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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0392.PDF
Clearance plane above aircraft's altitude Clearance plane at 0 Clearance plane below aircraft's altitude FLIGHT Intertoi 14 March 372 Three Nasarr "jeep cans" plugged into a test set made by Compagnie Beige d'Electronique et d'Automatisme (Cobelda) Radar indicator -Above Above -Below Below Clearance plane and antenna tilt indicator Contour mapping mode of Nasarr, showing the horizontal clearance plane above, below and level with the aircraft Nasarr test bays in the MBLE factory at Brussels F-104G STARFIGHTER . . . for such a manoeuvre were 7,000ft and 4,000ft according to one pilot and 12,000ft-15,000ft and 7,000ft-8,000ft according to another. The dead-stick best glide speed was well over 300kt and the rate of descent up to 7,000ft/min. The flare-out had to be begun at about 1,500ft. This compares very favourably with Dyna-Soar, on which dead-stick landings will, of course, be routine. Power-limited ceiling—without zooming—for the F-104G was said to be 65,000ft. During one demonstration at Manching, an F-104G flew from Manching to the Bodensee and back, about 200 miles each way, making the outward flight at 40,000ft and mostly at Mach 1.8. The return was made in ten or 12 minutes at a speed of well over 1,000 m.p.h., the pilot reporting Mach numbers of around 1.4. German pilots claimed that with four external tanks they could fly at low level at 420kt for two hours with a fuel consumption of 4,3001b/hr. Range could be improved if the tanks were jettisoned when empty. The Lockheed C-2 rocket ejection seat had proved excellent. Up to last August five successful ejections had been made, two of them at very low level. During several demonstrations in Germany and Belgium, landing and take-off runs with normal external tankage appeared to be comparable to those of a Lightning, and certainly far better than indicated by the exceptional length of the runway at Manching. Pilots were quite happy to demonstrate the fairly limited aerobatics one expects of the majority of supersonic aircraft, but Bernard Neefs of Avions Fairey produced a spectacular show by any standards. One manoeuvre was to make a normal approach and landing, and then apply full power and roll the aircraft at about 200ft during the overshoot, with the gear and take-off flap still extended. He said afterwards that a roll with high-lift devices extended could be "a tricky manoeuvre." Without its very extensive electronics the F-104G would have very limited value, as the USAF air defence squadrons apparently discovered. But with its inertial system, autopilot and radar it should become a potent weapon, and one which is not impossibly difficult to operate effectively. Certainly the German test pilots appear to have confidence in their ability to press home an attack hundreds of miles from base with relative immunity from ground defences. Nasarr component breakdown, showing the "jeep cans" at left, indicators in the centre and nose-mounted units at right /• * *>»•.
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