Chuck Yeager & the F-104
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- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2024
- This clip is from the 1983 film "The Right Stuff" with Sam Shepard as test pilot Chuck Yeager. The only realistic part of this scene is that Yeager was running an altitude test when his F-104 destabilized and subsequently crashed. However, this is a great scene (edited) from a ridiculously fun movie. Enjoy!
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What's the point of going up so high? just to set another record. It's not likely that a combat fighter jet would ever fight at such altitudes. Now the taxpayers are out the cost of a brand-new airplane.
High speed/altitude flight tests dealing with extreme thermodynamics delivers R&D data critical to the development of aircraft, missiles and space vehicles. The Space Shuttle design incorporated the same lift to weight ratios developed during the X-15 rocket plane program. You can't conduct high speed/altitude manned aerospace research without the loss of life or destroying aircraft. That's just the way it is.
Thanks, Max.
Hey Zach, crawl back in your recliner because that's all the GUTS you have to test something
Can’t fix stipulated but ignorance can be repaired, study hard my friend,
Look up the U-2 and SR-71.
In chucks book, he said that when he ejected, the seat struck his face which caused a fire in his helmet due to the pure O2 environment. The rubber and plastic lining in the helmet melted to his face which took days to remove. He also made it clear that it was one of the most painful things he had ever experienced so if chuck says it hurts, you know it hurt.
Are you sure the fire wasn't caused by the 'lava' from the ejection seat going under the helmet? I had heard THAT was the cause. What pure O2? That doesn't happen outside an aircraft at the altitude he bailed out.
@@RobertBlevins yeah that's what I mean. The rocket on the election seat struck his face. And since he was wearing a pressure suit, it was being fed with O2. So when it came in contact, it caught on fire.
...fire, plastic and pure oxygen...?
...Apollo 1 Disaster...!
Far out, hes my hero
I got to read his book, amazing story & man!
My dear late mom was Lockheed's lead avionics technician, and she wired all the F-104 cockpits. She also wired all the Constellations and L-1011s and the P2V-1 sub-chasers.
@@Remembering-rq6si Nothing quite like being a no-nothing head-up-the-ass jerkoff. My mom was the LEAD AVIONICS technician for Lockheed from the early-1950s until her untimely death over 20 years later. For your information, you dumbass, "LEAD" does not translate to "ONLY", it means she was head of the crew that wired the cockpits of several different Lockheed aircraft. Next time you are moved to troll someone, ass-fuck, troll your own pathetic ass!!
What a cool story to hear! Our heroes are all gone now, hopefully we can be the heroes for the next generation
For those not aware, the stuntman, Joseph Svec, was killed during the filming of this scene. The former Green Beret failed to open his parachute. Speculation was that he became unconscious from the smoke canister placed in his helmet for the scene. Rest in peace.
Yes he was, but the smoke generator never worked. They never did figure out why he didn't deploy either chute.
Why didn't he have an automatic opening device I wonder?
God Bless him.
Blue Skies, Joseph Svec.
I love the movie, but always thought the smoke canister on the helmet was stupid. Now I just learned the stunt man died, & that stupid thing might've contributed. I hate it even more.
Hollywood & their 🦬💩!!!
🖕🤦🖕🤦🖕🤦
Thanks for being accurate. That's rare today.
Just learned Yeager passed a few hours ago. This was the scene I wanted to watch.
RIP 🇺🇸
He died 12/7/2020.
(Look at the date.)
Same here,
So lucky to have his signature on my model.
chuck was the man
The only thing I didn't like about this scene is that it gave the impression that Yeager took the plane out without authorization, when in fact this was a scheduled flight. One that almost killed him as is depicted, and left him with severe burns over most of his face.
That's why I edited this clip. The historical inaccuracies and cheesy dialogue were way over the top.
It was Hollywoodized to add more "drama" when in reality it never needed any more drama added.
It was important to show in the film that despite the popularity of the astronauts, guys like Yeager were still working hard and highly respected as test pilots. What was really missed in the movie was X-15 stuff.
It was all for the movie and I agree I wished for more historical accuracy, but my girlfriend at the time always remembered the scene cause she believed Yeager was being rebellious. Sooooooo.....Big Al sez a lil fudging for the sake of smooching should be permitted!
Thanks for clarifying that. I had the impression that he just took out the plane, flew it for fun, and destroyed it, all without any reprocussions.
After the Challenger accident, an astronaut about to make his first spaceflight was asked if he feared the mission. He answered that space flight was less risky than his previous assignment as a USAF test pilot.
Mario Andretti was once asked what was the most dangerous part of driving at the Indy 500. He said driving to the track.
If USAF had the same takeoff to accident ratio as the space shuttle (135:2), there wouldn't be any air force pilots left.
@@user-bx7nw1ve6y Being a test pilot isnt same as being just an airforce pilot. How often normal pilots preform flutter tests?
Everyone who ever flew on the space shuttle was basically a test pilot/crewman. The shuttle was awesome but it was the first of its kind and was basically an X plane until the day it retired.
Not sure how he'd know that, considering that Shuttle management did not do risk calculations literally because they did not believe in them
R.I.P Chuck.. You were my inspiration to get into the aviation field ! Never regreted it......
I consider Chuck an astronaut as he should have been. A great pilot....he was no pud knocker no sir
He founded the airport near me its really cool
In 1956 I was working in the structures test bldg at WPAFB as a college aeronautical engineering student when we received our first F-104s for testing. One of the first tests was the initial firing of
its new gatling gun. A fire truck was standing by as the gun was activated, catching the fuselage
on fire! The mounting brackets for the gun overheated immediately causing the fire and it was "back to the drawing board!!" Quite a show for a few seconds as I remember it.
The 104 may be a lawn dart but it's the most badass lawn dart in existence... I'm a career pilot and the stories from old 104 jockies are always eye watering. My dad also flew fighters after those days and all he'd say about the 104 was "Now that's a real man's jet."
