Lockheed NF-104A Starfighter Aerospace Trainer Progress Report 1962 Lockheed Aircraft; Astronaut Training Rocketplane (Patreon)

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Originally a public domain film from the National Archives or Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_NF-104A

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The Lockheed NF-104A was an American mixed-power, high-performance, supersonic aerospace trainer that served as a low-cost astronaut training vehicle for the North American X-15 and projected Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar programs.

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...

Development

With the advent of human spaceflight in the early 1960s, the United States Air Force (USAF) Experimental Flight Test Pilot's School at Edwards Air Force Base was renamed the Aerospace Research Pilots School (ARPS), with the emphasis on training moving away from the traditional test pilot course to a more spaceflight-oriented curriculum.

Initial use of unmodified F-104 aircraft

A number of standard production F-104 Starfighters were obtained (including F-104D two-seat versions) and used by the ARPS to simulate the low lift/high drag glide approach path profiles of the X-15 and the projected X-20 Dyna-Soar program. These maneuvers were commenced at 12,000 ft (3,700 m) where the F-104 engine was throttled back to 80% power; and with the flaps, speedbrakes and landing gear extended, the aircraft was established in a 30° dive with a pull-out for the landing flare starting at 1,500 feet (500 m) above the ground. These glide approaches gave little room for error...

Lockheed was awarded a contract by the United States Air Force to modify three F-104A aircraft for the dedicated role of aerospace trainer (AST) in 1962. The airframes were taken out of storage at AMARC and transported to the company factory for modification...

The NF-104A was able to reach great altitudes through a combination of zoom climbing (building up a high speed in a shallow dive at high altitude, and then climbing steeply, converting speed and momentum into altitude) and use of the rocket engine (to reach higher level speeds and to maintain climb rate for as long as possible after entering the zoom climb). A typical mission involved a level acceleration at 35,000 feet (10,700 m) to Mach 1.9 where the rocket engine would be ignited, and on reaching Mach 2.1 the aircraft would be pitched up to a climb angle of 50-70° by carefully applying a load equal to 3.5 g. The J79 afterburner would start to be throttled down at approximately 70,000 feet (21,300 m) followed shortly after by manual fuel cutoff of the main jet engine itself around 85,000 feet (25,900 m) to prevent fast-rising engine temperatures from damaging the turbine stages of the jet engine. After continuing over the top of its ballistic arc the NF-104 would descend back into denser air where the main engine could be restarted using the windmill restart technique for recovery to a landing...

The first NF-104A (USAF 56-0756) was accepted by the USAF on 1 October 1963. It quickly established a new unofficial altitude record of 118,860 feet (36,230 m) and surpassed this on 6 December 1963 by achieving an altitude of 120,800 feet (36,800 m). The aircraft was damaged in flight June 1963 when a rocket oxidizer vessel exploded. It suffered an inflight rocket motor explosion in June 1971. Although the pilot was able to land safely, the damaged aircraft was retired and this marked the end of the NF-104 project. This aircraft was transferred to the National Museum of the United States Air Force. It is on display at Nevada County Air Park, Grass Valley, California. wearing the markings of "56-0751"...