Chuck Yeager NF-104A Crash • Edwards Air Force Base
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
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Newly released video from the Edwards Air Force Base History Office shows then Col. Chuck Yeager losing control and crashing an NF-104A on December 10, 1963 at Edwards Air Force Base.
Video by Crosby Shaterian 412th Test Wing Public Affairs
The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.
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The 104 at that altitude was only able to move forward because of the rocket engine. Lift was probably nonexistent which explains the flat spin. I crewed one of General Yeager ‘s many impromptu flights at Edwards in the early 90’s. He would drive his corvette right into Operations and he would randomly pick an aircraft. He chose mine when I was a civilian working for Lockheed. An F4-C model tail number 869. He came out and jumped right into the cockpit and never looked at the aircraft or the forms. The full bird Colonel in the back seat did all that! My boss was a retired Chief Master Sergeant who was also my boss when I was active duty at George AFB. He told me don’t you dare screw this up! I was so tight I couldn’t speak. The Chief came by in his truck as Yeager walked out to the aircraft and as he drove by said , “ I almost forgot, whatever you do, DON’T ask him about breaking the sound barrier! “ I walked around the aircraft and followed the Colonel up the crew ladder to strap both men in and remove the safety pins on the ejection seats and when I got to the General he had his helmet and gloves on, looked me in the eye and said, “Well, aren’t you going to ask me about breaking the sound barrier?” I stuttered sir I was told not to ever ask you that question and the General roared with laughter!. I damn near fell off the ladder. He and the Chief set me up! The best part of this story however was I watched him take my aircraft at fifty feet off the runway flip it upside down and climb away from the airfield upside down in a very high ( for an F4) angle of attack! I swear to God I have never seen anyone do that in my career. When they came back my G-meters we’re pegged at 9 G’s, which meant the aircraft had to have a complete phase inspection and that Colonel in the back seat was white as a ghost! General Yeager is really a national treasure and he is about as rowdy as an officer comes. Was a very special honor to meet him, and he worked my ass off getting that aircraft checked out and put back together, but I wouldn’t trade that day for a million bucks. Thanks General! Salute!
Helluva story! Thanks for telling it.
THAT is a great story!
I had an engineering aide summer job at Edwards summer 1968 that came with a flight line access badge. Lunch time strolls took me through various hangers there. In one, called the M&M hangar was an F104 that had had a recent accident on landing grinding a few inches off its belly. In the video I believe that rollout scene in the beginning is from that hangar. That summer the X-15 made its last or next to last flight and I saw the landing on the lakebed. Other notable things going on were test flights of the XB70 and many flights of SR71-YF12As. In those days security was not so much a worry and the SR71s were parked next to the parking lot of my building. The pilots came to the pland in RVs suited up like astronauts carrying air conditioners. On takeoff, when the XB70 rotated, the ground shook from a mile away, 6 afterburners pointed at the ground. Loved those days. My project was arresting barriers. We ran planes like F111s and a B-47 loaded with water in fuel tanks at 130 kts with sometimes surprising results.
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing Maurice.
Incredible thing to have witnessed. Thanks you.
It was my privilege to meet Gen. Yeager in 2002 or 2003. He was impressive, sharp and the embodiment of the "right stuff". He was kind enough to autograph my copy of his autobiography. I still keep that book.
Got to shake his hand at Reno one year. Looked bullet-proof even then!
He came through the hospital gate at Travis AFB and stopped long enough to sign his book for me. His wife sadly died a few weeks later at David Grant Medical Center, where she had been treated for cancer.
@Edward Nelson...nice comment concerning the original "Right Stuff" guy....thanks.
RIP General Yeager... Men like you made the United States great.... we will never forget you
Yeager came from a time when no-hopers and deadbeats like Ronald Reagan, George W. and Donald Trump could not be imagined.
No doubts one of the greatest men of the greatest generation.
@@wemustconfrontrealitynow3205 I agree up to a point, then your anti American, liberal ideas get in the way of common sense and intelligent thought.
@@wemustconfrontrealitynow3205 what a truly stupid comment.