Just sitting on the Tarmac, it looks like it is going fast!
my dad used to fly an F-104G when he was still in the airforce. I'd love to know what being in one of those was like
I heard they used to spook sr71s withis badass. most awesome interceptor ever.
@@fredjaneson1670 yup
I heard it was definitely a two-handed aircraft.
I was very fortunate to meet Chuck Yeager back in the eighties. Three weeks after our meeting, he sent me a signed picture of him in front of the F-20 TigerShark. (A much deadlier and faster version of the F-5 Freedom Fighter) He was not only a superior pilot but one hell of a human being. No BS about him. He was always just doing his job and he did it exceptionally well. (We can all learn from this) From a downed WW2 pilot in France for 4 months (and never caught) to the supreme test pilot and squadron commander in Europe and Vietnam, he lived his life to the fullest. RIP Chuck.
I saw him from a distance but flew on the Concorde because of his X flights. As in Mach 2 just for 2 hrs JFK to LHR 3hrs and 20 minutes but took an hr to get to hotel. $3100 and 4 nites to get the Deal.
Thanks to General Yeager for being one of my childhood heroes, as well as Sam Shepard for so accurately portraying him. Godspeed to you both.
I know this movie inside out, I've watched it dozens of times. But this sequence, boy, this sequence is unique. That's the one I always expect to watch. Always gives me goose bumps! Although it's technically a bit erroneous at times, it remains one of the nicest aviation action sequence ever made. And the F-104!!! The engine revving up, and then the afterburner lighting on.... What a sight to see, what a music to the ears!!
@FR-TigerHiss...my feelings, too. Thanks.
I liked the way it was done in the movie, intercut with scenes of the astronauts watching a fan dancer. When the F-104 was flying, I thought it about the most beautiful thing in the world. Within a few years, I would have a better appreciation of fan dancers...
yo también la conozco y no hay otra película que lo iguale (que yo sepa) ...
My Father was a radio radar Engineer for Lockheed when this was on the drawing board, He worked with Kelley Johnson on many of his creations, including the SR-71. He had some awesome stories about these planes.
He probably knew my dad Larry Dillin. Some good stories about the guys racing each other from Burbank out to the skunk works in Palmdale.
Imagine pulling the Stick- back on all that Raw Power! Happy 97th. General... And many more.
"Hey ridley, you got any beemans?"
"I might have me a stick."
"Loan me some, would ya; I'll pay you back later."
"Fair enough!"
"I think I see a plane over here with my name on it."
"Now you're talking!"
@@lousanto1054 yeeeeeeeeessssssssssss
@@davidbergert9104 this is my favorite part of the movie, especially that music after this dialogue. I get chills...
@@lousanto1054 Ik
@@lousanto1054 Loved that Sh*t.....
Sam shepard was perfect in this role RIP
They were all perfect. Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid... even Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer as comic relief... and Kim Stanley as Pancho Barnes. Just legendary.
@@calvinnickel9995 and now chuck died
Yeah, he was a once in a lifetime person, but his heart was always in the west, I recommend his book the hotel Chronicles & hawk moon, excellent set of stories. They made paris, texas out of the book and partly out of Sam's life
@@calvinnickel9995 and Levon Helm.
The real Chuck Yeager had a cameo in the scene at Pancho's.
The inside of his helmet was filled with flames..due to the O2. That was why he was trying to pry off his visor. This is one of Yeagers less well known "firsts". He was the first to ever eject wearing full compression gear (for super high altitude flights).
Saw this movie at the Devon Theater in Chicago. Three times back to back. Love the movie. There aren't many American icons left. Put the Spurs to her Chuck!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
We have Bruce Jenner as an icon now.......sigh.
I read about Chuck Yeager as a 10 year old, 60 years ago. He became my all time hero. Still is.
Just your typical West Virginia hillbilly.
The book Yeager is probably the best I have read.Just his WWII EXPLOITS WERE more than I ever expected.
Such a great scene. It’s incredible that Yeager didn’t black out from all those flat spins. Alot of pilots probably wouldn’t have been able to stay conscious through all that.
Pinch and grunt baby.
This was done with a special F104 that had an auxiliary rocket. A regular F104 could not go that high. In the flat spin coming down, Yeager deployed the fighters breaking chute in an effort to get the plane nose down to get enough velocity to restart the engine to power the hydraulics. He got the nose down but when he cut the chute loose to pick up the necessary speed, the plane went back into a flat spin.
Jackie Cochrane, the renowned woman aviator, convinced Yeager to go through the extremely painful scraping of scabs off his face to avoid scaring. This he called the most painful thing he ever went through. I was done daily for about a month. They couldn't use pain killers because the chemicals would build up.
"You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done."
RIP General Charles 'Chuck' Elwood Yeager - Legends like You, Live Forever !!
Well, that's a lesson that our nations and their governments seem to have completely forgotten these days!! "No pain, no gain", so goes the saying. No risks, no opportunties. In other words, we're living in a stalling world today.
Title’s misleading, should day “Sam Shepard stars as Chuck Yeager in “The Right Stuff”. I thought it was actually going to be Chuck flying that jet til Sam’s face popped up. ,
Man I love the 104. Inefficient, dangerous, catastrophically overpriced....don't care. It's just so freaking beautiful. It looks like a sci-fi illustration of a fighter. Like Buck Rogers is about to step out of it. (In fact, like something Chuck Yeager would fly). It makes you think of Curtis and RJ Mitchell. It's the Shelby Cobra of the air.
The "Missile with a Man in It". It flew it's last flight for NASA in 1994.
Yeah! Its terrificallyment dangerous and beautiful like the Shelby Cobra. Who have the honor of manipule this beasts? Excuse me my english.
Inefficient??!! Nothing is more wrong. Used in the wrong way is the truth.
You clearly know nothing about the 104 & just like to talk smack to seem like you have a clue, which you clearly do not.
