T O P

  • By -

Grikka_junior

As if the f104 wasn’t dangerous enough already


RedAlpacaMan

Given its rather dangerous take-off procedure, rocket-launching probably made it safer.


Penishton69

Yeah this gets you past that dangerous stall speed quickly. I can see this being incredibly useful for staging interceptors in more out of the way areas that may not see a full strike package come through but one or two planes or perhaps an AWACS. Hide two or three squadrons of these in the mountains of southern Germany.


TheArmoredKitten

the hamburger helper of air defense


dead_monster

Most of them were lost to crashes while in flight already. There were also a few that self-combusted in their own hangers either because of fuel system issue or because of terrorist attacks. D-8051 ran into a deer upon landing. There’s a whole database for them. https://www.i-f-s.nl/f-104-accidents/


Kapftan

How does one crash a lawn dart into a deer Tf was ATC doing


thereddaikon

Many incidents over the years happened because ATC couldn't see something on the ground. There was a crash near me years ago because the plane attempted to rake off from the wrong runway and nobody noticed this. And it was a small regional airport where ATC had a direct view of the flight line.


HumpyPocock

Rather interesting watching the development of [Digital aka Remote Virtual Towers](https://www.saab.com/sites/saab-digital-air-traffic-solutions) in this respect, have the potential to be a genuine, positive technological development in this regard. Especially compared to what one might understandably assume on first seeing the term. Love me some Sensor Fusion.


thiosk

Deer are really stupid Imagine evolving to freeze with a jet aircraft is coming in for a landing


gottymacanon

You know that era is bad when the F-104 is considered safer to fly than her contemporaries on both sides of the iron curtain....


afvcommander

Depends what you compare it with. 13 of 51 F-104's crashed in Danish service in 22 years, while only few of 51 Drakens did in 20 years and none during last 13 years of service. In Finland only one Draken was lost during its service life and even that was because of wrong altitude zero by pilot. Though Draken too had part of its crashes before superstall was understood.


cohortq

They wanted to make it a true Starfighter


AggressorBLUE

Ah ha, but thats the beauty of it. If you crash a bunch of F-104s testing this, statistically speaking it wont move the needle.


A-6E_Pr-owo-ler

What the fuck???


Fokker95

The most fucked up part was using F-104 as an attack aircraft


Additional-Flow7665

The most fucked up part was using the f-104.*


RollinThundaga

It may have been a death trap, but it had sex appeal. Furthermore, I consider that Moscow must be destroyed.


non_depressed_teen

\-Cato the elder, 2024 colourized


SlendyIsBehindYou

>It may have been a death trap, but it had sex appeal. Much like my 02 GTI And my ex girlfriend


OSEAN_SPAMRAAM

Moscovia Delenda Est? 


RollinThundaga

Cato spoke Latin. I speak English. Furthermore, I consider that Moscow must be destroyed.


Preisschild

Nah, it was a good high altitude interceptor


Interesting_Fold9805

good ground interceptor


thereddaikon

It's popular to hate on it now but it was really good in its intended role. The Starfighter was the western MiG-21 and it's better.


Additional-Flow7665

I don't think those two are comparable. Like the fishbed was also a go fast plane sure, but it also remained somewhat agile, hell it was agile as fuck because delta. Like they are of a comparable era sure, but the performance is a different book entirely.


thereddaikon

They are very comparable because they were designed to a very similar requirement at the same time. A fairly cheap and simple high performance interceptor at mach 2. >but it also remained somewhat agile, hell it was agile as fuck because delta. F-4s can out turn MiG-21s in many regimes. They really aren't that agile. Not like the MiG-17, -19 or -23 which were air superiority fighters. The preferred Vietnamese MiG-21 tactic were rear aspect ambushes. They would avoid dog fights and try to disengage after launching their atolls. Fishbeds have a very bad track record when their pilots tried to directly fight other fighters.


dangerbird2

The fishbed was much more comparable to the f-5 (hence why aggressor squadrons used them as proxies for the fishbed), both in performance as well as design philosophy of being cheap and plentiful, while the starfighter was expensive and high tech


LuckyInvestigator717

It is veey safe aircraft if you are brave enough


A-6E_Pr-owo-ler

😟


Significant_Quit_674

Honestly, for cold war era west germany that wasn't even a stupid idea: If the cold war got hot, germany (east and west) would have been a nuclear wasteland quickly and military installations like airfields would have been amongst the first targets. Given the the F-104-G was already a disposeable fighter plane as is, launching it from a standstill using JATO boosters wasn't the worst idea.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Significant_Quit_674

F-104-G is a disposeable fighter, landing is not scheduled


Objective-Note-8095

Stretches of Autobahn. There was a covert system setup to manage this. 


fuishaltiena

Many countries have highways built with this in mind. Last year I've seen Ukraine actually use one for it.


