From: David Lednicer <dave@amiwest.com>
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.military
Subject: Re: Flying F-104's private owners
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 18:12:57 -0800

> Darryl Greenamayer, ex SR-71 test pilot and former Reno racer (F8F
> Bearcat) used to have a privately owned F-104 which I think he flew out
> of Mohave. Unfortunately, I believe it was destroyed sometime around
> the early 1980's when, according to the newspaper, he had a hydraulic
> failure and couldn't get the landing gear down.
>
>   Regarding Darrell's 104, it was called the "Red Barron".  True he
> couldn't get the landing gear down.  But the emergency retraction
> wouldn't work wither.  His was a -G model and modified quite a bit,
> just to set the civilian speed record.  Interesting video of it.  Not
> much left after he got done with it.

	Darryl's RB-104 flew for the first time in the fall of 1976.  It was a
combination of pieces from every model of -104, so you can't really give
it a designator.  It was largely built at Van Nuys, but the FAA wouldn't
let him fly it out, so he trucked it to Mojave and flew it there.

	He first tried to break the FAI 3 km world (not civilian - WORLD) speed
record that fall, but one timing camera didn't work and the record was
disallowed.  He came back the next fall and on October 24th he broke the
old F-4A Sageburner record by going 988.26 mph.  This record still
stands.  He next was going to break the FAI altitude record, which had
just been pushed up by a MiG-25.  On his last test flight, in early
1978, the right gear wouldn't lock down.  Running out of fuel, with the
sun going down, he was forced to punch out over the Edwards AFB bombing
range.  The wreckage was hauled back to the Mojave boneyard and was
still there in 1987, when I stole some pieces of it.  I have since heard
that it has been removed, probably to a junkyard.

	If anyone has video of the RB-104 or pictures, I would love to get
copies of them.  I have talked to Darryl about doing an article on the
history of the aircraft, but I have been too busy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
David Lednicer             | "Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics"
Analytical Methods, Inc.   |   email:   dave@amiwest.com
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