@@mountainrunner6922 You don't give any detail to support you claim that my comment is stupid, so I'll go into more detail about why these are the three worst Presidents in US history. Ronald Reagan set the USA on its current path to fiscal armageddon. He implemented tax cuts which caused record deficits, caused the USA in 1985 to become a debtor nation for the first time since 1914, caused the collapse of much of the USA's manufacturing by causing the rise of the dollar which wiped out the international competitiveness of these industries, caused the selloff of trillions of dollars of US real and financial assets to foreign capital (two more recent examples of this were the purchase of Anheuser-Busch by InBev, a Belgian brewer, and Monsanto, by Bayer) caused the beginning of the decline in living standards for most Americans, which has continued ever since, except for 1993-2001, and caused the huge trade deficits which have plagued the USA ever since.
George W. caused much larger deficits, shifted the distribution of the national income back in favor of the rich (Bill Clinton had shifted it away from the rich, in favor of ordinary working people, the poor and the disadvantaged, thus leading to a booming economy and record surpluses) caused the steady decline of the economy and the Global Financial Crisis, started two completely unnecessary wars, caused the collapse of the stability of the Middle-East, leading eventually to the refugee crisis, then handed Barack Obama a mess which was all set for annual deficits bigger than Australia's GDP.
Donald Trump was the most unfit of all for office, with a severe personality disorder. He accelerated the growth of the national debt by creating a false prosperity based on tax cuts which just caused much larger deficits. He had no interest in most of the work involved in the Presidency, and, most shocking of all, has caused the deaths of most of the US corona virus victims by obstructing the implementation of the measures to contain the spread.
Over the past 40 years, the US national debt has grown from $914 Billion, 34% of GDP, to $27.5 Trillion, 129% of GDP.
This disastrous situation was forecast in 'Day of Reckoning' by Benjamin Friedman, Professor of economics at Harvard (Random House, 1988). I have read this book several times. You should obtain a copy and read it too.
Now, what is stupid about a comment about these people being no-hopers and deadbeats? Their actions have been more consequential for the USA, and the world, in the worst possible ways, than all of the other Presidents who are ranked low down on the list.
My grandpa is buttoning up his pressure suit. Ralph was a test pilot and Lt Col of the PSD department at Edwards. I love watching these old videos and getting a snapshot of Grandpa in the background sporting aviators glasses 20 years before Tom Cruise. All these guys are true hero's by risking their lives in pursuit of unproven science (and probably that adrenaline addiction).
Chuck Yeager is a freaking national hero. Flew a Mig 15 after we stole one. Risked his life many times for the greater good. I salute his memory. Forever sailing the skies!
Still alive and posting on Twitter.
a north korean pilot defected in the plane to claim the large reward and to become a us citizen
@@ronalddavis yep, except he wasn't aware of the award until he landed in South Korea. Just seeking freedom
NF-104 was a nightmare from the start. First, it was not designed for high-altitude work; the wings and tail were too small to maintain control, and the RCS designed to provide supplementary control was insufficient. Yeager bled that system dry trying to hold it, but forces acting on the airframe simply nullified any attempts to regain control. The film was correct about the massive jet engine acting as a gyro as a loss of control device, but there was more. The T-tail locked in the UP position at the flight's parabola, causing the uncontrolled spin, in which all efforts including popping the braking chute, used on landings, to be fruitless. The T-tail was not evaluated by Lockheed to see if it would function in zero-gee, which was determined in post-accident investigation as to have locked in the up position, leaving the RCS to barely keep control. When the RCS ran out, the NF-104 fell into the characteristic post-stall flat spin in which Yeager had no option but to eject.
I read his book and wrote him a letter offering a compliment. He sent me an autographed photo. It is one of my treasured keepsakes.
This was his second time bailing out of an aircraft- the first time was over France in WW2 after he got shot up by a German plane. He was injured by shrapnel that ricocheted through the cockpit. He later evaded capture by traveling over the Pyrenees. He returned to combat duties not long after. Damn, that's worthy of a movie in itself!
Which says a lot for a guy doing Test Pilot work.
@@WALTERBROADDUS ..his test pilot work was long after WW2..korea and posts to europe between that and this event
BAT*21 and Behind Enemy Lines
GaFoot72 Chuck had 20/10 vision......he could spot enemy fighters before anyone else, dive on them and shoot them down. That’s how he became an Ace.
He's a legend.
Arguably the greatest pilot who ever lived. He was the man who helped take us into the future. RIP, Chuck Yeager.
The Right Stuff made it look like he commandeered the plane. This video gives some sense of the team effort required to pull off such a flight.
The "Right Stuff" also made it look like Jack Ridley was there for the flight, handing out sticks of gum. In reality, Ridley died sometime in the late 50s.