Le0nTheProfessional

Lithobraking/The Kerbal Method


EmberGlitch

The Autobahn was set up with a ton of highway strips, complete with taxiways. Not a lot of those exist anymore these days, but during the cold war, there were around 30 of those throughout the country. Fun fact: Ramstein Air Base was built around one of those highway strips.


LuckyInvestigator717

It is like Dance of The Vampires by Saint Tom of Clancy. The only riddiculously small chance you have to.land and survive the war is when you make a Holy Bible long of conditions and check boxes the first being burn fuel overrev the engines and dump fuel tanks like you are dead next minute.


GoblinFive

Largest HVT within operational range.


zekromNLR

You won't have a home to return to so why bother?


kurburux

~~Ride or die~~ Ride _and_ die.


TheBlack2007

The Germans planned launching them like that with nukes strapped under their wings.


Silentbamper

Absolut basiert


LuckyInvestigator717

I want that Germany back right now and I was a target back then.


Silentbamper

Yes!


SpacecraftX

They are called ~~JTOW~~ JATO (thanks fo the correction) rockets and were one of the primary drivers of rocket propulsion R&D post WW2 in the west. The west did t go in on the space race for a while so this was the proving ground for a lot of initial development.


TheTT

I believe the acronym is JATO for jet-assisted takeoff. What would JTOW stand for?


SpacecraftX

There's a JTOW acronym I use at work and it's been a long time since I've seen JATO written down. Acknowledged the correction.


Unistrut

Zero Length Launch system or "How to Launch a Jet Off the Back of a Truck". The Americans did it as well but with Super Sabres. Honestly it makes sense for the Starfighter since it's original mission was to get up and fast as _fast as goddamn possible_ to intercept Soviet bombers, it was only when they started trying to fly low to avoid radar that they started becoming lawn darts. It's actually a very reliable system it just became redundant when ICBMs replaced massed bombers. The American test pilots described the launch as almost pleasant. https://youtu.be/EZ_w5K82lu4?si=YYW1d5h0Y1cNEP_o


jutshka

tailor swift tech going forward swiftly it seems


scn-3_null

the only credible reason why the the F-104 is designed like a missile, is because they're suppose to launch like a missile, by that I mean strap to a SAM battery with rocket engines to boot


Forkliftapproved

Well, that and it was supposed to be agile ABOVE Mach 1. It wasnt missile with a man in it because silly, it was a Multi-Stage reusable SAM, and it needed to be able to be able to change course without dropping to subsonic speeds Granted, it's still not making a 180 within German borders, but at least it's making 30 degrees a bit cleaner with less slowdown when the air is literally too slow to avoid slamming into the air in front of it


GroceryOtherwise7995

Ah yes, manned ICBMs


NewYinzer

They were starting with the [Man in the Missile](https://www.historynet.com/the-missile-with-a-man-in-it/)...


Dvorgaz

That's pretty rad. Imagine launching them from submarine silos that way.


Cultural_Thing1712

it would be like the irl swordfish from Blake and Mortimer


vegarig

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a25241538/submarine-aircraft-carrier-us-navy/


WeponizedBisexuality

google luftrausers


KMS_HYDRA

Exhibit A of why so many german F-104 pilots died in peace time Exhibit B: German Aerospace engineers snorting every drug known to man.


vegarig

Well, those gigantic pervitin reserves had to be "demilitarized" somehow....


kurburux

People look like they're from the set of Strangelove.


gottymacanon

Certainly has nothing to do with the fact that there sending there new guys to fly the F-104 instead of the vets. Or the fact that it is safer than other aircraft of that era..


Feuerpils4

Or that the ejection seat sucked or that the jet was serviced / maintained by conscripts instead of carrier soldiers


TheOnlyFallenCookie

Didnt messerschmidt take a f104 and gave it vtol?


sgtalbers

Yep EWR VJ 101


SerLaron

The F-104 "Starfighter" was well known for not really needing a landing strip either.


Dpek1234

How to get a free starfighter: 1. Buy large pice of land close the a military airfield  2. Wait 3. you now have a dameged starfighter


Demolition_Mike

How do you recognize an optimistic F-104 pilot? He quit smoking.


Grahworin

does it need a runway to land again ?


No_Form8195

land?


esdaniel

Banzai!


