#F-104

[planesawesome]

Trio of Canadair CF-104s.

[deutschland-im-krieg]

Post war: 275 victory ace and Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern (Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords) holder Günther Rall, the third highest scoring ace in history, in front of his West German Bundeswehr Lockheed F-104G Starfighter. For more, see my Facebook group - Eagles Of The Reich

[nocternalrandomness]

Official 58th TTW photo taken 1 Aug 1979 shows the diversity of aircraft based at Luke AFB, Arizona.

From left to right:: F-15A from the 555th TFTS, F-4C from the 310th TFTS. F-104G from the 69th TFTS, F-5E from the 425th TFTS

[monkeyssalad-blog]

1966 Lockheed F-104G Starfighter Painted as N813NA NASA Originaly Served with the Belguim Air Force FX84 9142 by Chris Murkin Via Flickr: 1966 Lockheed F-104 Starfighter Painted as N813NA NASA Originaly Served with the Belguim Air Force FX84 9142 Photo taken at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum McMinnville Oregon 10th July 2024 YYB_0836

[big-low-t]

Gate Guardian, F-104 Starfighter, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton, OH

[stone-cold-groove]

Starfighters.

[dronescapesvideos]

Lockheed F104G Starfighters of the West German Air Force, Germany's "Widowmaker"

➤F-104 VIDEO: https://youtu.be/xcsBFjJYyZo

[eng8b24]

Lockheed YF-104A Starfighter by Benjamin Donnelly Via Flickr: The fourth of the 1950s era “Century Series,” the F-104 Starfighter was designed around one single element: speed. Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, head of Lockheed’s famous “Skunk Works” factory, had interviewed US Air Force pilots during the Korean War, seeking their input on any new fighter. Since the pilots reported that they wanted high performance more than anything else, Johnson returned to the United States determined to deliver exactly that: a simple, point-defense interceptor marrying the lightest airframe to the most powerful engine then available, the superb General Electric J79. When Johnson offered the L-098 design to the USAF in 1952, the service was so impressed that they created an entire competition for the aircraft to be accepted, ostensibly as a F-100 Super Sabre replacement. The Lockheed design had the clear edge, though both North American’s and Northrop’s design went on to be built themselves—the North American F-107A Ultra Sabre and the Northrop T-38 Talon. The USAF purchased the L-098 as the F-104A Starfighter. The design changed very little from initial design to prototype to operational aircraft, which was done in the astonishing time of two years. When the first F-104As reached the USAF in 1958, pilots quickly found that it was indeed a hot fighter—too hot. The Starfighter’s design philosophy of speed above all else resulted in an aircraft with a long fuselage, T-tail for stability, and small wings, which were so thin that special guards had to be put on the leading edges to avoid injuring ground personnel. Because of its small wing, the F-104 required a lot of runway, and blown flaps (which vents airflow from the engine over the flaps to increase lift) were a necessity; unfortunately, the airflow system often failed, which meant that the F-104 pilot would be coming in at a dangerous rate of speed. Because it was feared that a pilot who ejected from a F-104 would never clear the tail, a downward-ejection seat was fitted, but after killing over 20 pilots, the seat was retrofitted with a more reliable, upward-firing type. The design also was not very maneuverable in the horizontal, though it was difficult to match in the vertical. Its shape earned it the moniker “Missile With a Man In It” and “Zipper.” One thing pilots did not complain about was its speed—the listed top speed of the F-104 was Mach 2.2, but this was because above that the fuselage would melt. The J79 was a near flawless engine that gave the Starfighter an excellent thrust-to-weight ratio; uniquely, the intake design of the Starfighter gave the engine a bansheelike wail. So superb was the F-104 at level speed and climbing that NASA leased several as trainers for the X-15 program, and in setting a number of speed and time-to-climb records. If the F-104 had gotten a mixed reception at best in the USAF, Lockheed felt that it had potential as an export aircraft. Beating out several excellent British and other American designs in a 1961 competition, every NATO nation except France and Great Britain bought F-104s and manufactured their own as the F-104G; Japan also license-built Starfighters as F-104Js, while still more were supplied to Pakistan and Taiwan. Just as in USAF service, accident rates were incredibly high, particularly in West German and Canadian service—Germany lost 30 percent of its initial batch, and the Canadians over half. Worries that the F-104 was too “hot” for pilots usually transitioning from the F-86 were ignored, and later it was learned why: German, Dutch, and Japanese politicians later admitted to being bribed by Lockheed into buying the Starfighter. Its high accident rate earned such nicknames as “Widowmaker,” “Flying Coffin,” and “Ground Nail.” Pakistani pilots simply called it Badmash (“Criminal”) and the Japanese Eiko (“Glory,” inferring that it was the easiest way to reach it). German pilots joked that the quickest way to obtain a F-104 was to buy a patch of land and wait. Nonetheless, once pilots learned how to tame the beast, the accident rates eased somewhat, and NATO pilots discovered that the Starfighter excelled as a low-level attack aircraft: fitted with bomb racks, the F-104 was remarkably stable at low altitude and high speed, and Luftwaffe pilots in particular found that they could sneak up on a target, launch a simulated attack, and be gone before ground defenses could react. The Italians in particular loved the F-104, building their own as the F-104S: these aircraft were equipped with multimode radar and armed with AIM-7 Sparrow and Aspide radar-guided missiles, making them a superb interceptor. Though most NATO nations reequipped their F-104 units with F-16s, F-18s, or Tornados beginning in 1980, the Italian F-104S fleet was continually upgraded and soldiered on until final retirement in 2004. 2578 F-104s were built, mostly F-104Gs; today over 150 survive in museums, with at least ten flyable examples, making it one of the best preserved of the Century Series. The second oldest F-104 left (only the YF-104A in the National Air and Space Museum is older), 55-2967 was delivered to the USAF as one of 17 YF-104 pre-production aircraft--and one of only two left, as the others were either expended as drones or crashed during testing. 55-2967 never served in a frontline or ANG unit: it went directly to Air Force Systems Command at Edwards AFB, California, in 1956. It only flew for a year before it was heavily damaged in a bad landing at Bergstrom AFB, Texas. 55-2967 would never fly again, but rather than scrap it, it was turned into a GF-104A ground instruction trainer. Ironically, the hard landing that grounded 55-2967 saved it from the fate of the other YF-104s, and in the late 1960s, as the F-104 was phased out of USAF service, it was put on display on the cadet grounds at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. However, the airframe suffered from being out in the open, and the AFA wanted to replace it with something of a little newer vintage. It was then donated to the Pueblo Weisbrod Museum, and trucked down to its new home. It was restored and moved inside in 2011. When I got the picture, I didn't realize this was either a YF-104 or that I'd almost certainly seen it as a kid when Dad and I visited the AFA on several occasions. Though few if any USAF F-104s flew in overall ADC Gray, this better preserves the aircraft; the font is also incorrect, but that's a nitpick on an excellent preservation job. A Tactical Air Command patch is carried on the tail. I always love being reacquainted with aircraft I would've seen when I was little!

