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Lockheed F-104 Starfighter Prototype Flight Test Footage Edwards Afb California Xf-104 Xd13071 (1954)

1954 · Short film · 27 min

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Synopsis

This 1954 silent color footage depicts prototype flight tests at Edwards Air Force Base for the Lockheed XF-104 Starfighter, a single-engine, supersonic interceptor aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (TRT 27:45). Includes footage of the prototype 53-37786. Most likely the pilot on most of these flights was Lockheed's Tony LeVier. Joshua Trees dot the horizon of Kern County, in Edwards, California. An airstrip runs through the desert with numbered runway markers on either side (0:06). Closeup on an array of two still cameras mounted on a post, with wires running away from them, suggesting a remote or motion-activated trigger for flight analysis photography (0:15). A wider view of the same (0:29). Three cameras on tripods line the runway, ready for high-speed photography against a white backdrop. A blurred shape speeds by in a flash, trailing smoke (0:38). A photographer mounts a lens on a film camera and pans 180 degrees back and forth in various angles (0:45). A cameraman trains his camera on a dusty field. A prototype jet zooms across the horizon amid a cloud of exhaust smoke. A fellow photographer’s clothing blows in the wind (1:36). The first photographer uses a darkroom change bag. Ready to roll again (2:12). A yellow truck with a ladder marked “photographic branch” drives down the road with a man on the rear bumper. He stops to load the cameraman’s gear (2:32). In the distance, a prototype jet aircraft flies horizontally, close along the ground, passing…

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Details

Running time
27 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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