For aircraft enthusiasts: 60 years of the most controversial jet-fighter, the F-104

[stxrus]

another great aviation thread. thanks

 

[Boomhauer]

That's Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic with the Europe map. It's getting a little long in the tooth and was always a "sim lite". These days I'm more into DCS World. I wish someone would make an F-104 for that one.

I recently (well, during the Steam Summer Sale) bought Microsoft FSX. It's got a decent number of downloadable planes, though I'm not sure about the F-104.

 

[Guitarzan]

A thread regarding the use of F-104's by the Italians.

https://theaviationist.com/2016/10/...gendary-f-104-starfighter-12-years-ago-today/

 

[ftbtx]

Great stuff, we had a F-102 on static display on my base. Great era of aviation.

 

[mauer62]

I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I was in my 20's and went as far as taking their tests and scoring high. Then the verdict was you can't have so much as one speeding ticket ever. I said well damn although my record was now clean I had 16 tickets then were off my record but the Air force didn't care. They said they can go back and check so I said thats all I wanted to do so see ya bubye and they said we can get you just about anything else you may want according to your tests. Then I said I want to be in Communications stationed in Australia and I want an exemption to getting my hair cut which was about 24" at the time lol. They said sorry thats not going to happen so I left.
Sometimes I wish I would of become a pilot instead of a musician but its a little too late now.

 

[Steerforth]

I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I was in my 20's and went as far as taking their tests and scoring high. Then the verdict was you can't have so much as one speeding ticket ever. I said well damn although my record was now clean I had 16 tickets then were off my record but the Air force didn't care.

You have to prove that you're a pillar of moral uprightness before they'll let you kill people. I had to have a waiver for some of my past behavior before they'd let me in.

 

[straightface]

I remember building the plastic model of the F-104 Starfighter when I was around 10 or 11. I thought it was the coolest jet fighter back then, maybe replacing the F-89D Scorpion, or F-101 Voodoo as what I would fly around in while saving the world.

In the kit's (Revell or Monogram - I can't recall) instruction sheet, there was a paragraph or two on the airplane that you were about to build. They listed it's speed at 1500 mph. That blew my young kid mind at that time - around 1960.

I probably had that exact same model. It was my favorite plane when I was a kid. All the boys in my neighborhood were model ship and plane geeks. We had a whole bunch between us but the starfighter was always my favorite, along with the F-86 Sabre.

 

[tfsails]

Excellent post, Blazer! I certainly do enjoy your posts. You seem to love airplanes as much as I do.

The F-104 had a wing whose leading edge was as sharp as a table knife. They had to put guards over them on the ground to keep people from getting hurt if they accidentally walked into a wing. Easy to do when working on fighters. For comparison, if you ever get a chance to get up close to touch an F-16, the outboard trailing edge of the Viper's wing is as sharp as the leading edge of the F-104. The Starfighter's USAF nickname was the zipper. I last saw one fly in 1976 at RAF Lakenheath, UK. A Dutch one, as I recall.

 

[Steerforth]

As I said, I don't have the F-104 for my best flight simulator yet. I'm hoping that they'll eventually release one. But I do have the F-86F Sabre, which was mentioned above.

And of course, a MiG-15bis to go with it.

That pair makes for some fun dogfights on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

 

[4 Cat Slim]

Thanks for much for another fascinating aviation post, Blazer.
I knew that the F 104's use by Germany was problematic, never knew why.

 

[otterhound]

The F-104 was designed as an interceptor , not a fighter .
Jacqueline Cochran achieved some very impressive and long lived speed records in the F-104 .

 

[maggieo]

You have to prove that you're a pillar of moral uprightness before they'll let you kill people. I had to have a waiver for some of my past behavior before they'd let me in.

A fighter pilot without speeding tickets?!?!? HOW CAN THAT BE?!?!?!?