mlewis@unocss.unomaha.edu (mlewis) (08/05/90)
From: dsndata!mlewis@unocss.unomaha.edu (mlewis)
I read stuff off-line, so I can't properly folow up, but here goes.
My dad was a fighter/bomber pilot in France in the '50's and flew
gunnery with Chuck Yeager (and says he consistently out-shot him) and
Mike Collins (the one who orbitted while others claimed the glory on the
moon), among others. The A/C at (I think) the 3501st Fighter/Bomber
Squadron was one of the F-86's (D, I think). Some of the ONLY war
stories I ever got from him relate to those three years (1957-59).
Painting an F-84 during the last night of a TDY, and immediately going
TDY with the French AF to avoid having to go back to Italy, TDY,
to that same squadron, the day after her returned.
In the mid-60's we were at George AFB, where he flew F-104's. There's
where the good stuff is. The only time I ever saw my dad in anything
approaching a state of rapture was the day he came back from Edwards.
They had let him fly a F-104N, which was slightly assisted by a rocket
motor in the rear. He was high for days! Apparently they made him
level off at 90,000 feet. Other tales on this airframe regarded an
alleged (I never saw it) "Scalp List" in the pilot's lounge. Swinging
under the wing during a preflight was considered hazardous, with those
razor blades attached to the fuselage. THOSE I saw, so I believe.
When George was transitioning to the F-4C, the "Zipper" pilots tried to
sneak a large papier mache white elephant into the squadron blessed
with these unlovely monsters. My dad never liked the F-4: too smoky,
slow, loud, clutsy. Some dogfight stories there.
He claims to have demonstrated that a Gooney Bird could indeed roll, or
would have had the pilot let him finish.
One of the old saws about the F-104 was that, if you wanted one, just
buy some land in Germany and wait... A canard that is based on the same
problems the Brits had with the Harrier's safety record in the USMC.
The Brits required megahours in high-performance AC before trusting a
pilot with a Harrier, while the US routinely puts newly-fledged warriors
in charge of these skittish things. The Starfighter was not a plane for
a butterbar to fly, at least not for long.
Sorry, this rambles, but I got an excuse, just ask.
Marc
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Na khuya mne ehto gavno? | Internet: cs057@zeus.unomaha.edu
preferred machine->| UUCP: uunet!mcmi!unocss!mlewis
---------------------------------------------------------------------------