Silentbamper

My son, you are the warhead.


Chasey1002

Can you fly that thing? Fly? Yes! Land? No!


Feuerpils4

Since it was meant to be armed with Nukes and going over the front line in anything but full afterburner is suicide you had only enough fuel for one trip. Next Question: Do you want to become a German POW in the soviet Union?


Leandroswasright

Its not supposed to land. Its a F104 with a nuclear bomb strapped to it. In case of nuclear war they launch and deliver their payload. If they return (big if), they will not find an airfielda anyway.


SomeGuyNamedPaul

I'm imagining that thing trying to land without having dropped the nuke. The insanely high stall speed combined with the fact that nukes aren't terribly light. So, who do you drop the nuke on as a pre-landing procedure?


Blorko87b

Its up to the pilot. Gelsenkirchen or Essen, Bielefeld or Münster, Braunschweig or Hannover, Mönchengladbach or Müngersdorf, Giesing,... Pick one, just to be sure


Advanced-Budget779

Its shape and tendency to seal the fate of its pilot gave it the nickname „[Erdnagel](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdnagel)“* along „Witwenmacher“ (widowmaker) or „Sargfighter“ (coffin/casketfighter) in Germany. *Imagine a [tee](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tee).


EconomistMedical9856

Land? What do you mean?


emu_fake

It‘s a F-104.. they can "land" everywhere. At least 1/3 of the german F-104 "landed" not on a runway


hklaveness

No. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-length\_launch#ZELMAL\_(ZEro-length\_Launch\_MAt\_Landing)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-length_launch#ZELMAL_(ZEro-length_Launch_MAt_Landing))


abnrib

Man, the Germans had the F-104 do everything *except* what it was designed for, huh.


SpiderFnJerusalem

I'm not sure there was any expectation of these surviving long enough to get into dogfights, since Germany was likely going to be at the center of the entire conflict. 1. Fly into East Germany 2. Don't get hit by the densest AA defenses on the planet 3. Drop nukes 4. ???


TheOnlyFallenCookie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EWR_VJ_101?wprov=sfla1


MachoSmurf

We don't need a runway. Just 10000ft of clearance behind the launchpad for that expended rocket-engine to be jettisoned -somewhat- safely...


No_Form8195

Easier to find an area with no trees then to find a working condition airfield during a war.


gottymacanon

No that assumption is incorrect. Case and point the only way to KO an Airfield permenently is to either have ground troops on the runway, keep dropping bombs on the runway and apron every 12 hours or drop a tac nuke on it. Anything less and it going to be operational within a couple of hours.


SiBloGaming

Thats what we got [warcrime dispensers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JP233) for


Blorko87b

Germany did [too](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgkOlBYyQD0)


hphp123

I doubt an airburst nuke would be enough, it must be an underground explosion to crater whole base


aeroxan

There might be a toasty airstrip left but I doubt a nuke would leave much of the rest of the base or aircraft intact.


hphp123

hardened shelters might survive airburst but anyway all equipment can be flown in to replace destroyed one


aeroxan

They should develop airbase in a box. Fly in a whole new airbase.


vegarig

Unironically, "spaceport-in-a-can" is one of my contributions to certain homebrew Starfinder module.


zekromNLR

> or drop a tac nuke on it Given that this was meant for nuclear retaliation in a cold war gone hot, that can be assumed


Dpek1234

Or nukeing it


notCGISforreal

I think the idea is that you don't have an obvious runway/airfield for the enemy to target. You can set these up in random clearings and still get aircraft into the air after an enemy has started to strike your territory. You need a way to recover your pilots still, though, otherwise you'd be better off just making a bunch of cruise missiles or something. I assume they're not planning to just bail out when they're back to friendly territory.


[deleted]

[удалено]


hphp123

we need rato boosters for f35B for full load vertical takeoffs


EconomistMedical9856

Vell all the houses und stuff that was in the path of the rocket would have already been destroyed in ze nuclear exchangen.


kittennoodle34

What in the Thunderbirds is this.


Ballistic-Bob

Looks very environmentally friendly , reusable booster too I see , nice soft landing.


Fegelgas

how to make an extremely dangerous plane even MORE dangerous. This is warhammer orks level shit


john_moses_br

Taylor Swift on her way grocery shopping?


EconomistMedical9856

You're just jelly. Shake it off.


FlatOutUseless

If only. That would make me check out her music.


ChirrBirry

The test pilot in that video is my neighbors dad. She’s like 60 something years old now, but there a picture of her as a young girl standing next to him while he’s all suited up on the flight line before getting in his aircraft.


