Lockheed F-104 BLC System engineering beauty!
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- Опубликовано: 18 май 2024
- Quick video to show how the BLC System (Boundary Layer Control) works on the Lockheed F104. Another incredible unique system part of the legendary Starfighter.
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Now THIS is the kind of aviation video that is worthy of viewing!
Best thus far for 2024!
This is the FIRST time I’ve seen this described on the F-104 other than by Ben Rich in his book.
You and me both. I am so surprised I had no idea this existed.
Suddenly, the F-104 makes a lot more sense. Particularly why you put the flaps down when you enter a turning fight.
Best 8 minutes and 35 seconds I've endured lately, especially the BLC blow on pants following the howling taxi-by.
I was a crew chief on an F-104A while stationed at Webb AFB in Big Springs TX. Mid 1960's We had a lot of problems with BLC back in the day. A couple of crashes may have occurred do to malfunction of the valves that controlled the air over the flaps. We had two guys who were real thin that could remove and replace these valves without removing the tail section and pulling the engine. Their other job was crawling down the intakes on preflight inspections. John Caldwell, you still around? 😃
Thanks Piercarlo for the exhaustive explanation of the BLC system and for letting us listen to the magnificent sound of the G.E.J79!
Fun fact: In full afterburner the J79 burners 47,000 pounds of JP4 an hour. It converts fuel into noise. Was mechanic on a TB-58 at Edwards AFB California USAF 1964-1965 and 4 really sound great, a mechanics dream. 4X 47,000= 188,000 pounds of fuel per hour, they do not stay in burner for very long.
The English Electric Lighting on an unrefueled flight would be chocks out, to in, in 20 to 25 minutes.
@@SimonAmazingClarkeTax $ well spent
I'm a Hustler, baby
Great Video. It's amazing what Kelly Johnson and his engineers did with just Slide Rules!!!
Slide rules and calculators use the same math. Engineers would perform the calculations once, and graph the results. Most designs were quickly calculated from these graphs. Which would serve a company department for decades even after the original engineers who made the graphs were gone.
The jumbo jet, space shuttle, bullet train, Harrier jump jet - all designed with slide rules. Now we have computers, what have we had since the 1980s ?
A lot of the Johnson's iconic planes are evolutions of the X1 design. Not much more than an engine in cross section with a wing as thin in chord as he could get away with to give it the lift needed to get off the ground.
@@BlueMoonday19 The Lockheed P80, T-33, F-94, the TV-2/T-1 SeaStar, and U-2 are all derivatives of the same basic design.
Wing thickness to chord ratio was selected based on design mach number. The P-38 taught Kelly Johnson and countless pilots lessons in Mach-tuck with its 0.16 thick center section airfoil. The SR-71 is still the epitome of triple-supersonic efficiency. And clever, beautiful, conical camber distribution and ogive strake planform design details.
Why does this myth keep persisting?
NACA, Lockheed, and tons of other manufacturers had electronic computers from the early 1950s.
Saying they used slide rules would be like saying Lockheed Martin used iPhones to make the F-35. They used supercomputers and computational fluid dynamics.. but they definitely had engineers doing rough calculations and checks on their smartphones.
Great looking fighter. No need for fancy computers when Kelly Johnson could 'SEE' air.
Excellent Engineering.
That inside flap was seamless at retraction.
And crafty using exhaust for the boundary retention.
Great utility of engine systems.
Fascinating. I knew the F-104 had blown flaps, but never saw any detailed info about it. Thanks, that was really interesting.
The 104 is as impressive as it is totally bonkers… Literally using brute force to overcome thermodynamic limitations - and brute experience from a pilot becoming “one” with the aircraft.
Huge kudos to the team not only preserving the machines, but also the insights and keeping the experience alive…!
"Literally using brute force to overcome thermodynamic limitations"
What does that even mean?
If you like this stuff look up the lift-to-drag ratio of a F15. It's basically an air-breathing rocket which just happens to produce lift.
@@crestdazoltral7705 Hehe, we used to say that about the 104… 😅 But yes, the F15 is a beast. Still a way more sophisticated beast nearly 20 years after the 104.
The development path was steep back then, and split during the 60s. The roles of dogfighting, loiter time, weight and speed split the field, making the F16 a near time-parallel to the F15 in development.
The F16 is small & light like the F104, but way more agile and highly tech-augmented like the F15.
The crazyness of the 104 was what they achieved - and the pilot had to master unaided - even before Elvis Presley appeared on fuzzy, small black & white TV sets, lighting and different kind of fire.