@@sphinxrising1129 Lol. I'll be sure to never compliment another aircraft in your sage and august teen presence
It’s not shown here but the F-104 that Yeager was flying was the newly developed NF-104. The aircraft was stripped of all existing parts that weren’t vital for its task. This included all armaments and components related to fighting. The aircraft had a reaction control system fitted and an auxiliary power unit cause at the heights it flew the engine would usually flame out due to lack of oxygen. The APU powered both the RCS and the cockpit pressure system ( the pressure suit was absolutely vital at the heights it reached ). For extra punch the NF-104 had a 6,000 pound thrust rocketdyne thruster at the base of the tail. The RCS was there cause the controls would become ineffective after a certain point. Yeager that day was attempting to beat a time to height record set by the Soviets in the Ye-166M ( which was a modified MiG-21). He failed and lost the jet in the process, the records were reclaimed by a modified F-4 phantom and lost again when the MiG-25 retook them. Eventually the MiG-25 was dethroned by the F-15 Streak Eagle. The Streak Eagle was the 2nd F-15 prototype heavily modified to take the record. They stripped everything off if it tenant wasn’t needed and even left it unpainted for extra weight saving. The Streak Eagle retook the crown and nothing has ever dethroned it yet
After my wife and I watched the movie, she said, "Didn't he go so high that he went into orbit?" I told her, "No. But if he did, we could sit on our patio at night and say here comes Chuck."
The record shown in the movie is accurate. Yeager did indeed set the altitude record for a single engine plane at 104 and to my knowledge it still stands today.
No he did not.
First off.. the NF-104 had two engines… the stock J79 plus the rocket engine. The twin engine Mig-25 holds the absolute record for multi engine.
Second.. Yeager was too “seat of the pants” and couldn’t fly the profile. Because even though you were “flying the plane” not autopilot or computer… the profile to get the performance was so precise that you had to follow the computer controlled flight director on the instruments. You had to accelerate to maximum speed.. you had to pull up at exactly this amount of G, and you had to maintain exactly this attitude.
Pull up too fast.. you lose speed due to drag. Pull up too slow.. the plane will never reach altitude. Pull up too little, plane won’t reach altitude. Pull up too much.. the drag plus fighting directly against gravity will result in you not making altitude.
Because of this… Yeager was the worst performing pilot in the group.. he didn’t even hold the base record.
The NF-104 also had a reaction control system because flight controls were useless at those altitudes. You were supposed to use them to keep the aircraft aligned with the airflow so when it fell back into the atmosphere it would be controllable. He didn’t use it properly which is why the plane tumbled and spun.
2:54 Such a poetic shot, as if the stars are the limit which he is prohibited to go beyond.
Fact is that Yeager was offered a place in the original astronaut program and he declined.
@@terrysullivan1992 Sorry, that is not accurate.
Among other requirements, astronaut qualification required a college degree in engineering or science. Yeager did not have a degree and was therefore “unqualified” (crazy as that is). Yeager never applied nor was ever offered a chance to become an astronaut. He always maintained that he had no interest in joining NASA or becoming an astronaut. In his autobiography “Yeager” he was highly critical and disdainful of the NASA programs and their slow and steady approach to research flying.
"I think I see a plane over there with m' name on it... Now you're talkin'..."
Love it!
Man and their Machines.
“There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunities”
General Douglas MacArthur
He was a legend...he would go hunting in NZ... salute and respect from down under . thanks,👍🇳🇿
The day he slipped the surly bonds of earth, this was the movie I watched in memoriam.
RIP Sir
I was building a experimental VariEze in the late 70s. Used to go out to Mojave airport on Saturdays to have my parts checked by Burt Rutan. Talked with pilots there. Lots of active military pilots from Edwards. One was rebuilding an F104. Sadly it crashed during testing. But it WAS really a rocket that you strapped yourself onto. What a monster plane.
It’s true I was well and good bit by the aviation bug already when this came out, but this movie gave me huge goosebumps at every flying scene and it still does today. I bought it on VHS back in the day and dang near wore the tapes out watching it over and over. As I recall there were two because it was so long. Such a joy to watch.
Yeager: 'Hey Ridley - you got any Beaman's?'
Ridley: 'I might have me stick'
Back in the early 90s i had to go to Zurich to conduct some business with a guy called Heinze Schmidt, he had all sorts of aviation paraphernalia on his office wall with a picture of himself taken many years ago which took pride of place, he was stood next to an F104 in the picture.
It turned out he was a luftwaffe pilot in the mid 70's and was tasked with the job of flying at just above the baltic sea with a nuclear payload at full beans and dropping it on Königsberg as he called it. He said it was truly the most exciting and most terrifying period of his life and he lost a few friends doing this extremely dangerous cold war drill. You just never know who you are going to bump into in this life, its a memory that stayed with me and this part of the film always reminds me of the guy.
It’s the job of a test pilot to stretch the limits of the pilot and the aircraft - that’s what he is doing - Chuck Yeager was a WW2 fighter ace and a very brave individual who pushed that envelope time and again.
This is my all time favourite film.
100% correct . A test pilot risks his life every time he flies.
Good scene. Been too many years since i watched the film. RIP Gen Yeager and Sam Shepard, the man who portrayed him. Chuck has been one of my heroes since i was a kid. I reaf the book in the mid 80's long before i saw the movie on cable. The space program has always fascinated me.
One day I decided to reframe my baby picture into a better frame. I opened it up and on the back of the photo (I was about 10 months old in the picture) was a date stamp from the studio of the day it was taken. To my amazement it was the same day Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X1. Maybe it was just fate but I grew up, joined the Air Force and 4 years later switched over to the Marines. I was a weather forecaster and routinely briefed pilots on their missions. 2 years in Vietnam and I retired in 29 Palms, Ca at our desert live-fire training area. Edwards is not too far away, I'm about a 90 minute drive from Death Valley and right outside Joshua Tree National Park. I fell in love with the Mojave years ago. I watched Chuck break the sound barrier one last time at the Edwards AFB Air Show. He back-seated an F-15 and a couple of hundred thousand people cheered as the BOOM hit Edwards from way up there!