As in most movies with an "Historical" theme, most of them paraphrase reality at best... if they're very good. Too often, the real time-line would be too long or too detailed to fit into the movie.
Yeah , hollywood dramatic license .....what's sad is that people believe movie version and don't investigate the actual events
Yeager had nerves of steel. He fell almost 102000 feet and survived.
I think his recovery of the x1A in its supersonic tumble is even more impressive
He was not so much falling but 'trying to fly the plane' until he ran out of altitude.
Also, falling is not the problem .. the sudden stop at the end is.
Not to mention literally having his face and head set on fire by the pure oxygen from his suit, after colliding with the rocket nozzle from the ejection seat after separation.
yeah, because he was an arrogant ass and didnt know what he was doing, other guys made the same flight and didnt crash it
@@spacecatboy2962 Yep .. Basement Cowboy ..
Chuck Yeager is a living legend. The movie the right stuff covers this event and lots of milestones Yeager had back then including breaking the sound barrier.
And so much of what he did at that time, unlike the space program, was secret due to the Cold War spin up at the time.
chandlerh2 so many people try to talk shit about him too, simply because he was cocky. You need to be that way to survive those days. He is a legend.
Driver: "Is that a man?"
Wrigley: "It sure as hell is"
I probably got that wrong. But the spirit is the same.
@@davidatkinson47 no that’s pretty much how it goes, I’ve watched that scene 1000 times. “Awww you damn right it is” , music kicks in and yeagers walking away with his face charred still chewing his stick of beemans.
@@dalesfailssagaofasuslord783 I'm an old guy and I don't know anybody that talked s*** about him. Are you talking about younger people? Cocky?, he was confident
I had read about this in Yeager's book, but never saw this footage. Thank you! 🇺🇸👍
Less than 3 weeks after JFK was assassinated . . . life goes on. “Not because these things are easy, but because they are hard.”
Before there was Chuck Norris.... There was...Chuck Yeager
I BET chuck norris ain't got near the heart, balls or sense thus Great PATRIOT GEN YEAGER HAS AND ALWAYS WILL HAVE
@@gperk4723 add a little country boy crazy to that and a very high IQ
Yup!!!!!!
Chuck Yeager will always be better than chuck norris
Well said...only Yeager wasn't acting, he did things fictional characters would be afraid to do.
A modern day Titan! I will always love him for his fearlessness!
I met General Yeager back around 2000 at the Oshkosh Air Show when he flew in with his P-51. It's still one of the highlights in my aviation career.
Was there at that time too.
I’ve read and reread about this incident so many times, I never knew there was footage of it. Must have been aBud Anderson, he was flying chase for chuck that day.
Kinda looks like ground tracking station footage to me but I could be wrong.
Telescopic Ground camera
@@hertzair1186 oh wow. Good to know .
Nice to see the legendary (to aviation buffs) NF-104 the altitude record holder until the MIG-25!
@@billhart9832 fun fact. Chuck took victor belenko fishing , the guy that defected with the mig 25.
Just another day in the flight test world. I know Bud was more anxious than Chuck because he could see it happen.
Man, that is some thin atmosphere at 100k.
I would love to hear cockpit audio during this incident. I know most test pilots sound pretty cool even during the worst events, and have heard some examples where they talk through the problems with controllers as they work to correct them. I have a feeling that the conversation during this event would be very interesting, if one took place. Those F-104's under normal circumstances were like trying to hold a jaguar by the tail. These NF-104A's must have been like trying to surf a hurricane.
He was known as a somewhat foul mouthed guy.
@@carmenopramolla5262 Good for him. That means he was a realist and was a 'kick ass and take names' kinda guy.
@@sski Just what I always think when I hear people saying fuck every other word in normal conversations. Realists. Yup that's it.
He tried A, then B, then C. Invented a D and when that failed, lacked the altitude and time to come up with an E.
The problem was jet engine torque and rocket nozzle control incompatibility. The same occurred with the Apollo-LEM training device.
@@jarikinnunen1718 engine torque, yes. rocket nozzle control incompatibility is just gobbledygook and neither is what happened on the lem trainer.
@@jackhammer5468 Report of Yeaeger`s accident told that when he started jet engine, he lost control. Not need to be genius to see connections. You need only spinning toy to make experiment for its react to push out of its rotation angle.
