F-104 Starfighter ZELL Program Movie

[Michel Van]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCbegiIhLGg

"ZELL FOR DEFENSE" is movie that explain the F-104 ZELL program
Featuring the booster version and "Naval" version of F-104 except it land base catapult and landing system of Aircraft-carrier.

Most interesting is that movie is Made by Lockheed for US Navy !

Sorry the language is mostly German

 

[Jemiba]

Interesting footage, thank you !
When launched via ZELL, the landing gear was still down. Wasn't that completely unnecessary, increasing
drag, pilot workload and the danger of damaging the landing gear ?

 

[thefrecklepuny]

Perhaps the landing gear was down just in case a quick emergency landing had to be done at the nearest airfield.

 

[Michel Van]

Perhaps the landing gear was down just in case a quick emergency landing had to be done at the nearest airfield.

either that or the more logical fact
you can only start up the F-104 system with landing gear down
I mean normal the F-104 got gear down on runway, if all systems start up prior to take off.
could be that electrical or hydraulic system only work properly, if Landing gear is down.

 

[Richard N]

The gear may have to be down for some systems to function in takeoff mode.

Note that the gear starts retracting right after launch.