[lonestarflight]

"F-15 #281 and F-104 #826 fly in formation during Space Shuttle tile testing. Note the tiles mounted on the right wing of the F-15 and the centerline test fixture of the F-104."

Date: November 13, 1980

NASA ID: EC80-14126

[su-35bm-flanker-e]

I think Ace Combat 7 broke me in such a bizarre way that I feel a growing, potentially unhealthy, obsession with the F-104 Starfighter.

Look at this thing. It's a pencil with wings. It's killed a lot of pilots in its service time. It's a missile with a man in it. And yet...

something about it is graceful.

The aero is shit. The wings are too stubby to be maneuverable in any reliable manner, even back when this thing was new. The T-tail is problematic in high AoA. You probably have a better survivability falling off a building than flying in this thing.

Why am I finding beauty in you??

The twin seat F-104B looks even better than the single seater.

I don't get it. I like it, but I don't get it.

But maybe you don't have to understand something in order to love it.

I thought the Su-35BM/Su-35S Flanker-E was my one true jet fighter love. And then this thing came along.

[elspethdixon]

The F-104, affectionately known by the Canadian Air Force as “the lawn dart.”

Pointy! This thing had the lift-over-drag ratio of a brick, btw, but it looks super awesome.

[planesawesome]

Canadair CF-104 Starfighters on the flightline in Germany.

[natureandphotography1]

📷 by natureandphotography1 (Flickr, Autumn Blog, Nerdy Blog)

Please do not remove credit :)

[nocternalrandomness]

NASA F-104 Starfighters flying out of the Armstrong Flight Research Center, California - 1970

[madkot]

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

[dronescapesvideos]

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