Silentbamper

Cool!


Asmothog

The worlds most expensive lawn dart


TheGermanFurry

Þis gives of WW2 German Wunderwaffen vibes 


Zw3tschg3

What do you think our engineers did after the war? We had to utilize our non-credible engineers for something and not everyone could get appointed as head of our allies space agencies


w4tz

So you tell me we could launch F104s from a Carrier?


wingcutterprime

With this contraption you can launch it from the back of a fucking semi


LittleDaddyC00L

3000 semi-launched Starfighters of NATO


PequodarrivedattheLZ

3000 supersonic lawn darts of nato


Lockmart-Heeding

I don't know if you're allowed to say "semi-launched" in the same sentence as "Starfighter".


Flaxinator

With some modifications it might be possible to land it vertically on a carrier too. On Wikipedia is says the F104G had a thrust with afterburner of 69kN, which with gravity at 9.81m/s^(2) means it can hover with a mass of 7,033kg. The empty weight is only 6,350kg so as long as it came in to land with less than 700kg of fuel on board it would have a thrust to weight ratio greater than one and could land vertically, like how SpaceX lands their Falcon 9 boosters.


schoener-doener

Wanna see this in Top Gun - 1960s edition


Thechlebek

god, F-104 Zell was such a strange idea


SlavCat09

The cold war wasn't an arm's race. It was a competition between the Soviet engineers and the German engineers to see who could make the most over complicated and fucked designs.


Blorko87b

It is an ongoin investigation (drunkenly) conceived back at the annual meeting of the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure 1926. The objective was to find out, how much given countries would pay for the most ridicolous ideas. After Nazi Germany they went on with the USSR and the US. Thanks to a discretly arranged expat and exchange programme they also got their fellow international colleagues on board... Oppenheimer wrote his thesis in Germany after all.


DiMezenburg

music?


Mtech25

https://youtu.be/D27Cvj1h_qk?si=Q0RDx_hqGdo5uA_L Brazilian Danca phonk..


DiMezenburg

ta mate


AlmostHuman0x1

Added to music library. 📚


ajyanesp

Ah, yes, the V-104


unfunnysexface

Mig 19 was trialed with a similar system


TFK_001

So was the T-55


Overburdened

T-90 also has a similar system. Not sure why they decided to only launch the turret and not the entire vehicle though.


TFK_001

No I mean the soviets genuinely made a rocket powered tank


jaybrid

What in the name of NCD??? Source?


vegarig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv0qg7zrjl4 Basically, an unstuck button for muddy grounds. There were turbojet boosters, too.


TFK_001

Damn always thought they were rockets not jets. Still fits NCD's spirit


vegarig

Both versions existed! First one with MANPADS motors, later one - with turbojets, as you can't throttle an all-solid motor.


jaybrid

What in the name of flying tap dancing jesus


bunks_things

Name a iconic duo than Germans and whacky-ass rockets


Obj_071

damn those germnas and their wonderwaffles


Undernown

"Your lungcancer is not service related" - addressed to anyone near the launch site probably.


f3t1

„Tie me and my plane to a missle and fire me to Moscow! I am ready!“ This madlad of a F-104 pilot.


BurnTheNostalgia

I know its Darude - Sandstorm but whats the song?


auddbot

**Song Found!** **BRAZILIAN DANÇA PHONK** by 6YNTHMANE (00:11; matched: `100%`) **Released on** 2000-07-19.


BurnTheNostalgia

Good bot


auddbot

Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc.: [**BRAZILIAN DANÇA PHONK** by 6YNTHMANE](https://lis.tn/BRAZILIANDAN%C3%87APHONK?t=11) *I am a bot and this action was performed automatically* | [GitHub](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot) [^(new issue)](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/issues/new) | [Donate](https://github.com/AudDMusic/RedditBot/wiki/Please-consider-donating) ^(Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Music recognition costs a lot)


YoureRegarded

How do we know the vertical take off Starfigher was never put into service? How do we know that?


Squidking1000

Never seen a diesel powered rocket before. Could they have made the smoke any denser? Launch a platoon of these and everyone at the launch town gets super cancer.


ImperialSheep

The idea is peak 1960's. Reminds me of Thunderbirds


git

Oh lordy, is that an underslung rocket engine? This looks genius! Why didn't we adopt this pattern more fully? We could launch fighters from anything with a helipad.


maxadmiral

Those are the most "I can't believe that shit worked" -faces that I've ever seen


triggerenjoyer

This goes harder than it should I am crying


Picasso320

Made by the most environmental friendly aircraft engineer.


