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From: cirby@vaxb.acs.unt.edu ((C. Irby))
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: F-104 Ejection Seats and Other Trivia
Message-ID: <1990Aug23.014417.1263@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 23 Aug 90 01:44:17 GMT
References: <1990Aug18.182728.24742@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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From: cirby@vaxb.acs.unt.edu ((C. Irby))

In article <1990Aug18.182728.24742@cbnews.att.com>, shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes:
> The F-104 was originally built with downward firing ejection seats.

This reminds me of a (possibly apocryphal) tale of the F-104...

If you were taking off in the 104 and the engine flamed out, the preferred
technique was to do a roll and punch out while inverted (so as not to
fire yourself into the ground).

Supposedly, this one pilot had been in 104s for years, and had bailed out
more than once in this situation.  He had moved to F-4 Phantoms, and was
in the front seat of one when the plane lost an engine on takeoff.

He coolly flipped the plane over on its back and yanked the lever to
eject...

-- 
|-|                        |-|  Iraq owed Kuwait a lot of money, so they
|-| C Irby                 |-|  invaded and installed a new government.
|-| cirby@vaxa.acs.unt.edu |-|  I think that's a great idea.
|-| cirby@untvax           |-|  Next week, I'm annexing the phone company
|-|                        |-|  and putting my friend Albert in charge.