Some people don't realize this scene is supposed to be Chuck flying an NF-104A: an F104 modified with a rocket mounted above the exhaust, that also had RCS (Reaction Control Steering)- basically 8 thrusters that ran on a hydrogen fuel to control the airplane at high enough altitudes where the normal control surfaces were not effective. The NF104 was built for training astronauts and pilots that would eventually fly the X15. In the movie, the F104 that was used just didn't have the rocket, which makes it look like he was trying to stretch what a normal 104 could do
I was greatly honored to meet Chuck Yeager twice. He even autographed his two books and a ball cap for me. Certainly was one of my heroes. I secretly think Chuck wanted to be an astronaut. Even though he called them "spam in a can."
I think he was unable to become an astronaut as he did not have college degree. Even though he had more common sense than of them. He was one smart man to be a test pilot and accumulate the information and record it and debrief after the flight. I do not consider my smart but tests on cars and we did that procedure on them but real fast. Did many test less than 60mph. Spent time debriefing and recording every thing. Really boring.
Perhaps he didn't want to be an astronaut, bound by NASA and having to work within their confines, but something about that one scene where his F104 is straining at the edge of the atmosphere, with just a few wisps of thin air and black space and starlight beyond, suggests that perhaps he wanted to soar into space on his own terms. I wish I had had the chance to ask him. RIP Chuck Yeager, and all those who pursued greatness, tempting fate, soaring ever upwards.
Two of the coolest planes ever built : x15 and the 104 starfighter...
The embodiment of American Cold War air power. As for this clip, and as others have observed, the events underpinning this scene were risky, unnecessary, and dangerous. The CONOPS for the Me163 Komet and the F104 were almost the same.
Neil Armstrong flew both, which is why he walked on the moon and Yeager didn't.
@@maxbrazil3712General Yeager was also older than Armstrong. He was busy winning WWII, so didn't do college.
Yeager was also completely unqualified to be an astronaut, both for the lack of formal education, his ego was completely unsuitable for working with groups, and he had no education regarding aeronautical engineering, research and development. Chuck concealing the broken ribs he got falling off a horse during a race the night before the test also displayed a sociopathic ego. He didn't want to get grounded and so he was perfectly willing to endanger the X-1 and bomber launch crew to protect his ego. That is a dangerous and irresponsible moron to be despised, not worshiped.
I saw this movie when it came out, but never noticed that the pilot flying the actual plane has the standard fighter pilot type helmet, while Yeager in the cockpit has the full spacesuit going.
this is pure cinema at 100% of thrust power. You guys make it when you want....
Imagine climbing so high that the airplane wants to be a frisbee.
He was falling when spinning. LOL
NF-104, a plane well ahead of its time!!! It was used to test the reaction jets that would control the aircraft once it was out of earth’s atmosphere, the reaction jets went on to be used on the X-15 & the space shuttle.
I was a 9-year-old kid in 1954 when my dad took me to Armed Forces Day at Bolling AFB in Virginia near DC. In the hangar, there was a huge board with models of past, current, and future USAF aircraft on it.
Over to one corner was a long, thin model wrapped in white canvas with a needle sticking out one end and that signature elevated tail structure sticking out the other.
I asked the Master Sargeant running the exhibit if that was the Douglas X-3 and he said, "no son, that's the new F-104!"
Never forget that day. Even wrapped up to conceal its stubby wings and other features, it was the sexiest jet I ever saw.
What world records did the F-104 Starfighter set?
On May 18, 1958, an F-104A set a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph, and on December 14, 1959, an F-104C set a world altitude record of 103,395 feet. The Starfighter was the first aircraft to hold simultaneous official world records for speed, altitude and time-to-climb.
Every scene in this film is iconic
The best part was the dialog. What a talented actor!
Hey, it’s Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager in “The RightStuff.” Terrific movie.
The Starfighter. Growing up, this was my favorite jet. Claim to fame, then, was that it could climb as fast as it could fly horizontally. At least, that's what I remember ... many decades ago, though.
Unlikely, since the thrust to weight ratio was 0.54.
Can we even produce men like this anymore?
03MAY2021 - Yes, Bobby, they're still here.
Nope, the woke libstards won't allow it. Such a man would be labeled toxic masculinity and immediately jailed by Pelosi and AOC and the other radical left ecofeministsocialists.
Sooner or later the world will simply run out of people, since gay and lesbian couples are the fad now and are known to be not very prolific... 😂 can you just imagine Chuck Yeager as the offspring of a gay or lesbian couple?? Come on... 😂😂😂
@@mackdlite5900 have you ever heard of the spring effect? the more society tends to go in the opposite direction than it was always, the tension will come back strongly. there is a small but growing portion of society very very very upset and dissatisfied with all this patrol of the politically correct, radical ecologists and feminists that sooner or later the table will turn with atrocious violence against all this threat to our freedom to be or free expression to say what you want to offend whoever offends.
@@mackdlite5900 What a bunch of crap. I’m not a “Libtard” but I do lean left & I follow politics pretty closely. Not once have I ever heard of Pelosi, AOC or any other Democrat go after a military person who was doing their job. The only type that get any criticism are traitors like Michael Flynn & soldiers who mistreat prisoners. And if you’re truly patriotic and care about justice, you should care about that too. Btw, caring about the environment is a GOOD thing not a bad one.
The movie does not convey what is in the book. The book is incredible.
Saw in the movies years ago.AWESOME. Will buy the soundtrack.My FAVORITE scene.RIP GENERAL.
0:24...the sound of that J-79 engine roaring to life. Amazing!
We never missed the airplane show at Luke Air Force base. Hands down the best was when a P-51 Mustang would tear ass over the crowd at 300+ miles per hour. The roar from the Merlin engine is mesmerizing, like a Wagnerian symphony.
