Page 95 - Demo

93A FRENCH BIRDWhen 'Jet Noise was very much the Sound of Freedom' and, more importantly, the adage 'Speed is Life' had real meaning, I was lucky enough to be stationed on a Canadian Defence Force base on the banks of the River Rhine in Southern Germany. I was a pilot on 439 (Tiger) Squadron, flying the single-seat CF-104 Starfighter - or 'The Widow Maker' %u2013 a nickname that clearly didn't amuse my wife at all! Starfighter pilots loved the aeroplane for its simplicity and raw power.Designed by Lockheed as a high-level interceptor for the United States Air Force in the 1950s, certain design features were quite revolutionary for that time. For instance, it had a downward pilot ejection system, to reduce the time the pilot would spend in the extreme cold after a high level ejection. Its small supersonic wings, its big jet engine, long fuselage and T-tail made it look unique! The best turning performance for the aircraft was achieved at 540kts, which meant the cruising speed was kept high at 450kts - faster than other strike/attack aircraft of the time. Because the wings were so thin, no fuel could be carried in them, just in fuselage tanks and tip tanks; under-wing pylon tanks could be carried for ferry flights. The 104 didn't possess a Radar Altimeter or Moving Map Display but, in the mid-1980s, it did have a third-generation Inertial Nav/Attack System fitted. Although the ground-mapping radar and autopilot could both be used to good effect at low level, the aircraft%u2019s very high performance, combined with short range, made it challenging to operate single-handed, particularly in that environment. A 6-barrelled 20mm Gatling Gun was fitted internally. The Stick-Pusher System (kicker) protected against possible loss of control following overly aggressive pitching manoeuvres, in which the fuselage might mask the tail-plane. Therefore, because in hard turns it could automatically bunt the aircraft unexpectedly if the pilot was overly aggressive, at low-level this system was always switched off - for obvious reasons!Likewise, the original Starfighter downward-ejection option mentioned before had long since been over-ridden by the engineers -phew!