@@jarikinnunen1718 When he started the jet engine? I do believe he started the jet engine on the ground. 🤣 What happened is the opposite of that. The problem happened when shut the jet engine before lighting the rocket. It was the deceleration gyroscopic motion of the engine that caused a phenomenon not understood at the time called "inertia coupling ". In this video, you can clearly see the loss of control that happens after he pulls the engine back to idle. "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 engine spooling after shut down for the rocket-powered zoom climb phase." Normally the deceleration of the engine would have no effect because aerodynamic forces acting on the entire aircraft, easily overcome them. But this was a hundred and four thousand feet! Without aerodynamic forces to stabilize the motions inertial coupling happened. now with the aircraft going back and forth from flat spin to a combination of rolling, pitching and yawing out of control those stubby small wings of the f-104 come into play. The control surfaces were insufficient to make meaningful corrections against the tremendous inertia of the out-of-control aircraft. but he had another problem. If he'd up and coming back into the atmosphere with his nose down are would have been going through the engine ducks spinning the turbine fast enough to create hydraulic pressure for the controls. In a flat spin, there's no air going through the engine ducks, the engine spins to a dead stop, you have no hydraulics, The controls are useless. All he could do was sit there until he got low enough to deploy the drag shut which you can clearly see in this video. In his own words "So, as I went through 30,000 feet, I deployed the drag chute, which you normally deploy. When I did, the drag chutes comes out and it popped the nose down on the airplane, but there is a link that the drag chute is hooked to the airplane with, that is designed to shear at 180 miles an hour. That's in case the drag chute comes out accidentally while you are flying, it won't stop the airplane. It just so happened the nose went down as I went through 180 miles an hour, the drag chute sheared, the parachute released and the airplane pitched back flat because 180 miles an hour going through the intake duct is not going to give you engine rpm, it takes about three hundred miles an hour. So when this happened, it flipped back flat. I don't think it turned, it just fell at one hundred miles an hour." Without enough any engine rpms he still had no hydraulics and so the controls do not function and he can't use the elevators to bring the nose down. Is that clear enough for you? . You don't need to be a genius to know you don't know what the hell you're talking about.
@@jackhammer5468 The loss of hydraulics locked the T-tail in the up position, causing the fatal spin of the vehicle. The NF-104 was never thoroughly tested to operate in zero-gee.
R.I.P Chuck.. You were my inspiration to get into the aviation field ! Never regreted it......
Im meeting(in 2 days) the guy who was the crew chief for Yeager when he made this historic flight in Dec. 1963...His name is Paul Furst....he wants a ride in my friends P51 "Mustang" here in Pa. He also knew all the original 7 astronauts, Scott Crossfield(X15 pilot) and the pilot who crashed in the XB 70 "Valkyrie" he has pictures of him and Yeager in the 104, and the original NF-104 flight manual ..can't wait to meet him and hear what it was like back then at Edwards A.F.B. in the 60's
He tried to help me get a charcoal grill started in Alaska in the 60s when I was a kid! It was real cold, he told me he has experience with making fires in the cold! Turned out he was escaping to Spain from the Germans in WW2 across the mountains
he walked on water too just ask him
@@ronalddavis ha ha good point...he did have a big ego...no doubt...but also had some big balls!
"Hey Ridley, got any Beeman's?"
I might have me a stick
Beeman's are made in China now... go figure.
@@eagle6754 Doesn't much taste like Beemans any more. More like essence of Beemans.
@@elvisslo Well, I will agree with that, but I am also in error of my original post, Beemans is not made in China, it is now made in Morroco.
@@GeorgeBridgetower Well loan me some... I'll pay ya back later.
Thank you for this video. I had heard years ago that since Yeager was passed over as an astronaut (he did not have a college degree) that he tried to “fly into space”. The F-104 could certainly come close to the altitude. It likes his flight was per orders and the rumors were distortions. He should have been given a flight in the space shuttle. He and Scott Crossfield risked their lives many times to gather data for high speed, high altitude flight.
Mark W even the Mercury 7 were under qualified for the Shuttle....Glenn made it for political reasons.
The NF-104A couldn't approach anywhere near space altitude.
It was designed to operate in the vicinity of 125,000ft which is just under 24miles up. The highest altitude they achieved was 120,800ft. That's been beaten by the Russians in a modified MiG-25 which got up to 123, 520ft.
For record purposes, they consider you in space if you're above 62miles (327,360ft); there's no true defined limit of "space"; 62miles is just to establish a minimum for records. They've awarded astronaut wings to Air Force pilots that didn't quite make 62 miles altitude. The only winged, manned aircraft that managed that (other than the Space Shuttle) was the X-15 and even that plane didn't always cross above the internationally recognized limit of 62miles.
