A Chuck Yeager's Challenge with NF-104

[selophane43]

F104 Starfighter was a REAL jet. Not like these sissy jets that boys fly today with autopilot and gps and air conditioning.

[vexviper]

I'm going to buy it!! In blue rey! Right now!! Best movie EVER!!!

[lewis3049]

The free falling skydiver in the Sam Sheppard scene was a true American hero who died while doing the jump. His name was Joe Svec. Google him. He was amazing at anything he did. He was a highly decorated Viet Nam vet, one of the original base jumpers and a great cartoonist. I had the previledge to know him in the late 60s when I published some of his cartoons in our campus newspaper

[shaun8195]

@lewis3049

Truly so sorry to discover this sad fact, may the Angels guard you Joe xx

[MrMaypole14]

Too fake, what is this, Disney?

[dryque2006]

@MrMaypole14 this movie was made in 1984 your fake

[WarblesOnALot]

G'day. Yairs. I like Yeager coz he's a high-performance Hillbilly, & he kicked NASA's arse ! Yay Team...

To see NASA ranked below

A.E.R.O. HILLBILLY Enterprises in 2011, search 'solar thermal ramjet', & it's all true. Maybe now they only got 1 human-rated Skyrocket left, the Hillbilly had a better chance ? For backstory search'sunfoil', & there's a suite of interlocking clips. The "...Short-Talk.." is best entry point. Open Source. Enjoy!

[MichaelCasanovaMusic]

man, you just cant kill Yeager. 

[seraph045]

1 person didn't get a stick from Ridley.

[ShutUpAndFly]

The song at 3:49 is called "Claire De Lune"

[Florhusband]

@ShutUpAndFly Yes. And it was very well employed here, if I may add. Thank you!!!

[matthewelync]

One of the best scenes in a fim ever.

[irish89055]

@6:29 seems the prop guys were short of philips head screws hmmmm Great scene from a good movie.. excellent use of music esp with Clair de Lune... The ending even better....

[MadDog243]

The one dislike mustve been somebody Yeager shot down

[Thraikios]

The music at 0:26 is so moving!

[Florhusband]

Does anybody know the title of the music heard around 3:49, and who's the composer?

[ShutUpAndFly]

@Florhusband Hey, it took me some time but i found out the song is called "Claire De Lune"

[Maxw3ll11]

It's a great book!

[doctordank]

absolutely nothing like real life... read the book if you want an accurate description of Yeager's NF-104 flight. This is nothing like it. He flew on a parabolic curve, just forgot between his morning/evening flights that atmospheric levels decrease in sunlight, which led to his tailspin

[bullmeecham]

@doctordank You know what's nice about the movie, no reading, yeah. 

[vomit49894]

@doctordank Agreed. the movie is fun, but not reality!

[suretobringskills]

We still have heroes...Sullenberger for one!

[spencnaz]

Jack Ridley died in 1958 in a crash over Japan. He wouldn't have been present for the events here.

[bullmeecham]

@spencnaz cinema takes liberties, it has no time for such pedantic drivel.

[spencnaz]

@bullmeecham Says you. I hardly consider the details of said events to be 'pedantic drivel'.

[bullmeecham]

@spencnaz It's not the events that are pedantic drivel you dope, it's YOUR comments that are pedantic drivel.

[spencnaz]

@bullmeecham Don't give up your day job.  Real lousy attempt at being a 'cyberbully'. Leave the aerospace to us adults.

[bullmeecham]

@spencnaz You're an unbearable knowitall twit who needed to be put in his place. That's not bullying it's a service to the rest of us. Crying cyberbully and calling yourself an adult in the same breath, LOL.

[spencnaz]

@bullmeecham being a 'knowitall' and understanding the facts are two different things. And put in my place? You and what army, redneck?

[samspargo]

What's the music that starts at 0:28?

[Thraikios]

@samspargo I've been looking for it everywhere... Apparently it's not in the soundtrack...

Please let me know if you find out!! Thanks!

[suretobringskills]

A T tail on a jet? That was always the strange thing about the NF-104 to me.

I'd like to see a film about the Man High project.

[Alembic25]

They used to say "Do you want an F104? Buy an acre of land and wait........"