I was at (NAS)Fallon Nevada working on a Helicopter with HS-4 and was able to witness a few very cool things. Saw the final landing of a SR-71 and watched the orange spacesuits leave it as the fuel began to leak from it's skin. Saw a test Pilot leave a Q Hut and get into an unmarked F-18 Super hornet. He got in and taxiied the Bird to the runway and Gunned it, Went inverted as far as I could see. He did a backward roll and landed. May have just felt like doing it, who knows...I know He was an awesome Human.. It was so hot. We were there for desert training. 1989
"On Dec. 10, 1963, while testing an NF-104A rocket-augmented aerospace trainer, he narrowly escaped death when his aircraft went out of control at 108,700 feet (nearly 21 miles up) and crashed. He parachuted to safety at 8,500 feet after vainly battling to gain control of the powerless, rapidly falling craft. In this incident he became the first pilot to make an emergency ejection in the full pressure suit needed for high altitude flights.” (from the biography of Gen. Yeager click here). The crash is depicted in the movie "The Right Stuff." However, the director/writer changed most of the facts/events surrounding the crash. About the only thing they got right was that an NF-104A did crash and it was piloted by Yeager.
The aircraft was destroyed in the ensuing crash. An investigation later showed that the cause of the crash was a spin that resulted from excessive angle of attack and lack of aircraft response. The excessive angle of attack was not caused by pilot input but by a gyroscopic condition set up by the J79 engine spooling after shut down for the rocket-powered zoom climb phase."
The crash was preventable. Had Yeager bothered to familiarize himself with the recovery procedure for such a loss of control. The NASA people (including the test pilots) were hotter than hell at Yeager for the destruction of a critical piece of research equipment - purely in service of his ego. If it was anyone else he'd have been drummed out of the Air Force.
@@deaddropholiday This report is from the US Air Force .So you are saying the Air Force lied and you are telling the true story.I think not.
@@jerryg53125You do realize who Smith is? He's not some sixteen year old with a blog. He knew more about the performance of the NF104 than anyone - including Yeager. Certainly enough to know Yeager had blundered badly by not familiarizing himself with the idiosyncrasies of the plane. And Smith wasn't the only operator mad at Chuck. Search for the reactions of the Gemini pilots. As for whether the military would protect one of their own? Seriously?
@@deaddropholiday I find facts are helpful.Chuck Yeager was a Bird Colonel.He was in charge of the school training astronauts.He had already made a morning fight in the NF-104 with the same profile.There were no problems with the early flight.His job was to find holes in the flight envelope and he did.
@@jerryg53125 What on earth are you babbling about? We're not talking about earlier flights. The discussion (which Smith underscores in multiple pages of testimony) relates to the flight which resulted in the destruction of the NF-104. Which, believe it or not, wasn't an operational requirement. What Yeager's rank has to do with this is anyone's guess. Smith was the pilot most familiar with that aircraft (along with a handful of others - none of whom were Yeager). I realise any implicit or explicit criticism of Yeager blows your circuit board. But people are allowed to screw up. It's OK. Stop crying because it isn't personal. And Yeager doesn't need you to save him.
The point is Yeager in the film (played awesomely by Sam Shepard) couldn't get into space because he wasn't college educated like the Mercury 7 astronauts. So, he had to settle for a ride on the F-104.
In real life, Yeager had a high school education and learned to fly figher aircraft in World War 2 (and was a decorated war ace) before he'd even learned to drive a car. Amazing man and story. RIP
@ kamuelalee: All of the hullabaloo about military officers having to possess college degrees was the height of idiocy. Jack Ridley, Yeager's close friend and engineering go-to resource during his career (also a crack pilot himself), who really was an engineer, said Yeager's knowledge and experience were worth well-in-excess of an engineering degree. It sounds far-fetched, but some men are born with an innate feel and intuitive understanding of mechanical and technical things and what makes them work. I've known a few of them in my life, and they're amazing people. And let's not forget the man's work ethic. Despite being from humble origins, Yeager was smart-enough to slog through everything he could get his hands on in terms of manuals, technical materials and so forth, to enable him to know his aircraft as intimately as possible before even climbing into the cockpit for the first time. That in-depth preparation and study saved his bacon more than once, he related in his autobiography, and it cost some good-but-careless test pilots their lives when they couldn't take the time to really learn their machines.
@@GeorgiaBoy1961 Very well stated sir. That's what I took away from the book as well, his exhausting prep work.
Chuck Yeager described this incident in his autobiography, "Yeager." He was a man among men!
That was the NF-104, an F-104 modified with a rocket engine and thrusters like on a spaceship. The problem was Yeager didn't fly high enough. He was too high for the aerodynamic controls to work but not high enough to have control with the thrusters.
Rodger that . Not too many people know the difference between air and lack of it .
@@hairy1harry1 Or Rodger vs. Roger.
That is correct! I met him about six months after the incident, when a bunch of us AFROTC cadets were at the O-club at Channute AFB, IL. He showed movies taken from the ground of the NF-104. As to the fire in his helmet, that was caused by the hot slag from the rocket hitting the helmet. But, when I saw him up close, there wasn't ANY scarring that I could detect! He was my boyhood hero from the time I read "Across the High Frontier", while in high school. RIP, General Chuck!
I didn’t know that although I did wonder how he got up their. The mad height for an SR 71 is still secret but it was effectively a ram jet up there. Both thoroughbreds from the same stable . Kelly Johnson a truly remarkable man..
He was the cause of the accident and killed the program by wrecking the airplane. He wouldn't wait one day for data from the previous flight. Had to have things his way.
All hushed up, of course. Big Hero...
He accomplished many great things, this was not one of them.
Even his attitude about the whole incident and the events leading up to it displayed in his own autobiography speaks volumes about his character despite his public image as a down to earth and humble man.
Interesting how NASA somehow managed to operate their own modified F-104 with the reactionary control system until it was retired in the late 70s without any major incidents.