Instead of sending John Glenn up again, you're right. They should have given the honor to Yeager. Seems no matter how hard you work if you're not in their little club, you're not in
@@Imasasquatch His ego would have taken up to much space. Glenn could be a team player.
You heard that from someone who saw the movie "The Right Stuff". But they sort of botched the story and tried to make it sexier than it really was.
In the movie, 'The Right Stuff' they incorrectly made it look as Yeager was just taking the plane out for a spin, and didn't have clearance to do that....obviously there had to be a lot of preparation for such a flight.
One of the very few things I didn't like about The Right Stuff movie is that it portrayed this event as if Yeager was going rouge with his flight, something he would have been court martialed for if that had been an unauthorized flight, especially with the loss of the craft. I saw that movie when it came out while I was in the USAF and wondered what really happened. Took me a while to find out the truth.
97 years and still going. Says a lot about his expertise, intelligence, logic and common sense. There are many 'bold pilots'. There are many 'old pilots'. There are few if any, 'old, bold pilots'. A true, national hero and treasure.
Just passed away, RIP.
Drago Nadj. As former SFRJ test pilot to add there are no menu old air force test pilots. I am 67.
What a ride ! Great camera work... thanks for posting.
The music is irritating
It's not music, it's noise.
He was quite a pilot, this guy saved many pilots because he pushed his planes to the extreme limit, he holds the record for the longest flat spin and who miraculously ejected him, a Hero of America.
The movie "The Right Stuff" made this flight seem like a rouge or unauthorized one, whereas the video shows it as a planned test flight. Well short of the Karman line. Amazing video and it would great if it could be digitally cleaned up / enhanced.
A good friend who is retired out of the flight test world saw the original accident report, which chalked the crash up to pilot error. Chuck pulled back on the stick a bit too aggressively and stalled, resulting in the loss of control.
Of course, we couldn't admit this about an institution like Chuck Yeager, so the report was re-written before it was released.
Personally, this only slightly tarnishes Chuck's legacy. Chuck had brains, balls and bravery. The fact that he made a mistake doesn't bother me nearly as much as the fact that he went along with the cover-up. No doubt the "editing" was ordered by higher-ups, but Chuck could and should have told the truth after he retired. If he had, I would have respected him even more.
I'm sick and tired of finding out decades after the fact that our government is such a BS'ing propaganda machine, and that in every instance people who knew better went along.
Did he have the elevators too far up when the engine shutdown and the hydraulic pump shut down? What did the flight profile call for? I thought it was a zoom climb and Yeager liked the F-104 because it would climb supersonic.
Why hasn't there been a movie made solely about this man's accomplishments, i.e. WWII actions, aviation feats, breaking the sound barrier,etc.? Yes, "The Right Stuff" movie mentions him, but not as the principle character! Since he shot down, or as he said himself, downed five enemy aircraft in one day, I suggest that the movie be called "ACE IN A DAY!" A true living legend!
They would have to cast him as a minority transgender woman to meet today's "hero" standards.
I still can't believe it. He passed away on my birth date of 12/7. Also is Pearl Harbor Day. Rest in peace Colonel. You will never be forgotten. A true Super Hero!!. Amazing that the 104 stayed together for all that torture.
"Damn Right That's A Man"! RIP Chuck Yeager
Chuck is 96 now! How is he?
Bud Anderson and Chuck are living legends!
Chuck Yeager is on Twitter almost daily. He posted a link to the footage yesterday. He made a comment about how they asked him to recreate the flat spin for The Right Stuff and he told them flat out hell no. They found someone to do it and that got augured in.
@@WayneMoyer
Thanks! OK, finally a reason to actually use my account!
@@WayneMoyer Yes I remember that scene, inaccurately done. It made it seem like Chuck just took the plane for a joyride. Also Jack Ridley (1957) was deceased by this point in time yet in the movie he is alive and well.
He is still alive??? This guy has balls
@@rinsedpie Indeed! @ 97 in Febr. 2020
This would be the actual event the "Right Stuff" movie covered at the end with Sam Sheppard walking away after the parachute landing and burned face.
Not exactly the way The Right Stuff showed it. This makes much more sense. Never knew there was footage.
The movie makes it look like he went out on his own for shits and giggles and crashed an expensive jet and it was all good. I had always wondered if that was what really happened. Yeah, this makes a lot more sense.