[jpinguela]

Acabo de ver um documentário sobre o Air Force One. Ao pisar pela primeira vez no avião, o novo presidente do USA,Barak Obama foi recebido pelo novo piloto. Sabe oque ele disse?Poxa, vc parece o Sam Sheppard em os Eleitos. Imaginem o sorriso do piloto?

[ad356]

one of the greatest men to ever live. he's still alive and well and still flying at 85, without medical restriction. although i think he's flying only private aircraft types now. he's still an active pilot though, and a true aviation legend

[John19182004]

Yes he flies 'private aircraft' but he also flies everything else he feels like; In Oct '09 he flew an F-16 and broke the sound-barrier at Edwards; last year he flew the A-380 over in Europe. He regularly flies Barron Hilton's corporate jet. amazing individual. eyesight still better than 20/20.

[wjrasmussen666]

Jack Ridley was amazing too. What he did before his death changed engineering forever.

[agcatdriver]

@wjrasmussen666 Jack Ridley is from my home town... Sulphur, Oklahoma. We've tried numerous times to get the municipal airport there named after him, but so far, no luck.

[prest0604]

This movie makes me nostalgic for the Cold War era where we (U.S.) just had to worry about the Soviet Union.

[AVS9801]

I watched this movie in the times of the child.

When Chuck Yeager watched a star, I remember that the whole family raised a cry of the joy.

This is a very good movie.

Thank you for uploading this video

[Godzilla3088]

Great secen of the movie. Too bad this music is not on the soundtrack. I would love to find a copy of it.  :)

[MosheNL]

Why didn't he ask for Juicy Fruit, BlackJack or Dentyne? My Grandma used to send us Beamans when I was 5 ,6 in 1959 1 stick or 2 in a letter.Nice touch, that isn't kid's gum, though. I was rather hoping for a quart of Jim Beam,not Beamans.

[djbuck1]

Because Beaman's was considered "lucky" among aviators.

[RasMajnouni]

I think the pun was over your head.

[rixille]

Great story!

What is the song played at 4:43 ?

[irish89055]

Debussy "claire de lune"

[ShutUpAndFly]

@rixille Claire De Lune

[STMAswimmer]

I think I might have a stick! :)

[Cavelson]

Riding the dragon... Indeed...

[NorwegianSpirit]

Love this movie. I actually have a copy of Yeagers biography autographed to me. Lucky:-)

[1chumley]

the NF-104 is a MONSTER!

[tipiFWD]

THIS MOVIE IS THE BEST>!

[vexviper]

@tipiFWD THE BEST EVER!!!

[roopr]

In my opinion this movie was brilliant for its time. It sparked an interest in the NASA space program that was waining after massive budgetary cuts. For all of its flaws, this is a movie and not a documentary and it never pretends to be the latter. Movies inspire us to research more and this movie did exactly that for me.

[irish89055]

@roopr Helloooo??? This movie came out in 83 I believe just as the Shuttle program was let's say, gaining full speed... Great scene from a great movie with an awesome score. Love the use of "Clarie de Lune" here .....

[tommycat1313]

I don't think of 'The Right Stuff' as a perfect movie, but this is one of those rare sequences where a movie perfectly delivers. I don't see where the director could have improved upon it. It's just staggeringly flawless.

[happyface13579]

This men were heros for our age. I am very proud of them and their sacrifices.

[supressorgrid]

This flight nearly killed him. When he ejected and seperated from his seat it hit him in his helmet,the still hot ejection rockets melting his face plate and burning him badly.

[tlibber]

Let's look at this sequence. I saw "The Right Stuff" in the movies TWICE when I was 13. At the time, I loved Yeager in the 104, but hated the feather-dancer. I look at it now, and it's a gorgeous cross-cut between him attempting to break an altitude record that no one cared about and the beauty of "Claire De Lune" playing in the cutaways. The astronauts give each other glances as if "the right stuff" is "the force." They KNOW one of their own is in trouble. It's magnificent on an ethereal level.

