Chapter 94
Words:722Update:22/06/17 10:06:55
After the first round of bombardment ended, the two minesweepers began to head toward the beach. Their mission was to open up a safe area for the assault troops after the bombardment ended.
Before the minesweepers reached their target, 22 F104 fighter jets flew over Tangleh's head and continued to attack the beach positions and possible Allied Forces' suspicious targets.
Speaking of third-generation fighter jets, everyone knew about the F14, F15, F16, and F18, but not many people knew about second-generation fighter jets. (Second-generation fighter jets were everywhere in the 5060s. That was their most glorious era. Oh, I almost forgot, we were still in revolution at that time.) America's second-generation supersonic fighter jets more or less had the shadow of the Korean War.
But the one that had the deepest connection with the Korean War was …
F104。
At the beginning of the 1960s, due to various reasons such as technology, tactics, and strategy, the size and weight of fighter jets expanded rapidly. At the same time, the military and designers also had the idea of "the bigger the better." Many fighter jets had even reached the weight level of light and medium bombers during World War II. The most prominent representative was the F104.
The F104 Starry Sky was a supersonic light fighter jet developed by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. (It was called a light fighter, but it was not light at all.) Design began in 1951, the prototype first flew in February 1954, and it began to be equipped with troops in 1958. Because of its short range and small ammunition capacity, it did not become the main fighter jet of the United States Air Force. In 1958, Lockheed redesigned the airframe structure of the F104C, increased its structural strength, improved its airborne equipment, and developed a multi-purpose fighter, the F104G. It was equipped with a fixed 20mm M61 "Vulcan" 6-barrel cannon, 780 rounds of ammunition, two external rocket launchers, and could also carry a bomb with an actual weight of less than 454 kilograms.
The F104 was most famous not for its combat record, but for its nickname: Flying Coffin and Widow Maker.
This was because the F104 was designed to pursue high altitude and high speed. It was designed with a long fuselage and short wings, T-shaped tail, etc., to maximize drag reduction, but at the expense of the aircraft's hovering performance. If the engine stalled in the air or the aircraft stalled, other aircraft could glide to land, but the F104 would immediately become a free fall. Because of the extremely low efficiency of the T-shaped tail in the state of high angle of attack, coupled with the high wing load caused by the small wing area of the F104, it would be difficult for the F104 to maneuver out of the state of stall, and it would directly make "close contact" with the ground. Although the pilot could choose to eject, the most dangerous thing was the T-shaped tail on its tail. If the pilot ejected upward, he would have two legs or even be cut in half! If the pilot chose to eject downwards, he would first have to flip the plane over. This was obviously very unfavorable for low-altitude ejections. Because the altitude was too low, the downward ejection method would make it difficult for the pilot to escape during the take-off and landing phase and at a low altitude!
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