The Right Stuff was okay, but it was something produced by Hollyweird, so there is a level of fictitious drama
Yeah, that was a terrible scene. Movie made it seem like he just took it out for a joy ride.
Always disbelieve anything you see in a movie until you can verify with a credible source.
Thanks for publishing the original footage on YT!
Read his biography then you will absolutely know, without a doubt, he had the "Right Stuff"
As I understand it, there was a successful flight in the morning; However, the air was heated up at the time of this flight, which resulted in there being lower air pressure than expected at the altitude of the zoom; The RCS couldn't control the airplane given the reduced pressure, which was one of the reasons the yaw was unrecoverable. That NF-104 had enormous holes in it's flight envelope, and I am unsure if it was ever flown again after this.
Air pressure would not have that much effect at the altitude he was at in regards to the RCS. The RCS is meant to function in near vacuum when air is no longer providing any lift or control. Yeager failed to achieve the correct climb angle on prior flights and was briefed repeatedly by Bob Smith. If you read the actual report, Yeager failed to achieve the proper climb angle (too shallow) and pulled up at the end into a hammer head stall. He never got high enough for the RCS to be able to function and pitch the nose down.
The greatest and an example to aviators and aviation.R.I.P. Mr. Yeager.
Just because I'm a pedantic git....... The white-hot exhaust nozzle of the ejection seat hit C.Y in the face cracking open the visor igniting the pure oxygen in the helmet. He was badly burned and took a considerable time to heal.
That makes sense.
Just to be even more pedantic, pure o2 doesn’t burn, it’s an oxidizer.
@@moto51legend 100 percent O2 will catch fire everytime,,,,,,,
@@moto51legend Your'e thinking of Nitrus.
@@billythekid3234 I am not thinking of Nitrous. Pure oxygen does not burn. There needs to be a fuel present for combustion to occur. In the case of this crash, something in his helmet must have been used as a fuel in the combustion. This happens in rocket engines, if the engine has excess LOx the combustion chamber walls will start to combust as they will react with the excess oxygen and be a fuel in combustion.
Rip to one of the few legends we have left.
Normally the movie version is scarier than the real-life film. Not so here, how in hell dud he survive? Truly the right stuff.
Rest In Peace Chuck Yeager 07 Dec, 2020
The man broke his ribs and then the sound barrier, one tough mountaineer!
映画、「ライトスタッフ」では、補助ロケットの無い通常のＦ-104が使われています。
しかし、映画で描かれたアクシデントが、この様なフィルムに残されていて、公開されたのは、貴重ですね！
One thing not mentioned here is that some of the bolts for the control surfaces were put in backwards by an old school fella during assembly. The plans called for the bolts to come up through the bottom nutted on top. Old school fella put the in through the top down. When this aircraft was thrown into the high g situation from the gyro affect or really any high speed maneuvering it went into an unrecoverable flat spin because the high g force pressure of the control surfaces flexing against these improperly installed bolts locked up the controls so it could not be recovered. Also Mr. Yeager was wearing an oxygen pressured suit for such altitude. Basically a space suit. The reason his face was burned was that the oxygen in the suit was feeding the fire in the damaged helmet. Taking it off was normally a two man job but somehow he managed to get it off while floating to Earth. Had he not he likely would’ve died. Read his autobiography entitled “Yeager” for more details of his exciting life!
I'm pretty sure you're confusing stories. The incorrectly installed hardware was on the F86A models - years before the 104 flew.
Is that a man? You dam right it is! What a great scene. Of course that didn't . Ridley had been killed way before that in a place crash in Japan. Yeager landed near a road with severe burns and a young man who happened to be driving by saw him land and went to help him. But still a great scene which epitomized the Yeager spirit.
Most memorable Yeager story was his off-duty time in WWII England and the goings-on in bars. Pilots had access to parachute silk so had a pick-up line "stick with me baby and you will be farting through silk!"
Rest In Peace warrior!
Wow, I always thought the cause of the crash was his giant balls getting in the way of the flight controls.
I'm kind of sick of all the giant balls comments. You need to be about 13 to say that stuff
@@tomthx5804 Right?! Sick of it too. I met Yeager once. Complete asshole. Bob Hoover on the other hand was a joy to talk to.
@@6milesup sorry about your impression of Yeager. Never met the guy. Hoover on the other hand was very cool. Met him after he’d done his famous engines off loop in his Rockwell.
