Dave Williams
CF-104 Loadout question
Fri Aug 25 13:45:55 2000
I’m planning on doing the Hasegawa F-104 kit as a post-1972 camouflaged CF-104 and was wondering if they ever carried single BL755 cluster bombs under the wings. I know they carried single rocket pods under each wing and carried twin BL755s using the Twin Stores Carrier (TSC), but I’m interested in whether they ever attached a single BL755 directly to each wing pylon. I’ve got the Belcher Bits weapons set on order and would like to use the cluster bombs, but the look of the aircraft with TSCs hanging off it is just too busy for me.

Tom
CF-104 Loadout question
Fri Aug 25 14:38:02 2000
Went through all my CF-104 stuff and could not find a picture of, or reference to, an underwing pylon for carrying ONE BL755. There was a single pylon under the fuselage that was used for carrying one BL755. As a matter of fact I have never seen anything else other than the BL755’s on the TSC’s. I have the weapons sets also and I do agree that the kit would look very busy with 5 BL-755s on it. They were rather large in comparison to the A/C itself. Steve Sauve from Cold Lake will no doubt see this and straighten me out!

Steve Sauvé, Cold Lake, Canada
CF-104 Loadout question
Fri Aug 25 18:48:40 2000
Thanks for the vote of confidence, but this one’s got me puzzled too. However, I’ve just sent the URL for this thread to a well-informed CF-104 armourer buddy modeller and begged him to join in the fray. Guaranteed he WILL know the definitive answer!

Kurt Plummer
Neat Question…
Fri Aug 25 22:20:02 2000
Steve,
Does the whole pylon separate when you pull off say the underwing tanks (ala F-16 say…)?
I want to remember the pylons as not being terribly thick and it might just be that the TSC is needed to stick the two pyro-carts and rams into.
Rocket pods fire-forward only so only need electrics and a fixed set of lugs while, if need be, the complete pylon could be ditched upon emptying (hauling back an empty LAU-3/5003 is a bitch for drag but I doubt if there were just oodles of spare pylons lying about, I dunno if they had the capped SNEBs at that point or not…).
BL.755 is fairly small as cluster weapons go. I think in roughly the same 500lb class as say the Mk.20. It’s biggest problem would be a large frontal area drag and possible release limits compared to the 104’s potential LoLo profile.
IMO, it would be a rare laydown target set that required more than two for length so anything extra would be simply to increase the saturation densities of each bomblet.
Setting the weapon burst height and separation mark would require an interface to the intervalometer and this too could be easier implanted in the rack than the pylon…
I do have one picture of the ‘Super Starfighter’ (104G prototype), in Luftwaffe markings, and it IS carrying single Mk.13/18 1,000lb weapons Wall to Wall including fuselage pylons.
It is however on the ground and with an unusual, large, centreline tank as well, it might therefore be considered an ‘atypical loadout’ (snicker;-)…

Doug Keall
Single Stores on CF-104
Sat Aug 26 02:54:50 2000
One weapon on each wing pylon and another on the centreline would be:
BLU-27, and BLU-1B unfinned napalm bombs. The BLU-27’s were NM overall with a red stripe at either end. BLU-1B were OD green overall, with the same red stripes, also the CBU-2B/A dispenser, but this item was not carried on the CL.

Doug Keall
Belcher Stuff
Sat Aug 26 00:41:04 2000
I talked to Mike Belcher about the TSC that he includes in the weapons set, and it’s too short. He will probably correct this in future releases. It’s almost 2 feet too short; there is an aft fairing that he missed in references. I will be doing a review with weapons details in the next RT.

Doug Keall
CF-104 Loadout
Sat Aug 26 00:29:21 2000
Response to all CF-104 weapons questions- it is POSSIBLE to load single BL-755’s on wing pylons but that isn’t what we signed up to do… the war load was 5 BL755’s and that���s what we had to load up on every exercise. By the way, cock the tail to near vertical for the BL755 on the CL. See upcoming article in RT. Yes, the wing pylon were jettisonable but it was a last ditch emergency situation. Sorry…if you hang one nuke on centreline, you MUST install wing pylons and pylon fuel tanks and tips.

Jari
CF-104 Loads
Sat Aug 26 09:10:56 2000
In response to the questions about the weapon load on the CF-104, here are some of the ones I did during my time loading the CF-104 in Germany in the mid-80’s:
3 BL755s – on centreline and one each on the pylons.
5 BL755s – on centreline and 2 on each TSC on the pylons.
3 Mk-82 Snakeyes – same layout as top
5 Mk-82 Snakeyes – 1 c/l and 2 on TSCs
2 LAU-5003 Rocket Pods (19 Rx) – one on each pylon
4 LAU-5003 Rocket Pods – 2 on each TSC
4 Mk-20 Rockeye – 2 on each TSC (late 84)
For 20mm ammo: 100 or 350 round belts were used but 500 round belts were stowed at times, by hand which was fun on hot humid days.
On the centreline, the fins on the BL and Mk-82 were turned 15 degrees from vertical (+) counter clockwise (looking fwd) to clear the gear doors. Also if you plan to have a centreline store, do not install Part R9 on the Hasegawa kit, which is the external de-linker. The compartment where the spent casings and links went couldn’t hold any more than 350 rds worth but if the ext de-linker was used, the links would beat whatever was on the centreline rack so the ext de-linker wasn’t used. One last bit, there were 2 different types of pylon sway braces, one larger curved set for stores on the pylon and one smaller straight set when the TSCs were installed. Check pics for their shapes. When tanks were carried on the pylons, no sway braces were used.

source: Hyperscale
(thanks to Brett Green for permission)