QF-104A
Comentarios
Erik LeijdensPretty amazing work there!! One note though; you have reversed the inner fins of the tiptanks and I think, but that's Hasegawa's fault, they are of the wrong type, the A model's inner tanks fins were smaller, this is the G model type.
Jonas Autor@ Erik, weird, I'll look but AFAIK these were the only ones in the kit . I'll check. Either way, the tanks aren't glued on the wings, so if it's really an issue, I can simply take them off 😄
Erik Leijdens@Jonas, yes it's the fault of Hasegawa, they included only the larger ones. But you reversed them..😢 They point backwards now
Album info
56-741
In May 1957, after manufacturing, it was added to the Lockheed test facility for own factory testing. This ended in May 1959 when it was transferred to McClellan for maintenance. From September 1959 it flew as testaircraft for engine manufacturer General Electric until January 1960. After some months being stored at MASDC it was selected to become a QF-104A drone. Conversion at Lockheed finished November 30th, 1961 and next month it was delivered to Eglin AFB. One of the unmanned succesfull missions was flown for example on July 24th, 1968 when it flew at 1.3 Mach at 30m feet. An other example was an unmanned flight on April 24th, 1971. Now it flew at 1.28 Mach at 24m feet when the plan was to shoot it down. It was in a 72 degree bank turn at the moment of missile firing. It survived and returned base where it engaged the barrier at 80 Kts on landing.
Sadly on May 16th, 1972, the controller lost control of the aircraft on landing back at Eglin after a test mission. On final approach it crashed 2-3 mil