@@6milesup Agreed. And I never met the guy. But one line in his book stands out. Something to the effect of “a test pilot can never be willing to worry about whether there’s a school full of children down there”........My thoughts on the matter? Thank heavens for those poor heroes who DID!
@@martyzielinski2469 Yep, you got that right Marty.
Thank you kindly for enlighting me about this specific scene from "The right Stuff". A pleasure...👍
Wow, thank you for sharing that
My father worked on that plane when my dad worked for bell labs and Lockheed and my father told me one afternoon at the airstrip they were testing on chuck said to my dad ( hey Vince you wanna go up?) laughing because my dad was a scientist a physicist, metallurgist, not a pilot lmao always smile thinking of that story. My uncle worked on the U-2 spy plane. Rest In Peace dad and uncle bill and commander chuck Yeager you guys made history!
On a slightly different note, the ports we saw the pilot checking in the wing, and removing the cover in the nose, were they some kind of reaction "jet" for attitude changing in thin atmosphere? How high were they to try this?
Hydrogen Peroxide, pressurized by nitrogen was the secret of the reaction controls in the nozzles located in the nose, and wing tips indicated by the video. The gloved hand working the control in the cockpit. At altitude, the regular control surfaces are worthless. The reaction control system was to prevent pitch & yaw. Sadly, it did not prevent the flat spin, which is impossible to recover from without power. Engine flameout, & rocket engine failed to reignite. Col. Yeager managed to bailout @ 8,500 ft just in time. The NF 762 was not recoverable.
@Glenn Ellis: the reaction jets weren't designed to stop a flat spin. This aircraft was a live simulator.
It was designed to climb up to an altitude where future astronauts could practice maneuvering a "spacecraft" in zero g for a few moments, before gravity pulled the plane back down.
The idea was, once the plane started coming back down, the pilot would point it towards the Earth, restart the jet engine, and make a normal landing.
However, Yeager had the misfortune of demonstrating that this was a bad idea. NASA didn't expect the controls to ice over, and the elevators were stuck in a nose-up position.
Basically, gravity said hello, and it was only a matter of time before he'd have to eject.
Robert A. Bob Hoover could have saved it, bob was a much better pilot and officer, chuck yeager not even in the same class as bob hoover.
Bob is a legend. I mean power off aerobatics? On purpose?
Silly speculation and not provable so pointless.
Good morning AIRBOYD; from San Rafael Bay, California.
This is a gem of a video "AIRBOYD" that you found done by"Video by Crosby Shaterian 412th Test Wing Public Affairs".
Even in 2023, Secrets of Lockheed Martin F 104 Starfighter ARE still !Secret or Top Secret!. I had always wondered how did the little wings, the one piece flying elevator and rudder be SO Strong,?
I see a video showing the internals of the wing, yes that can be found, what was interesting the video shows loading stresses on the Spars Ribs and Stringers, and the metal used to fabricate ah ha 'Titanium'. That vid is now LONG Gone on TH-cam.
The only test pilot who did recover a F 104 Starfighter in a Flat Spin was Herman Richard (“Fish”) Salmon, the spin was caused by the GE 20mm Vulcan autocannon shell ejection. He recovered and did a 'Dead Stick" landing on Edwards Muroc Dry lake.
Now Starfighters Aerospace Cape Kennedy, are designing a two seat version of the NF 104. No news about it since 2012, Be very cool if Starfighters Aerospace pulls this off.
Thanks again for this post.
.Best
Kristy
You could see he was trying hard to recover from the spin.
Seemed like it straightend out after he bailed but by that time he was 3 seconds from the ground
Dad was 3r Armored Division North Africa, Omaha Beach and Battle of Bulge! Friend of Chuck Yeager, I met when he came to our house in 60s
Correct me if I'm wrong, but his engine cut out due to the thin air and his rocket engine run out of fuel and there was no power to operate any of the controls. He blacked out for a while due to the G-forces. It was plane vs gravity.
@@jimclark6256 the correction thruster system failed that was to prevent flat spin! Could not point nose down and battery was dead and could not restart engine! My question is why he took this flight! Plane was for astronauts!
@@tulsaguy9963 I believe, he was doing several flight profiles working his way up to the aircraft limits when this incident occured. This was prior to the students (astronauts) flying the profile.
That, folks, is a flat spin. Dang, that must have been scary....
Never figured out why the reaction control system didn’t work.