Maybe their pilots followed protocol.
Classic. Nothing.but good memories. About this movie.
I was an ADJ3/AD3 in the U.S. Navy on 3 different aircraft carriers. I worked on F4's (IMHO) the coolest looking fighter jet ever built. I then worked on F14's, E2C's and helped some other squadrons work on A7's, A6's, F18's and so on just so I could climb around on the different aircraft. Hell I even got to help the Air Force with some F15's and F16's a few times.
What I always found quirky about this scene is they made it look like Gen Yeager just decided to casually go out and hop into the F104 like it was a sports car on a Sunday drive.
Anyone knows that all Military Flights are planned and that a lot of maintenance and prep go into getting the plane ready.
Back in WW2 in active fighter squadrons a commander/pilot could maybe stroll out and jump in an airplane and go fly on a whim, but in the timeframe that this scene is taking place and in the location that it is set in, it is unrealistic to have it like Chuck just decided to go for a spin.
Now for the comment from zacharycat.
The point for them testing aircraft and pushing the planes and their selves to the limit was their job. This is why we have aircraft like the F22 and F35 today. It compares to when scientists slam atoms together in the super collider. They do it to figure out how things work, and what limits they can go to.
Also he probably saved the taxpayers money as the F104 was a fuel guzzling Beyoutch, and the first Gas Crisis was just around the corner.
The F104 was a cool looking plane, but it had no practicality as a Fighter. It was originally intended to catch Soviet Bombers and shoot them down.
The Russians made similar planes that were long and skinny, that could go like bats out of Hell but had no maneuverability.
"The Right Stuff" is a really fun movie but the historical accuracy was scrapped to make it so.
I think the book said it was a NF-104, a variation that could get more altitude maybe.
IT SEEMED TO BE A MODEL WITH DIRECTIONAL THRUSTERS/
correct!
It had a rocket mounted at the base of the tail, they were flying way beyond the ability of the jet engine to combust the fuel.
Yeah, above a certain altitude rudders and ailerons don't work. Yeager was flying with a small rocket assist but at 100K feet you need spacecraft type stuff
The ROCKETDYNE engine in the tail used JP4 to gain 6,000 lbs of additional thrust in a 100 second burn.
I had the privilege of watching one of these taking off at Fairchild AFB, it was like watching a Nitro drag racer compared to a pinto.
I got to see a CF-104 do a Mach 1+ pass at treetop altitude down the runway. Afterburner aglow. BLAMMO!!! with the smell of kerosene.
Three aircraft were modified from existing Lockheed F-104A Starfighter airframes, and served with the Aerospace Research Pilots School between 1963 and 1971, the modifications included a small supplementary rocket engine and a reaction control system for flight in the stratosphere. During the test program, the maximum altitude reached was more than 120,000 ft (36,600 m). One of the aircraft was destroyed in an accident while being flown by Chuck Yeager. The accident was depicted in the book The Right Stuff and the film of the same name. The F-104 shown does not hsave the auxilliary rocket engine.
What this video doesn’t show, but Chuck wrote in his biography book, is that the hot exhaust of the ejection seat rocket ended up on his visor, burned that and his face.
He had to spend a lot of painful time in hospital and reconstructive surgery.
Thanks for pointing that out. I have that book on the shelf here in my library. It's an excellent read!!
The actual plane was a NF-104A with a rocket engine added. This was a standard F-104 used in the movie. This was my favorite scene in the whole movie. The Mercury part didn't care much about. They should of made the whole movie about Yeager.
The story was about the Mercury program. Try reading the book.
A congressman then running to oppose John Glen was asked if he thought "The Right Stuff" gave John Glen an advantage in the election, the congressman replied something to the effect of No but I am glad I am not running against Chuck Yeager!
My dad trained as a Crew Chief on the F-104 in 1959. He called it..."The Bullet With Wings!"
Definitely one of the greatest movies ever made.
My dad worked at Edwards AFB when I was in grade school. He once commented that there was a time when they were losing a plane and pilot a week. Nobody liked it, but that was the price of the research and development they were doing. The pilots were definitely a skilled and nervy bunch.
Hi Three aircraft were modified from existing Lockheed F-104A Starfighter airframes, and served with the Aerospace Research Pilots School between 1963 and 1971, the modifications included a small supplementary rocket engine and a reaction control system for flight in the stratosphere. During the test program, the maximum altitude reached was more than 120,000 ft (36,600 m). One of the aircraft was destroyed in an accident while being flown by Chuck Yeager. The accident was depicted in the book The Right Stuff and the film of the same name. On December 10, 2019, Edwards Air Force Base released the complete video transcription of films of the 1963 flight and subsequent crash. A good friend of mine and his family we're driving on Highway 58 the day that Chuck Yeager put the nf-104 up over 120,000 ft went into the flat spin and had to punch out my friend was in the back seat facing backwards course in a station wagon all of a sudden kapow nf-104 the ground and blew up my friend's dad stop the car immediately and they all got out and here comes Chuck Yeager walking towards them will have broken helmet in a bloody face
He flew to edge of space. He didn’t have a college education so they wouldn’t let him be an astronaut. He still retired as a one star general.
For what he did, when he did it, 1 star wasn't enough. ..
Scott Harper. No, the rank of "one star general' doesn't exist. Briefly, in European history, it did, but it's long since been replaced by the much more commonly known rank of "Colonel". Chuck Yeager was made Brigadier (2-star general) back in 1969.
@@fr-tigerfangs7039 WRONG! You have no idea what you are talking about so how about you stow it? Brigadier General is 1 star. Major General is 2 stars. Lt General is 3 stars. General is 4 stars. Colonel is a silver eagle. Why do idiots like you just make stuff up and run with it? Starved for attention or just too stupid to know what you're talking about?
