about the jet

Amazing aeroplane. I well remember the Mildenhall airshows of the past where the Starfighters (cant remember the airforce) would approach from behind the crowd, and scare the cr@p out of everyone.
Also a solo aircraft would approach at low speed with everything down and fly past the crowd, only for another to come in unseen but at high speed / low level from behind it. Amazingly good timing. And you didn’t hear it until it was passing by.

Great days!

Am I right in thinking that to eject from the early Starfighters you had to roll upside down as the seat came out the bottom? Who thought up that design!

See following.

http://www.ejectionsite.com/yf104eject.htm

I might explain. The F-104 was at first designed with a “downward” ejection seat because it flew extremely fast at low altitude where, of course, the air is dense. Any ejection, up or down, at high speed would be like hitting a brick wall-a thick brick wall-at 700mph. No question: that’s Excedrin headache number 1! The seat ejection systems at that time were not powerful enough to eject the pilot “upward” for fear of jamming him, due to high pressure, into the horizontal and vertical tails, each having a leading edge with a .01-inch radius. I wasn’t ready for sliced “Suitcase”! Thus we ejected “downward.”

See following.

http://www.ejectionsite.com/f104seat.htm

From

http://www.ejectionsite.com/

Other aircraft also had downward ejection seats. For example some of the aircrew on B-52s

http://www.ejectionsite.com/b-52.htm

The Tu-22 Blinder also had downward ejection seats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_l_bBj3Fbc

TJ

Am I right in thinking that to eject from the early Starfighters you had to roll upside down as the seat came out the bottom? Who thought up that design!

I was told on my bang seat course that the first ever attempts by the Germans to develop a system during the war, the lever was attached to the canopy and it tore the unfortunate pilots arm(s) off when the canopy went, resulting in his death as he could then not bail out.

🙁

Remember this guy??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyBDEG9dg-Q

Wasn,t Hartman involved with getting the program up and running?

Yes its the same machine imported in exchange for a Whirlwind .

G’day folks,

I remember reading a fascinating article in an eighties issue of Flypast, about an English gent who bought a German Starfighter. The article described the complicated and round-about efforts required to get it to the UK.

Is this the same machine?

Cheers,
Matt

Its also worth pointing out that the role of the German Starfighters was quite different to other airforces and as part of that low level flying was the norm it incurrs a higher risk.

Germany was I believe the largest operator of the type – I recall a survey done of comparable types lost in the late 1970s found the Starfighter not to be the loss leader.

IIRC the heavy losses have been in the first third or first quarter of the time the GAF and German Navy used the Starfighters, due to rushed and improper or insufficient training / training methods, modifications that were highly demanding for the pilots, and maybe even not sufficiently qualified personnel.
Not to forget that the Starfighter was a very demanding a/c for it´s time. When the training / methods were improved, losses were reduced drastically.
One former Starfighterpilot told me once: “It was a superb fighter. But it needed…. experienced pilots, as it won´t forgive any mistakes. Nothing for second class guys.”

Michael

Germany was I believe the largest operator of the type – I recall a survey done of comparable types lost in the late 1970s found the Starfighter not to be the loss leader.

Am I right in thinking that to eject from the early Starfighters you had to roll upside down as the seat came out the bottom? Who thought up that design!

…… if you wanted your own Starfighter you had to buy a German farm and wait – ……

In those days it was a quite cynical remark, as lots of young pilots lost their lifes, and it was feared to open the next days paper, seeing another loss of a brave young man. There were several reasons that lead to those heavy losses, not the last that Germany wanted a new fighting force ASAP.

Michael

P.S.: Many parents and relatives were more and more upset and angry the longer it went…..

I am sure i saw one in the yard near Rome, two a penny them jets :diablo:

Gone up in price!

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=111329