[ihasch]

Of course this is somewhat fictionalized. The movie is trying to emphasize a certain type of unsung heroism. Yeager was the head of an astronaut training school at the time. He was testing the NF-104, which were to be used to allow the pilots in the program to manuever at 0 gs, to determine at what attitude the thruster they had specially installed on the nose would not be able to overcome the tendency to of the plane to pitch up. He had taken the same plane to 108,000 ft. earlier that day.

[kittypie070]

Geez, Sidw, do ya chew popcorn with yer butthole so you won't enjoy the taste!? ;)

[sidw]

It's a very, very stupid movie which was adapted from a partially stupid book.

Yeager was a test pilot and professional military aviator, the NF104 incident was part of the test program, he didn't just take it up one day to see how high he could go.

If you take Hollywood at face value then all US pilots are neurotic assholes like 'Maverick' in that awful film Top Gun.

They deserve their stories being told a little better than this crap.

[Blain1971]

Ok, all you have to do is get a few million and cram the entire Mercury Program into 2 hours. We'll be waiting for your masterpiece. And by the way, this movie never portrayed Yeager or any of the others as "neurotic assholes" it showed them as regular guys who happened to be heros. The only asshole in the movie was Johnson. :)

[Blain1971]

And I highly doubt the real Yeager would have agreed to make a cameo appearence in a movie that portrayed him in a bad light.

[tommycat1313]

Ok..but somehow Yeager's story gets told, albeit flawed, and 'Sidw's story remains untold. How can that be? Sidw has all the facts after all!?

Look, it's a MOVIE. It would be stupid to expect that you'd not need to suspend your disbelief just a little. Enjoy it.

[sidw]

Read Yeagers book, idiot.

Read about the NF104 flight test program, idiot.

Find out that testing high performance aircraft isn't like that stupid film, idiot.

For the hard of understanding I think that Yeager and the Mercury 7 were heroic individuals. The US manned space program was packed full of people of that calibre, much like the USAF.

The film is a very poor reflection of that fact.

[frstkor13]

Thank you for uploading this video. There have been a few times I wanted to just watch this incredible scene and had to go dig up my copy of The Right Stuff to do it. I always get goosebumps when the NF-104 starts its taxi. Too bad they couldn't have used a real one. Although I'm surprised they didn't make some simple fake modifications to represent the solid rocket motor. Anyway, thanks again. I love this scene.

[frstkor13]

sorry, liquir rocket motor

[frstkor13]

lolz, liquid

[Paragon19]

I'm just bitter about the cancellation of the NF-104 project afterwards. That was a program with real potential, and very useful in training astronauts.

[byrniemac791]

yeager is the original maverick, i dont know what the fuck mccain is talking about

[usmctanks1]

yes Paragon and you have flown how many aircraft? Well he crashed the NF-104 on the second flight of a series for a series of tests on Hydrogen peroxide controls of aircraft at above normal altitudes (100,000+ feet) the first test it worked great (Peroxide only worked as thrusters in a vacuum) but the second flight (as shown) A/C went into a high speed stall, and when it became obivous to Yeager was not recoverable, he ejected. This was a flight to TEST a new system, not a joyflight

[Paragon19]

Retard of a pilot. Took a highly specialized plane up without proper training, crashed it, and ruined the NF-104 program.

[byrniemac791]

the whole point of this movie is talking about pilots who had "the right stuff." Not a movie about men who followed their outfits to the letter of the law. Yeager was a fantastic man and a phenominal pilot, not to mention the fact that he broke mach 1 and countless other speeds; maybe he deserves a bit more than your "retard of a pilot" comment.

[berrypossum]

You are a douchebag, sir. Chuck Yeager is anything but a retard.

[johnow7]

Actually, he had clearance. It was an authorized flight. The movie fictionalized the incident for dramatic purposes. I know because I read his autobiography.

[angmhalp]

@Paragon19 That fact that you know so little about the incident and then make a juvenile comment shows your level of intelligence, now go get me a lottery ticket and a cup of coffee, go home and watch your Star Trek and Star Wars and shut the fuck up, Knob!!!

[MrCriticOfAll]

yanks".Cant even make a correct show about one of their heroes.

[gstung]

Where are our heroes today?

[MokomaSusi]

They are called computers and UAV's.

[Cantstopdamuzik]

The "Heroes" are American citizens who vote.

