F-104 Starfighter -- pulling high Gs

[hawker111 1]

 

Could the F-104 Starfighter, if it was flying fast enough, pull 10 + Gs?

 

[Wrench 9,848]

probably not without folding up like a paper airplane. Wasn't stressed for that 

in game, maxed out a 7.3

[+Gepard 11,300]

The question is wheter hawker111 means in game or in reality.

In game surely not. In reality, it could be. But i dont know.

I know, that some MiG-21 during Vietnam war were pulled up to 12 g in missile avoidance flight maneuvres. After that maneuvres the plane was grounded an must unbended before new flight. Some were wrecks after to much g.

I dont know, how much g a Starfigher was able to pull. In emergancy surely more than the allowed 7.33 g.

[+daddyairplanes 10,241]

Agreed, that 7.33 figure sounds like a brochure, dont exceed this or else, number. Slight bit above, mechanics are bustin their humps and the pilot is at attention in front of his CO finding out what "or else" means. Signifigantly higher (and in USAF Zipper models i think that would be 10G) best case is the plane is a write off. Worst case is a funeral and round of training for the other pilots

[Wrench 9,848]

as with most things, a little reasearch and brain sweat goes a long way

if one has the dash 1 manual at their disposal...

 

http://www.avialogs.com/en/aircraft/usa/lockheed/f-104starfighter/1-14404-1-f-104g-flight-manual.html#download

[MusketMan 0]

10G would be close to the ultimate G loading for that generations of fighters. The published not-to-exceed G load allows some margin & should be good for normal operations without permanently bending / breaking anything. IMHO, 10G would probably be close to tearing the wings off. On the other hand, if trying to evade death from a missile, I'd take rhe risk of bending the airplane! :-)

[hawker111 1]

 

Did the F-104 have a "pitch-up" problem like the F-101 did? They both have the "T-tail" design.

hawker111
 

[+baffmeister 1,205]

Yes it did but the causes may have been a bit different than the F-101. To address the issue a stick kicker system was installed that would "kick" the stick forward if the aircraft was approaching a critical alpha range.  I think the critical range was around 15-16deg but could vary depending on stick input rates so was a bit more complicated than a simple alpha limiter. There is more info in the F-104 flight manual that can be found online. Wrench made a link somewhere.

[Wrench 9,848]

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