Joint base andrews intruder trial#

My guess was that they would get all excited and jump on me without asking where my wingman was. вЂњWhat that did, of course, was get them sandwiched between me and Hartmut. I unloaded, and extended away figuring they would try to followвЂ¦and they did. I picked him up visuallyвЂ¦he was high, to the right, and had started a conversion turn. We could slave our gunsight to the radar lock on angleвЂ¦this let me fly right at the F-15. My hope was that the Eagle guys would hold their lock on me and not see Hartmut separate. вЂњI called the Apex at 16nm, told Hartmut to deploy, and then pushed it up to over 700KIAS. This print is available in multiple sizes from вЂ“ CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. The plan was to Fox-1 at about 16nm and then have Hartmut peel off into a hard 360 to follow me. At 20nm, the F-15 made a large blip on my radar and I was able to get a lock. Intended to fight fastвЂ¦high speed extensions and hook turns. вЂњWe took the first GCI vector and accelerated through the mach. Our radar could search out to 40nm but we couldnвЂ™t lock on until 20nm.вЂќ вЂњMy plan was to put Hartmut in close formation and run head on at the F-15 using GCI for vectoring. I thought that the two Nickle guys would be heavily relying on their radar to enter the fightвЂ¦as it turned out, I was right. We knew that the F-15 guys were really proud of their radar capabilitiesвЂ¦the PD radar was new to the fighter community at that time. I was the flight lead and intended to use as much deception as I could. вЂњAfter the main briefing, Hartmut and I had our own briefing. Our simulated armament was to be Apex, Aphid, and the gun. We were to simulate FloggersвЂ¦not a bad idea since the G model that we flew was a good representation of the A2A capability of the MiG-23. They were going to use the two seat model for the engagement. We briefed at their squadron with two of their instructors (both F-4 FWS grads). Two FWS instructors were selected, one a German instructor (Hartmut Troehler) and one USAF instructor (me).

Joint base andrews intruder trial#

вЂњThey wanted to fly against us, and so we agreed to put up a two ship for a trial mission. Sometime in 78 or so, the Nickle guys were looking for DACT with a variety of fighter types, and so they came down the street to the F-104 Fighter Weapons School in the 69 TFTS, also at Luke.

вЂњWhen the F-15 training operation began at Luke in the latter 70s, the initial squadron was the 555th, known as вЂthe NickleвЂ™. вЂњI donвЂ™t know when the first instance of the F-104 and the F-15 engaging in DACT happenedвЂ¦but I do know when it happened early on at Luke. The Starfighter could held its own also against more modern fighters thanks to its speed and vertical climb, as former F-104 pilot and instructor in the USAF Fighter Weapons School (FWS), Andy Bush, recalls: The Starfighter was the first aircraft to hold simultaneous official world records for speed, altitude and time-to-climb.

14, 1959, an F-104C set a world altitude record of 103,395 feet. On May 18, 1958, an F-104A set a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph, and on Dec. Armed with a six-barrel M-61 20mm Vulcan cannon, it served as a tactical fighter, and when equipped additionally with heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles, as a day-night interceptor. Designed as a high-performance day fighter, the F-104 had excellent acceleration and top speed, according to Smithsonian website. Known as вЂњthe missile with a man in it,вЂќ the stubby-winged Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was the first US jet fighter in service to fly Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. They had no valid shots,вЂќ Andy Bush, former F-104 Starfighter pilot. вЂњThe result was the two Fox-1s and three unobserved gun kills by us.