[bullmeecham]

@gstung Fighting in the Middle East and the rest of the scum bag Muslim world so you can sit there like a fucking idiot and ask mindless questions like that. Asshole.

[austinmillbarge22]

great scene:)

[cleekmaker00]

"Sir, over there... is that a man"?

"Yeah... you damn right it is"!

Jack Ridley, you called that one right!

[lokuzzz]

an epic scene from an epic movie

5 stars

[MrCriticOfAll]

bloody shame thats not an nf-104 ay

[Narrowgaugefilms]

Our Tax Dollars at work!

[GDHouston]

Love this clip 5/5 stars

[ianclytle]

What a beautiful bird...

[M1903A1]

My high school freshman English teacher briefly compared this sequence to the ancient Greek legend of Icarus.

[DoctorJanitor]

I love all the 'Arm Chair' critics posting...BTW i'm the one giving you the thumbs down!

[dewman396]

What about the 3 lights that flash at 5:54? Look like landing gear locked indicators to me, perhaps the aircraft systems detected slow air speed and flashed them because gear wasn't down? I didn't think they had that warning system back then. My guess is they are just using dramatic license to add to the chaos of his engine stalling due to lack of oxygen.

[sapphire2200]

"I see a plane with my name on it", Yeager Rocks, a No Bullshit West Virginian

[skydawg59]

25 years ago on Jan 15, 1983 when the stuntman Joe Svec was killed doing the Freefall for the scene of Chuck Yeager falling of Fire.

BSBD

[mrcraig41]

What's with all the switch throwing at

03:19-21? What in the world does ANY of that have to do with the F-104s climb rate? If you want go faster, you push the throttle forward. If you want to climb, you pull the damned stick back. You don't throw switches to make any of it better. All he has is clean airframe, internal fuel and a J-79 turbojet behind him, not JATO or some other kind of rocket assist! How silly.

[beckett202]

Just some Theatrical License...it is A Movie.

By the Way....Thats not really Chuck Yeager

[KensAida]

Actually, the NF-104 *did* have a Rocketdyne AR2-3 rocket engine equipped above the J-79. Yeager crashed said aircraft while trying to break the altitude record. That's what this scene is trying to depict. Search for NF-104 in Wikipedia.

[RacerXGTO]

In his book "YEAGER", Chuck said on that day when he bailed out, pure oxygen in his helmet ignited from the ejection and he burned all the way down till he was able to stop it and pop the chute. He spent days in the hospital getting his scabs peeled off so his skin could heal correctly.

[iakny]

its just a movie. chill.

[olmosfan]

KensAida is correct. The NF-104 was an F-104 with a rocket engine attached to it. If this was a typical F-104, you would be correct, but in this case, not so.

[mrlaser07]

I worked on F-104's at Edwards in the late 60's. There were 2 - NF-104's with the rocket in the tail. What a beautiful airplane. I remember one Armed Forces Day they had a tower fly by and they lit the rocket and went straight up. Wow was that great.

[LavaLampBlob]

@mrcraig41 Of course some of this is dramatic license with the switch throwing. But yeager was flying a special F-104, the NF-104, which had a large rocket in the tail in addition to the jet engine, and several maneuvering thrusters in the nose and elsewhere. The switch throws would have been to light the rocket etc. The plane they used in this seq. is a normal F-104, only 2 or 3 NF-104's were built and I doubt any survived even to the early 80's when they filmed this.

[shades2]

Great scenes. Great score. A classic of theatre.

[HAUSS81]

Love this scene

[roaminggator]

Love the music at 8:40

[irish89055]

roam, that's the main theme, look for it on here with closing credits, it's awesome. Didn't the stunt guy in this scene "buy the farm"?

[roaminggator]

I want to say yes...seems I read that somewhere. Awesome scene.

[borjito]

didnt see the whole of it, just pieces while my dad watched it.This is the scene i would always remember and i loved most.that echo at the beginning....

[lttlbear1]

watch the movie as a whole, it's great!

[borjito]

I was five or six when I first saw this movie

[habinder]

the f104 shown here was a german owned starfighter code # 13269 , stationed at luke airforce base in arizona..the germans trained their pilots there from 1967-1983..this aircraft was sold to taiwan later that same year after the german government started phasing out most of these planes...

