Norwegian Starfighter airborne

[Sparts99]

The Norwegian TF-104 just took off on its first post restoration flight, video on their facebook page Starfighter.no

[paddyboy]

Getting visions of Siggi, Axel and Bennu

Paddyboy

[Sparts99]

Slivers were my favourite

[Amp]

... and landed safely. Great video on their Facebook.

[Blackcat1]

Awsome jet! Would be great to see 1 back flying! Can we have a Lightning too !? 2 very noisy jets! And I don't mean that F35 mock Lightning lol

[Rotörhead]

Yes!! This has made my day, the video of the take off on facebook sounds phenomenal!

[MRTT]

Live stream was immense!

[paddyboy]

Blackcat1

Shame on you

How could you even think of mentioning that super mega fugly flying advent calendar in the same sentence as our gorgeous Frightning

Best regards

Paddyboy

[tim_raper]

to save others the trouble
https://youtu.be/G6zzwiggFJs

[starfighter]

Fantastic news congratulations to all who have worked so hard,
the sound of the "104"is wonderful but I would say that

Steve.

[3Greens]

Wwooowww... just get it over here in 2017
Waited alot of years for this, absolute brilliant effort from the Norwegian team

3Greens

[paddyboy]

Pure aeroporn

Must get her to Scampton 2017

Thanks

Paddyboy

[Sparts99]

Get up in formation with the Swedish jets.

[honest man]

Fabulous I did see a few at Prestwick but a pity they were overhauled there before my time including this machine

[hvaneupen]

Just a small addition to this great news.

637 on July 13th 1980 in the static of Ramstein's Open House.



And if you want to see flying Starfighters, just go to the USA. In 2007 I saw these ex Canadian/Norwegian 104's during the Jacksonville Beach air show.
These were the ex 632 (CF104D), gray 759 en blue 850 (both CF104G)

[paddyboy]

Alright: don't rub it in

Splendid pics

Green-eyed Paddyboy

[Ferrari]

Just watched it on youtube.
Is that really what they sound like? Fantastic stuff!

[Jetbudgie]

Just watched it on youtube.
Is that really what they sound like? Fantastic stuff!

Indeed it is! All except the German ones - I was on a spotting trip with some mates in the late '70s and we noticed that the Luftwaffe 104's didn't howl...our curiosity was raised so on a base visit we asked our host if this was correct, and he confirmed that the fleet had been modified, due to noise complaints from the local population.

Me, I'd want the 'Hoot' every time

[JeffreyK]

Fantastic stuff!!!
As for the noise, this is what I think:
The original nozzle of the J79-GE-9 and GE-11 engines as used in Starfighters has a "hard" mix of hot and fast gases from the engine int he centre and a slow and cold bypass flow on the outside. Those two coming together abruptly in the nozzle made the howl or whining noise. The nozzle is a variable geometry type and closes when advancing the throttle, augmenting the thrust. I think this was somehow self-regulated by the oil pressure...(?) This feature sometimes malfunctioned though, nozzle opened when you needed it least with a sudden loss of thrust. A number of Starfighters were lost. This is why German (and others?) Starfighters were fitted with a nozzle emergency override that arrested the nozzle in a closed position (not sure what percentage). Later, MTU re-designed the nozzle and its mechanism to eliminate the reliability issue and this is when it stopped whining. The "hard" mix of hot/fast and cold/slow air was replaced by a number of slots in the outer nozzle petals, similar to the engines in later model Phantoms.
Please feel free to chime in if I've made any mistakes.

Jeffrey

[Ferrari]

Thanks for posting - very interesting.

By the way if anyone wants a really good look at the inside of an F-104, there is a sectioned example (along with several others) at the museum in Wernigerode. I'll post some photos if I get a moment today.

Regards,
Ferrari