Hobbyist Building World's Fastest Car Out of a Fighter Jet

Good luck to him, the F-104 was fast, very fast, it was also a poorly designed (aerodynamically) and deadly plane to fly (for the pilots). Hopefully it will have a better track record on the ground (after its inherent problems have been fixed)

Its the power plant thats important, just hope it does'nt decide to fly on him.

From the picture it looks like a large section of the body of the F-104 has been used, which makes sense when you have a complete F-104 body and a limited budget to build a frame from scratch (hence the concern).

what was it again? it had a turn circle off 4 kilometer? In Holland we had it as interceptor and our country is tiny, if they would miss the target they would have turn over other countries territory

thats when aerodynamics come into play........a term called "ground effect".

My brother and myself built a helicopter as a hobby, base on NASA's pinwheel project, and contacts from the Third Reich's 20 something yo rocket scientists, that were retired and living in California, that had worked on it...........That was something I cherish .....We lived on a farm, and we distilled our own fuel. Burns cooler and other fuels we had a freezing problem?

if I knew then what I know now, I never would have attempted it.......thats where ignorance is helpful.....attempting something you shouldn't. I learned allot about boiler design. ;) a lost art?

phoenix911

They didn't call it the 'widow maker' for nothing. My father-in-law flew one once, he called it a rocket with tiny wings. Lucky for him he was at a short term on-load posting and never had to repeat the experience.

and you could use the wings to shave!

Don't use the ejection seat. Since the plane was designed to be a high altitude interceptor, the ejection seat shoots you out of the bottom of the plane! This became a problem when the plane was used in Germany as a low altitude strike bomber!

I hope this "hobbyist" or one of his "buddies" have real experience and knowledge to predict the aerodynamics at speeds above the speed of sound. They may be able to generate enough thrust to go this fast but I suspect the aerodynamics is the tough part. Just because it was once an F-104 doesn't mean it will work right in a non-lift (they hope) application.

If they do not have the correct knowledge this is a blatantly life threatening act.

True.....the biggest thing they are looking for is a power plant that can supply the speed.

What is the take off speed of a F-104.....not 800 MPH.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

The powerplant isn't the issue. They're using an uprated version of the GE J79, which in military trim was capable of almost 12,000 pounds of thrust dry, or almost 18,000 pounds with afterburner. This made the first versions of the Starfighter go just over a thousand miles an hour. NAE's version makes almost 55,000 pounds of thrust, which makes sense once you start taking ground effect drag into consideration.

Stall speed of an F-104A is 198 miles an hour, F-104G was 216 miles an hour, and the F-104C stalled at 167 miles an hour. Generally, V2 equalls Vs (minimum airspeed required for piloted control, i.e. flying, and minimum stall speed). Therefore, an F-104 with wings will begin trying to fly at 167 to 216 miles an hour.

Keep in mind that this thing doesn't have wings. Also don't forget about ground effect.

Cheers,

binkyninja

I believe I covered that in post 5. But not looking into it I was talking loosely, as a outsider.

And Thanks for the info.

phoenix911

good luck!!! turn the wings upside down, turn on the afterburner and go for it before SSC Blooodhound does it..........