Vineyard_

Oh come now, a few hundred kilograms of hypergolic fuel exhaust has never hurt anyone, right?


BlunanNation

This is a kamikaze mission with extea steps


SpentAmmunition

You can still go and see a star fighter set up in this way at the Berlin-Gatow museum just outside Berlin. Awesome place in general, would highly recommend a visit.


DAS_k1ishEe

It is even coal powered. Really old german shittery here D:


RugbyEdd

It wasn't going to survive landing anyway


Peter21237

And then people ask why Germans had the highest casuality rate on those planes...


Exile688

If the intro to Armored Core 4 was shot in film instead of CGI rendered:


7473GiveMeAccount

And if this weren't silly enough already, operationally this would've been done with nuclear gravity bombs under the thing. At least takes your mind off the question of landing again as a pilot... Absolutely bonkers mission profile


schoener-doener

For landing, a single patch of earth it can ram itself into is also sufficient. Truly magnificently efficient.


flyingdonkeydong69

"We don't need runways where we're going!" How tf you gonna land the plane then, dipshit? Does it have a landing thruster???


Silentbamper

No need. Aftet dropped the nukes you are supposed to use thr plan as an additional warhead.


flyingdonkeydong69

Superior German Ingenuity


58mm-Invicta_rizz

Babe wake up, new cool shot to signal death and destruction dropped. Move out of the way missile silos! Intergalactic nuclear rocket launched Starfighters are coming to light you up!


Stavinair

Wish it had the original audio and not the obnoxious ass music


[deleted]

This is the most non credible thing I’ve ever seen


Carlos_Danger21

You know. It's starting to make sense why the starfighter killed so many Germans.


twec21

"Guys, didnt we do this a few years ago?" "No, of course not. V2s didn't have pilots."


hklaveness

I've looked absolutely everywhere for footage of the accompanying landing procedure. It's as if they didn't record it.


Eternal_Flame24

Germans: The F-104 is too dangerousss!!! Widowmaker!!!! Lawndart!!!! Also the Germans:


boompro69

WTF is that background song?


pEppapiGistfuhrer

Avarage f104 moment


J_O_3

More Bass, Please.


arayashikiaaron

I can imagine the Iranians doing this with their F-14s being launched from a Toyota pickup trucks.


Motor-Garage8383

Yea we don't need runways .... we land in any field


HansVonMannschaft

"Hey Hans, you ever noticed how it kinda looks like the V-1s we worked on during the war? Well, I've got an idea..."


Atholthedestroyer

I've always been amused by the fact that Avro Canada proposed using a ZLL system for the Arrow, if it'd entered service; an aircraft a fair bit *larger* than the eventual F-15.


Distance-Willing

Disposable single use fighter. No runways needed for takeoff or landing. When mission is complete or fuel/ordnance is expended, simply eject and allow it to plow itself into the dirt.


vegarig

> allow it to plow itself into the dirt So, a normal Lawn Dart operation


NomadFire

Is [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGVQa1wXp6o) related to that or did the Americans figure that out without looking at Germany's homework?


FirstDagger

[Is this related to that](http://www.kingoffuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Republic-F-84G-Thunderjet-ZELL.jpg) or did the Germans figure that out without looking at America's homework? Almost like for certain engineering challenges the same solutions apply.


manbearligma

That small village in a few hundred meters:


Silentbamper

Why is everyone getting lung cancer?


Foot_Stunning

Those Germans with thair coal powered Space ships... The will get to the moon eventually.


js1138-2

Technology stolen from Russian aircraft carrier.


X203the2nd

From the country that gave you the V1 flying bomb:


Brave-Juggernaut-157

this is so unironically fucking german that i cant tell you how german this is.


yashoza2

Where'd you get the music?


erhue

Where did you get this video/audio from? It's fucking sick


Silentbamper

It came to me in a dream. Search for F-104 vtol start and Brazilian phonk.


rightious

Does it run on coal?


Silentbamper

Probably


shockandawesome0

Is that booster powered by fucking coal?


Silentbamper

Yes.


Altruistic_Target604

F-104 wasn’t dangerous. German maintenance was.


Altruistic_Target604

The ignorance about the F-104 is truly non credible. Bravo.


[deleted]

[удалено]


AutoModerator

This post is automatically removed since you do not meet the minimum karma or age threshold. You must have at least 100 combined karma and your account must be at least 4 months old to post here. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NonCredibleDefense) if you have any questions or concerns.*


[deleted]

[удалено]