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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0489.PDF
After the unveiling, the F-104A —with its intakes blanked off, as we lamented last week—was rolled outside on to the apron. There our photographer found the test pilots "Fish" Salmon (left) and Joe Ozier, who shared the flying on April 17th. Undercarriage geometry was described in some detail last week. All F-104s have four wheel doors, the rear pair being linked to the unusual main legs. The nose undercarriage unit (far left) is steerable. .. At take-off the YF-104 presents a fearsome aspect, the incongruity of which is in no way lessened by the grotesque retraction sequence of the landing gear. The photo- graph was taken 5,000ft from the end of the Palmdale runway; speed was approximately 240 knots. (This aircraft is a J65-powered prototype. No production F-104A was allowed to fly close to the ground, owing to the secrecy surrounding its intakes, which have shock-forming wedges extending well forward to give multi-shock diffusion.) Landing, the same aircraft—one of the J65 Sapphire-powered proto- types—streams its braking para- chute to ease the wear and tear on the Bendix multi-disc brakes.
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