@crestdazoltral7705
You mean thrust to weight ratio.
The F-15 produces a lot of lift. It’s actually counterintuitive to most jets because they have tiny wings and high wing loading in order to have less drag and higher speed.
But the F-15 has so much thrust it doesn’t matter.
And this excess of lift means that unlike other jets, it doesn’t use leading edge devices to reduce the stall speed or increase the critical angle of attack.
This is a good reason why an IAF F-15 was able to land with most of a wing missing.
@@calvinnickel9995 Just to add to what you said, instead of leading edge devices, which were considered, the F-15 design team chose a wing with a heavy conical camber at the leading edge. You can see this visually. The wing design was being optimized for sustained maneuvering .9-.95 Mach, and this wing would work well for that part of the flight envelope. They did this to save cost and weight, even though it is less efficient overall. They had plenty of thrust to overcome the drag at high speed, and still had plenty of lift for takeoff and landing.
Ironically, leading edge devices would probably have been a better fit for the long-range high-speed strike profile of the F-15E Strike Eagle that came later, but they were not anticipating that during the original design.
What a wonderful video! On a F104, legendary! I still remember them with their whistle when they use to flight in Italy. Fantastico!
Very interesting explanation of the boundary layer......We say: Grenzschichtanblasung. I tried to explain it too in a short at the example of the skeleton 104 in Speyer Museum. A Bro of mine flew the F 104. He told me, order in case of engine trouble was: Eject. Because no bleed air.
A comprehensive description. A 10 out of 10 vid this one.
edit:
Oh I almost forgot to mention, and a J79 howl for us. You are a man of class and style.
Fascinating! That is next level 50's engineering. Such precise manufacturing and well😲
I was and A&P mechanic for 40 years, and never new this. WOW
I've seen on one video. A Japanese F-4 that used boundary layer control, the wing was wet from rain. When the flaps were extended it blew all the rain off the wing. Pretty cool shot I'd really like to see replicated!
Video eccellente! Non ho parole, solo che il 104 è sempre stato la mia passione sin da ragazzino quando lo vidi da vicino a Pratica di Mare presso l' RSV. Il famoso Spillone con i colori dell' epoca della Nato, e che dire quando metteva il motore J-79 in moto il suo sibilo era inconfondibile. Nel 2004 quando venne messo in pensione lo vidi passare insieme al subentrante Eurofighter e ad un F16. E con tutto che erano in tre il suono del 104 era sempre superiore e magnifico. Like e continuate così, il 104 non deve scomparire è storia dell' aeronautica.
Great video ! Every F-104 fan wants to see that up close.
Innamorato di questa macchina. Ricordo che rimasi folgorato la prima volta che mi volo' sulla testa che avevo 5 anni con la scia scura del motore...ora che di anni ne ho 53 e sono ingegnere aeronautico ne apprezzo la finezza progettuale. Magnifico spillone. Ottimo video!!! Grazie
Excellent explainer on the F-104's BLC system. And 200 kt IAS on base! The F-104 has got to be one challenging aircraft to fly.
Mr Kelly Johnson must’ve been communicating with some sort of entity to come up with all these brilliant ideas 💡 back in the 50s. Brilliant man , pure genius.
Great video, thanks! The minute tolerance between flap and wing is incredible, very interesting about the forced air to maintain the boundary layer. The *Starfighter* is still one of my all time favourites, although the Germans who called it the "widowmaker" might not agree!
I just love you videos Piero!!! Thanks a lot for explaining and showing that typical feature of the F-104, the BLC!!! Fly safe brother!
What an interesting aircraft. It's like someone took a box full of ideas and used all of them.
F-104 was designed by Kelly Johnson. Just take a look at the list of his other aircraft.
Thanks again for the very interesting explanation !
thanks Piercarlo, Kelly was the man, what an aircraft !!!!
nice initial taxi forward shot, wow
The Blackburn Buccaneer also had Blown Flaps, to allow for slower approach speeds to Aircraft Carriers. Another 50s design :)
TSR2 as well
It was the first 😅
Such a cool design and a great video demonstrating it! Thanks
Another incredible insight video ! Grazie !
Fascinating! Thanks for that thorough explanation.
beautiful info and video! thank you
Fantastic explanation of the BLC system. Thank you!
Wow, that was such a good video. Thank you.
Excellent explained; thank you!
Very interesting explanation (msg from France)
Thanks for all your constant efforts, Piercarlo. Very much appreciated. Pure delight to listen and watch to you.
