Description:

Report of Neil Armstrong's January 13, 1958 test flight of the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter #734 --15 original documents including one filled out by Armstrong and another with his handwritten notations!

Manila folder, 9" x 11.75", tabbed "F-104A _ 734 / Flt 12 / 1-13-58 Basic" containing 15 original documents relating to Neil Armstrong's January 13, 1958 test flight of the F-104A #734 at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Stapled to the inside is an official 8" x 10.5" carbon of a typed report, stamped "CONFIDENTIAL" in ink at top and bottom, signed in type "Neil A. Armstrong / Aeronautical Research Engineer / and Pilot." In part, "An acceleration run from 0.95 to 1.80 IMN was performed at 40,000 feet. A one minute stabilized run at 1.80 IMN followed the climb to55,000 feet. Speed stabilization was difficult due to afterburner blow-out and relight. The flight was completed with a descending, decelerating, 2 g right turn..." In the folder are five printed forms, 8" x 10.5", filled out in pencil with hundreds of figures relating to the Flight No. 12 that only a rocket scientist could understand. Four 14.75" x 22" computer printouts of numbers, headed in pencil, are present. They are titled "F-104A 734# / Mach No.'s Flight 12," "Flight 12 F-104 A 734# Mach Numbers (New Calibration)," "F-104A 734# / Flight 12," and "F-104A 734# / Angle of Attack." Included are two 8" x 10.5" flight-related handwritten notes, a 14.75" x 2.5" computer printout headed in pencil "F-104A 734# M# (New Calibration) / Flight 12," and an 8.5" x 11" printed page headed "National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics / High-Speed Flight Station / Flight Request / F-104 No. 734" stamped "Confidential."

Neil Armstrong has personally filled out in pencil, but not signed, an 8.5" x 11" form headed "Zero Correction Sheet." Armstrong has handwritten the Flight Number "12" and the date "1/13/58." Identifying the instruments as "DR 35-2KM," "A-9-3M," and "P-2-3 A/8 ALT," Armstrong has corrected three "Angle of Attack" numbers writing "#1 () / #2 () / #3 (-.015)," three "Angle of Sideslip" numbers noting "#1 (+.001) / #2 (-.010) / #3 (-.005)," four "3 Component" numbers noting "Long (+.005(#1) /  (#2) /  / ," and, at the lower right, A/S =  / ALT =  ." In addition, a 2.25" x 2.5 slip of lined paper has been stapled to an 8" x 10.5" Flight 12 related page upon which Armstrong has jotted down the first two groups of "Angle" notations. We are not certain if any of the 13 other documents in this archive are in Neil Armstrong's hand.

From NASA: "Through the years, Dryden has used a variety of chase and support aircraft. First acquired in August 1956, F-104s were the most versatile work-horses in Dryden's stable of research and support aircraft, with 11 of them flying mostly research missions over the next 38 years. Tail number 826 flew the last of these missions on 31 January 1994. By then the 11 F-104s had accumulated over 18,000 flights at Dryden in a great variety of missions ranging from basic research to airborne simulation and service as an aerodynamic test bed."

Ordered by the U.S. Air Force, F-104A #734 was delivered to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (predecessor of NASA) in 1957. The F-104A had originally been scheduled to replace the F-100 Super Sabres of the USAF's Tactical Air Command beginning in 1956. By the time the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter was ready for delivery, Air Force requirements had changed. The Starfighter's relatively low endurance and its lack of ability to carry a significant offensive weapons load made it no longer suitable for the TAC. It was transferred back to the USAF in 1961. The following year, it was first used as an unmanned target drone. After being hit only four times in 113 drone flights, Neil Armstrong's F-104A #734 , now designated QFG-734,was shot down and irreparably damaged by a Bomarc missile on August 1, 1963. The Bomarc, named for Boeing and the Michigan Aerospace Research Center, was the only surface-to-air missile ever deployed by the USAF.

Included is a printed NASA photograph of the Lockheed F-104A _ 734 Starfighter on a lakebed at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, November 16, 1960.

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