Quote:
Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
As the second pilot was ordered to stand down while they tried to figure out what the problem was, somebody noticed that the civilians had all disappeared.
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I think it was the Germans that called the F-104 the Tent Peg, there was also the common conversation of:
Q: "What's the cheapest way to get an F-104?"
A: "Buy a plot of land and wait."
That being said though many Luftwaffe pilots swore by it, and some at it, and if you wanted to go in a straight line very very fast it did its job very well...just don't try to turn it...
The story about the F-84 (hilarious btw
) reminds me of an incident a bit closer to home, about five miles close. This was back when we were developing Blue Danube I think, and the sea just off Orford Ness was being used as a test range for dropping a dummy version of it by a Valiant bomber I think, probably from RAF Barnham. Well, the aircraft came over the target and pressed the button to drop the bomb...and nothing happened. So the mission was aborted and the aircraft returned to base, when it got there they had to prise the bomb bay doors open because they had gotten jammed. When the doors finally came open, the dummy bomb fell out onto the ground. Had it been the real thing, chances are it would have detonated as the aircraft came in to land, having been activated on the drop and then sensing the barometric pressure changes.