The BEST engineering walk A Aroiund and Advertising for "Strfighters Space"
BRAVO Piercarlo
Thanks for the explanation and illustration! 👍 And keep this birds on flying!
Very nice and useful video. Thank you very much!
awesome video! Good information, really interesting.
Thanks for the excellent description on BLC! I worked with F4s and wondered how it works.
Excellent video, thank you!
Nice. Thank you for producing a video that explains this system using common language so that we can all understand. Great teaching!
Remarkable system engineered into the F-104. I’ve watched this plane fly at Sun-n-Fun and I’m not sure but I think Steve Ritchie was flying it.
Wow. So cool. What amazing technology.
Excellent! BLC has always been interesting.
Excellent explanatìon of the complex technical features on this classic aircraft!❤❤❤
Great explanation! Thank you!
Excellent! Takes me back to my Century series days! More howling please! Thank you for this!
Two guys & an engine 💥
In a museum in Oberschleissheim, Germany, they have an F-104 wing, cut in a way that shows the BLC system from inside 👍
Great video !
Awesome video 👏
Nice work what a machine.
I'm impressed!
Pier, I like your explanation of the BLC! Very informative video.
Great tour.
Thanks Piercarlo!! It's good to get some of the background information on these systems and see them in operation.
Amazing technology so soon after WWII; first fight in 1954, this dart can still out-climb a F-15 Eagle, the distinct sound of the J-79 and of course it always will win a beauty contest.
Great presentation... look forward to more :)
Sempre molto preciso nelle spiegazioni. Grazie Piercarlo!
Superb!!!!!!!!
Thank you!
Piercarlo, have you all tried the Sim Skunk Works F-104 addon to Microsoft Flite Sim (the new version). All the flight characteristics you describe at "landing flaps" seem to be modeled somewhat well.(plane handles way different).
Simply amazing something of that innovation and quality was put out during the time of the '57 Chevy.
Great info!
Could be a valuable technique on any plane for rescuing from a flat spin.
Excellent channel.
Very informative! 👍👍
incredible!
Wonderful!
Need to sell those t-shirts.
Elegant tutorial.
What a beautiful bird, elegant, Smooth and beautiful.. I would eat it
Gorgeous
Very cool!
Now I can appreciate why it was dubbed ''The Widowmaker''. Looks tricky AF to operate.
Would love to take a tour of that hangar.
The F-104 and J79 are an amazing combination.
Love engineering solutions!
Thank you so much for this highly interesting video! I was at the Airshow in Italy (and made a video) last year where you flew the Black Beauty. Can you explain what issues you had with the startcart that the aircraft wasn`t willing to start? Or maybe it was something different? I just saw you guys tried it again and again.
Hey man, could you do a high altitude flight.
There isn't any footage of a F104 at high altitude on RUclips.😊
Beautiful aircraft, thank you for keeping it flying.
Great knowledge release
Another clever Lockheed design was mounting the P3 Orion’s props considerably above the wing. This increased ‘circulation’ and lift. This enabled a smaller, lower drag wing. Plane design begins with the wing and wing design begins with the flaps.
Man that was cool. The 104 is always cool. Your crew chief looked like an old friend of mine Josh.
Thanks Piercarlo, still the coolest aeroplane!!!!
I'm going to Oshkosh this year, love to see that plane there.
Fighissimo ❤
8:09 the HOWL !
Kelly Johnson was a genius.
E niente... si vede proprio che lo adori, Piercarlo. Tua moglie sarà gelosa! Grazie per questi video interessantissimi... W lo Spillone!
Not a plane to suffer fools but so beautiful.
What a beast
Cool!
Great explanation. I assume the hot air was high pressure in the pipe. But very low pressure as it was distributed and difused over the control surface. That I believe is what in combination reduced turbulence and increased lift as it removed pressure on the top side.
Were all F104's equipped with this BLC or was this an experimental thing. I know that back then engineers were trying various things with BL including vacuuming it through tiny holes made in the wing covering.
Great video, love your explanation, laid out well. The F104 was a handful and needed to be flown eith sharp attention every second.
Nice
Grazie per la spiegazione chiara. Tanto di cappello al team di progettisti del 104 ! Non oso pensare a un atterraggio con il BLC guasto o a una asimmetria di funzionamento.....
Che bello 🔝✈
Maybe a photo or video of the front and rear cockpit (N992SF)? I want to build this beauty as a model kit.