CF-104 / F-104 Ammo Cans

[ronl]

I am sure this topic has been covered before, however I just haven’t found  much of it yet. Does anyone have any detailed pictures or drawings showing the CF-104/F-104 ammunition can that they could post?  I would be interested in seeing how the rounds are loaded into the can, and also how the rounds are fed to the cannon. I would also be interested is seeing where the spent cases and links were collected under the gun. Any information that could be posted would be very much appreciated. Thank you. 

[Finn]

Bear with me as it's been almost 40yrs since i last loaded the gun of a CF-104, the cover of the bin opened from right to left (looking forward),  there was another lid that opened to the rear, the bin had 3 compartments and each compartment had 2 removable trays. Depending on the load, 100 round belts for normal day to day use, 350 round belts for alerts and gun missions although one time we did 500 round loads for deployments to Holland to do some gun missions. For 350 rd loads you would take out the trays in the aft compartment, middle and forward one (if needed) as well and start loading in the belt of 20mm in the bottom of the aft compartment of the bin, there were clips that held rounds in place. You would lay the belt "back and forth", then put a tray in, repeat the process, next tray, repeat and once at the top you would start loading the middle compartment the same way. Normally only the top tray of the fwd compartment was removed (if memory serves me correctly), load part of the belt in the fwd compartment, close the inner lid and feed the belt on top of that lid down to the gun (W2) in the pic below. The belt went down a chute to the gun, once the gun had rounds to it you would close the big lid. As for the spent casings and links, the compartment was accessed from a door just aft of the nose wheel. That's pretty much it.

 

Jari

 

 

 

[ronl]

Outstanding description Finn!  It sounds kind of complicated but I’m sure it probably wasn’t. Where did you connect the ammunition between the three individual compartments, or where did the connecting belt get placed when loading the bin?  I presume one compartment was fully emptied before the rounds from the next  compartment were used. Thanks. 

[F`s are my favs]

Another question if I may - did the F-104G US version carry the gun as well? About the moment before shipping to Europe, when they were with US insignia, with the shiny metal skin, and were used mainly for training. Thx

[Finn]

Looks like they did:

 

 

gun port open, Martin Baker seat and G tail.

 

Jari