The scene is fairly accurate. Yeager tried using the peroxide nose jets, but there was still enough air resistance that they wouldn't work. He also tried popping the rear chute, but released it when that didn't work either. He recovered from the burns without scarring, which was caused when fuel from the ejection seat hit the upper part of his helmet and caught fire.
I was going to ask what caused his facial burns. Thanks for posting.
Do you know anything about the visual distortions? Is that real or just in the movie.
The chute stopped the spin but it slowed the plane enough that there was not enough air passing into the intakes to restart the engine, so he released it and when he did the spin started again. The term is "F**ked. There is actual footage of the incidence on RUclips showing the spin and his chute.
The scene is nowhere near fairly accurate at all ~ for one thing the F104 Yeager
flew was mounted with an extra thrust portal on the tail in order to get the power
needed to go as high as he did, but in this scene from the movie it is just a standard
starfighter. Also it was a planned flight and not something Yeager just did 'cause he
felt like it...and I could go on!! Strange how moviemakers take liberties that doesn't
support actual events to the full extent, but aside from that ~ great scene, if you
like fictional flight action🙄😉
Yeager was denied going into the astronaut program because he didn’t have a college education. He was trying to get over the altitude considered outer space. In the book “The Right Stuff” the author pretty much says the Mercury astronauts couldn’t hold a stick to Yeager when it came to skill and b*lls as a pilot.
Yeager would have to stand on his mother's shoulders to kiss the ass of Slayton, Grissom and Schirra. Chuck was a natural stick-and-rudder pilot with the eyesight of a falcon, but his lack of formal engineering education would have been a drag on the moon program because the engineer astronauts also helped design the spacecraft. The nail in Chuck's coffin was his refusal to fly strict by-the-numbers test flights and openly insulting flight engineers because they weren't the great Chuck Yeager. There's more to working with a group and accomplishing scientific goals than piloting skills, and Chuck's ego was despised. Everything I've read about Yeager as a human being doesn't paint a flattering portrait.
When I lived near Larson AFB, the F-104 guys won some kind of competition, in Florida, I think, in the late 1950s. Anyway, their return to Larson was a fun sight. I don't remember, but I think there might have been more than a dozen of them. In 1957 I did a summer job at Boeing, about 100 yards from the F-104 alert hangar. That was fun!
While this is a great scene, significant artistic license was taken. Ridley was killed in Japan in 1958 when his transport flew into a mountain, several years before the time that this scene portrays. Yeager was performing a fully supported flight test of the NF-104 and wasn't just flying for a joyride. When Yeager reached over 100,000 feet, the engine flamed out, spun down and locked. This engine lock transferred its angular momentum like a huge gyroscope into the air-frame and immediately induced inertia coupling, spinning the aircraft out of control. He tried everything he could to recover, but finally after dropping back down to 9,000 feet, his chase pilot implored him to bail out. The ejection seat's rocket nozzle hit him in the face during the seat separation, cracking his visor, causing severe burns to his face and neck.
Spot on! He was in the hospital for a long time afterwards where they debrid his face which was a very painful process according to his wife Glennis.
What isn’t artistic license is Yeagers causal attitude towards flying this aircraft.
The NF-104, like pretty much any aircraft or spacecraft that enters a ballistic trajectory, requires a precise profile. And the profile for the NF-104 was exacting.
Plenty of pilots and engineers who were junior to Yeager but had more experience in such matters tried to coach him, but his fame and arrogance prevented any advice from being heeded. So he flew it by the seat of his pants instead.
Consequently, the NF-104 had easily achieved 120,000 feet four days previously as flown by another pilot, while Yeager never even got close.
He attempted to stretch the altitude gain by using the last of his thrust and lift to push it to the top rather than letting the plane fall over to preserve control and keep air going through the engine so it would windmill. Much like the pilots of Pinnacle 3701 would do 40 years later (but they didn’t have ejection seats so they perished). And yes.. without that airflow, the core locked, and that amount of rotating mass combined with the lack of damping from the flight controls and RCS caused the plane to tumble.
It never happened to any other pilot and both remaining NF-104s were retired after incident free service lives.
@@calvinnickel9995 The only surviving NF-104A is on static display @ MUROC Now Edwards AFB in front of the HQ building of the USAF Test Pilot School.
The rivalry between the "engineer" (Scott Crossfield) and Gen. Yeager continued....
When Scott blew the tail off the X-15 in a static test, no one said a word........
When Scott was killed @ 84 in the crash of his Cessna 210A, outside of Atlanta GA. in 2009,
It was due to weather, & Pilot Error.
@ 97 yrs old Gen. Yeager survived them all ~ I would fly with him anywhere.
@@calvinnickel9995 Yeager was a "seat-of-the-pants" natural pilot with superhuman reflexes and falcon-like eyesight. He was not a trained engineer and lacked the discipline for "by-the-numbers" test flights. His lack of education made him unsuitable as an astronaut. The astronauts that flew the Mercury, Gemini & Apollo spacecraft also helped design the systems and spacecraft.
@@calvinnickel9995 Yes, but you don't know if his profile was aerodynamic or askew, do you?
I've read the US F 104 had a seat which ejected downwards. One of the many modifications of the F104G was the seat.
Only the preproduction, and very early production models were downward. Germans, and some other users, had the Martin-Baker seat, but even the F-104A in service in the late '50s had the upward-firing Lockheed C2 seat.
@@kimisdaman The Martin-Baker was installed after some years with many accidents in german service.
This sequence is the one that made a one true fan of this movie, of the F-104 and of Aviation in general when I watched as a kid.
My grandfather was part of the f104 program. And was send to help recover the f104 depicted in this video he said all he really needed was a dustpan Grandpa told me it was about 10 to 15 miles west of Cal City
Yeah, an unforgettable time with these machines
with the military in the Federal Republic and for me with a lot of luck it continued ...
