New land speed record attempt

[Napoleon]

This guy plans to use a converted Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/science/21speed.html?hpw

[SteveH]

Geeez, when I opened that link for a second I thought I was seeing an AAR Eagle get passed by a TCGR Reynard.

[Elmo T]

Nice looking car or plane or whatever. :thumbup:

The F104 has the glide characteristics of a brick, but it was always fast.

One of my favorite f104 photos:

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/F-104/Small/EC76-5145.jpg

[oddlycalm]

There was a local TV documentary on these guys when they first started out. This is a real garage shop lashup that is 90% salvaged parts, but they are stubborn guys and are systematically figuring it out. The rear axle is nothing more than a steel beam cut to the correct length and bolted onto the fuselage... :D

Nice to see someone has loaned them a good quality engine. It was painful to watch them spending weeks at a test stand out in the woods with barely a roof over it in the cold drizzle trying to dial in the fuel rack to get the afterburner working.

Hope they do well but most of all I hope nobody gets hurt.

oc

[cameraman]

Those were unbelievably loud planes. I was in northern Germany in 1978 between Bremen & Hamburg and the German air force was doing treetop level training with their F104s. They were low enough that you could smell the exhaust after they by. They were literally flying around groups of trees instead of over them. That was a loooong couple of weeks.

[G.]

Nice to see someone has loaned them a good quality engine. It was painful to watch them spending weeks at a test stand out in the woods with barely a roof over it in the cold drizzle trying to dial in the fuel rack to get the afterburner working.


That was posted here, wasn't it?

[Methanolandbrats]

Those were unbelievably loud planes. I was in northern Germany in 1978 between Bremen & Hamburg and the German air force was doing treetop level training with their F104s. They were low enough that you could smell the exhaust after they by. They were literally flying around groups of trees instead of over them. That was a loooong couple of weeks. They do that in the Blue Ridge Mountains too. Sitting at a friends cabin and you don't hear them coming, all of a sudden you're looking up at rivets and the pilots helmet in clear detail, then gone...........really, really low and loud. Scares the **** out you when they do that.

[stroker]

Didn't Darryl Greenamyer already do that?

[oddlycalm]

Scares the **** out you when they do that.

Pilots love to buzz the locals. I was riding my sled across the dessert at the crack of dawn on I-10 west of Needles on the way to Palm Springs nursing a hangover and without another vehicle anywhere to be seen when a couple of marine corp pilots in F18's right down on the deck on their way from Yuma to 29 Palms buzzed me. The shock wave blew me over two lanes and by the time I got the bike under control I just got a glimpse of them disappearing over the rise in the distance. Lucky I was way over in the left hand lane to avoid the bumps and that I was so dehydrated I didn't wet myself...:gomer:

oc

[oddlycalm]

That was posted here, wasn't it?

G., that was 5yrs ago and a big challenge for me is remembering fish & chips Fridays at the local choke and puke.....:gomer:

Fortunately YouTube remembers for us. The part about trying to get the afterburner working up in BC is at the beginning of part 2.

oc

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[oddlycalm]

Those were unbelievably loud planes.

Agreed, I don't know what it is about it but the J79 has that unique penetrating howl. A real ear shredder.

oc

[coolhand]

Yeah, same is true with older air liners. The noise and the faint black plume

[Gnam]

I support this method of recycling. :thumbup: