[AR] Re: Amateurs and HSF
- From: "crogers168" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ("crogers168")
- To: "hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2022 20:23:37 +0000 (UTC)
Below is a link to an excellent paper on the USAF/Lockheed NF-104A Aerospace
Trainer. It has a lot of technical details on managing the passing through
apogee with very low dynamic pressure (as low as 2 psf) using a Reaction
Control System (RCS), and a lot of technical and historical details on the
NF-104A.
Microsoft Word - AIAA-2005-3537-X.doc (916-starfighter.de)
Starting on the 3rd paragraph on Page 13, continuing through Page 15, are
details on the Yeager NF-104A accident.
Charles E. (Chuck) Rogers
-----Original Message-----
From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tue, Jul 26, 2022 11:24 pm
Subject: [AR] Re: Amateurs and HSF
On Tue, 26 Jul 2022, roxanna Mason wrote:
In the film, The Right Stuff, there was a scene where a pilot took a jet
as high as it could go by its momentum, then flamed out and lost the jet
but ejected successfully. Was that based on a real event and if so how
high did he go?
That was Chuck Yeager, although as usual with The Right Stuff, the film's
version departs from the reality more than slightly. :-) The aircraft
shown in the film is a stock F-104G, but Yeager's actual flight was in one
of the USAF Test Pilot School's NF-104s, with rocket boost. The NF-104
was flown to about 120kft once or twice, but if I recall correctly,
Yeager's flight topped out a little over 100kft.
Even that was high enough to require using RCS thrusters to set up the
proper angle for descent, and Yeager hadn't paid enough attention to the
fine points of RCS flying (and probably waited too long to get started
too), and didn't get the aircraft pointed correctly. And even a normal
F-104 was notoriously a totally unforgiving aircraft where any mistake was
bad news, so the outcome was predictable.
Henry
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