@@thethirdman225 engine out - no hydraulics
@@hinomura2001 The hydraulics were on a separate circuit, I believe. The air was too thin at that altitude for the control surfaces to work and this was why they fitted an RCS system. I just re-read the section in Yeager's book (it's the best part of the book, IMHO) and he said he used up all the hydrogen peroxide but it didn't work. He doesn't say why: only that it didn't work. That's all I got. :shrug:
Rest in Peace Chuck
You were the definition of "the right stuff".
Great piece of history
In the Aviation world, he is a God.
Surely we have the technology to clean this up and make it more clear. I've never seen this before. Incredible that we still have even this!
Amazing! The movie "The Right Stuff" or was it "Space" made it look like he just took a starfighter for a spin that went horribly wrong.
That's Hollywood for 'ya.
Chuck Norris always takes the back seat when Chuck Yeager is the pilot. 😁
@ 0:55, a little intimate moment with the NF-104A before take off. LOL
That was a damn thin line those test pilots had to fly. One minuscule deviation. Catastrophe happened. These guys had true grit.
I remember seeing that scene in the movie The Right Stuff. Tha t was a very good movie, at least the parts about Chuck Yeager.
Did you notice the real Chuck Yeager was in this movie?
@M Vit: he WAS in "The Right Stuff", just not as himself! He played Fred, the waiter at Pancho's.
He also did nearly all of the flying.
Saw Gen. Yeager and Bud Anderson fly their Mustangs at Oshkosh. They were both in their 70s. Incredible men.
What a great man, so humble and not blowing his own horn.
This is incredible footage.
1:04 “hey there little fellar”
Just to let it be known He always said. Bud Anderson was the best pilot he ever met..
The best ‘stick & rudder man’ that God ever put on this Earth. That’s General Yeager’s assessment, and it is mine.
God bless you, Gen Yeager. And thank you.
Chuck Yeager, a true American Hero, some say fearless. I say very intelligent and Stickler to details, a survivor, always thinking what if? Consider what he survived, of course he had fear, but he had bravery to fight through it. Much bravery.... Hold him and his legacy in high regard. May he rest in peace.
Most beautiful plane EVER!
West German Air Force gave it the name that stuck...”The Widow Maker”.
Great footage. Chucks flight was was part of a program and there were multiple pilots involved. Chuck was a great "stick and rudder" pilot and a true American Hero but somtimes following a flight plan is more important than naturaly ablity. If you want to find out why Chuck lost his F104 and more details on the program search the web for:
The history of the NF104 AST by its primary test pilot Lt. Col. Robert W. Smith USAF
so touching for an excellent video
The aircraft experienced a phenomenon called "Inertia Coupling".
F104 - Starfighter call sign "Flying coffin" !
What a chuck , a good chuck, that's all.
RIP Chuck Yeager, this day of December 7th 2020. A great American and hero.
Rest in Peace, you blue suit badass! You make me proud to have served in the AF!
Not very often do you get a event recorded like this and then a movie scene comparison.
Never heard about this before...thanks!
You have never seen the film, "The Right Stuff?" 😳
@@WALTERBROADDUS I guess I forgot...
This guy had balls
Seeing that flat spin in real life is even more horrifying than the scene in The Right Stuff.
I used to play his flight combat computer game in 1991, nothing better than getting in my MiG 21 & shooting up a squadron of B52's over Hanoi ;)
I had that one as well.
Unbelievable ! What a pilot. Any images of when he reached 101,500 feet ? Probably stars. But imagine the altitude ? Wow.
He most definitely had "The Right Stuff".
First man in space... Yuri What's his name? Nope. Chuck Yeager. Nobody else had the GUTS!
Chuck Yeager is a true American Hero.
This was in the movie The Right Stuff.
except the movie portrayed him as taking the plane out on a whim and without authorization
@@mattf49006 And that pilot Jack Ridley already died in 1957 while this happened in December 1963.
Zoomflights took place from October 1963 to December 1971 ...
RIP Chuck. An amazing man.
I’m sure this has been answered, but where was the camera mounted which shot this footage?
At 4:15 was that the landing breaking chute being deployed? This was a bit before he ejected so it isn't that. Did he try to break out of the flat spin by essentially trying to change the configuration of the aircraft (IE lots of drag on the tail)?
I noticed that to. Modern prototypes have parachutes to stabilise and presumably aid ejection or getting aircraft under control. Would be interested to know if this is the same.
I remember Tom Wolfe describing this in the "The Right Stuff" (the book, not the movie, which over-simplifies the entire flight). First time I've ever actually seen it!