カッコ良すぎる
Chuck Yeager准将に最敬礼
I actually ride motorcycles with an old guy who was Yeagers crew chief at Edwards AFB during this actual NF-104 altitude test flight...he said that there were actually 3 modified F104 "Starfighter" planes on the ground(this was the 2nd one used)at the test site in the mid 60's...He said Yeager went too straight up on his angle of climb and shot off the rocket motor prematurely cause he was too anxious...the jet engine quit(ran out of oxygen) and he went into a flat spin,etc...and he almost "bought the farm" on that flight! Yeager was "pissed" that he couldn't fly in the X15 program like Scott Crossfield and Capt. White because he wasn't an Astro-physicist and didn't have the necessary college degrees to fly in the flight program(He was basically a tough ole hillbilly from West Va....a fly "by the seat of the pants" fighter pilot/but a great pilot no doubt!) I met Chuck a few times over the years at Oshkosh EAA fly in's and at some WW2 357th F.G. reunions(the Yoxford boys") around the Country in the 80's and early 90's....and I can truthfully say he was the toughest S.O.B. I ever met! but he seemed to have a HUGE ego(like most fighter pilots do!)
A former NASA X-15 engineer said of Yeager "he lacks the concentration and discipline for precise by-the-numbers test flight." Yeager's reflexes and eyesight made him an exceptional stick-and-rudder man, but he was not a trained engineer and his outsized ego made him unable to work well within groups. NASA was wise to reject his employment.
Driving back from an exercise (M-551's) around 1978, and three W. German 104s crossed the road ahead of us at about 400 ft. overhead. Looked magnificent in silver.
Disney, take notes...no CGI
Yep the f 104 was called the widow maker for a reason it was a very unforgiving aircraft and only the most experienced pilots ever Sat in the cockpit even with that it was easy for the f104 to get away from even the best.
I saw a German air force F-104 crash in 1975. Pilot ejected and survived. The Germans called it the "Erdnagel" (Earth Nail). It killed over a hundred German pilots, not even in a war.
@@farewell2kings That thing doesn't look like it was designed to turn AT ALL. Just point it and hit it and hope for the best.
F-104 was such a horrible aircraft, Lockheed had to bribe NATO members to buy it. It's a 'steaming piece of Lockheed', made before they bribed politicians to steal tech from McDonnell Douglas, Grumman and Northrup. Once Lockhood could legally steal tech via bribing congress to order manufacturers to share their tech, they started to produce planes that weren't total garbage, but they are still crap. F-22 lost to the F-23, but Lockheed owns many a general and congressman, so Lockheed gets the contracts.
the F 104 was called a widow maker, it was concluded that the F-104 was indeed more accident- prone than other co-era types
Nah, the F-104 was kinda average in the regard of crashes.
Spain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Turkey, and Greece all did relatively well with it.
Germany's issues mainly stemmed from inexperience, borh with the flight crews and maintenance crews. By the 80s, the Luftwaffe had implemented a better training regiment for both, and a lot of the issues subsided.
In Canadian service, the Starfighter was not the only jet with a high crash rate, as their Sabres also sufferes similarly high crash rates.
I met Chuck Yeager, at the JSC, Gilruth Center during the 50th anniversary of NASA. Got a picture with him and a nice conversation about our military yrs.
By the way, How can anyone dislike this clip?
How can anyone go through the trouble of investigating that?
Soon in War Thunder
Ye
the 104 is my favourite fighter jet. Man on a missile.
Essentially just a pilot sitting on an engine with 2 tiny wings.
You could hear those things howling miles away.
It's good, but it's not English Electric Lightning good!
Phhhh. You cant beat a flying rocket. Especially if It has Chuck Yeager in it!
Yeah.. the NF-104 absolutely destroyed any version of the Lightning.
Maybe the Brits could have done better.. but not really any other place to put a rocket engine considering it was already double-stacked.... and the UK was broke paying off the WWII loan to the USA and Canada that wouldn’t be concluded until 2006.
@@calvinnickel9995 we were too busy spending money on large scale public assistance programmes like the NHS.
@@felixleiter9123should have spent that money for borders I mean Look at London 🤣
To me it was the most beautiful scene of the movie. Where the pilots, who are condemned to stay on Earth and live a dangerous life in the shadow, can touch, just once, just for a second, the Space Dream with the tip of their finger, before making way to the astronauts, who have all the public attention. Chuck Yeager is here identified to the myth of Icarus, the movie suggesting he doesn't have clearance, therefore defying an interdiction, for which he will pay the price.
Something that wasn't mentioned in the movie is that General Yeager was not flying a standard F-104G as seen in the movie, but a NF-104A. This was a modified F-104A with reaction controls and a rocket mounted in the tail, and used to train astronaut's. Neil Armstrong flew one of the earlier prototypes, and the NF-104A would achieve something around 120,000 feet in altitude.
So he not only got his taste, small as it was, of space but helped develop one of the vehicles that would be used to train the next generation of astronaut.
Just a shame that only people who know a good deal about the Lockheed F-104 Strarfighter know about this contribution. Im sure there were other test pilots that took part in this program as well.
Agreed... always loved this scene and have seen the movie many times.... I always get the sense from this scene the fact that chuck couldn't get to space must have rankled with him and this was his attempt to sneak a peak as it were at space.... did anyone get that sense from this scene? Will be watching the movie again this weekend in honour of yeagar. 🙏 RIP.
Wow. Need to watch this again. And read it again. Mr. Wolfe nailed it for a lot of us.
Insane engineering, such a 🚀 rocket ship, so beautiful 😍
Icarus
It’s a great scene from a great movie. A number of the NF104 pilots tried to school Chuck on the correct profile, but he could never get it right. This crashed caused the cancellation of the program, much to the chagrin of the other pilots.
Thanks for that! Did some googling, very interesting details
In the late eighties I drove 120 km to see this movie again! See how things have changed...
GREAT MOVIE! AND GREAT SCENE !!! I NEVER TIRED TO SEE THIS PART!! TOUCH THE SKY!! BEAUTY!!! THANKS!!!