[lordtiberius]

one of the best movies of all time

[spencnaz]

Also:

Sadly Jack Ridley was killed when his transport plane crashed in Japan in either 1957 or 1958, I can't remember which.

[spencnaz]

There is one error with this scene. The three red guarded switches he reaches for are for the landing gear not for an air restart of the J79 engine. Once the turbine would spool down and 'lock' it was a trial to get a relight. Doubly so at the rarefied atmosphere of FL80 and above.

General Yeager was badly burned on ejection from his craft when the still red hot nozzle of the ejection seat hit him in the face plate of his pressure suit. Yeager sustained 3rd degree burns from the accident.

[RTSiciliano]

I started chewing Beeman's after seeing Yeager in this movie.

[M1903A1]

LOL...so did I!

[bentpreacher]

Hands down the most moving scene of the movie. The soundtrack made this movie complete. Chuck is a winged GOD!

[MajorUberKILL]

Rest in peace Wally...

[mtkafka]

A true Cowboy! The Real AmericaN!

[irish89055]

clair de lune (light of the moon) and awesome piece of music by debussy, was used in this scene back and forth with the main "the right stuff" score. This scene and the last in the movie are awesome. The F- 104 did set the altitude record at 104,000ft in 1959. Yeager was flying 104's in 62-63, time of this scene.

[burlm47]

Pushing the envelop

[irish89055]

F-104 guys wish that plane could go that high. Great scene in a great movie. But in 63 they were using the X-15 to go to those altitudes.

[LavaLampBlob]

Actually they did - the NF-104 was a modified F-104. It had attitude thrusters for manueverability in high altitudes, and a rocket engine mounted in the tail above the main engine to allow it to climb in high altitudes. Unfortunately, the plane in the movie is a regular F-104 and does not show these differences.

[stepbackfool]

Some1 should post the entire movie here.

[terrythegeek]

Great movie!!

[walterdufresne]

"Joseph Svec of Houston, a veteran stunt man and parachutist, was killed Friday when he failed to pull his ripcords during the filming of a movie scene. Bob Phelps, manager of the Cal. City Airport, said that the jump was going as planned and that a later examination showed nothing wrong with the 35-year-old stunt man's parachutes. The sequence being filmed for "The Right Stuff," based on the book by Tom Wolfe, depicted a fighter pilot ejecting from an experimental plane." NY Times 16 Jan 1983

[ml8ml8]

My fav part also of the movie, I'll rather do this ( fly F104 than be a "ham in a can". The real F104 used for Alt Rec had booster rockets though fitted to back of a/c.

[psvision]

theres a naked girl dancing isn't it?

[Godzilla3088]

Yeah, I know. Actually I coudn't careless if the plane landed next to the party in Texas. :p Just like to point out. Still my favorite movie. I can watch it over and over again. :)

[Hyakusiki]

I think it's just a metaphor about the end of the age of test pilots, and the beginning of the age of astronauts.

[Godzilla3088]

But one thing about this part tho. tell me if I'm wrong. Chuckr was based in Edward AirFforce Base in Palmdale, CA. The Astronauts were at a party in Texas. How can they hear the crash

[iaintg0t0ne]

thay didn't

[Godzilla3088]

No Doubt one of the best scene in the movie. the music was perfect for the mood (at taxing on the runway and soaring throught the sky) and it just brings out the best in this film. :) one of my favorite movie, btw.

[irish89055]

yes, awesome scene all the way to picking him up, "yeah that is a man" the use of clair de lune was genius.

[sigma957]

who is clair de lune?

[lttlbear1]

it's the name of the song

[jstrewth]

Did anyone catch the error at the beginning of the clip? Jack Ridley (the guy Yeager talks to) died in 1957, and this scene is set in 1963.

Still, great movie, and my favorite part.

[GoBuffs2007]

The music to this scene is perfect...its one of my favorite bits in any movie...

[laserfloyd]

Favorite part of the movie myself. See where Independence Day gets the crash scene at the end from? ;)

Great.. I mean, RIGHT stuff!

[Ryano42]

THE BEST part! My favorite plane!

Ya got any Beeman's? :-)