Aeritalia F-104S Starfighter - Aeronautica Militare Italiana

[capitanTyTy]

it prooved itself to be bad fighter during indo-paki war of 1970th. Seriously... no offence, but this alumnium coffin didn' pass the exam of real air combat.

[cyberarmy007]

The F-104 was not constructed for dogfights. The Starfighter was envisaged as interceptor to shoot down bombers.

[usm7j]

Actually the 104 design was way ahead of available materials technology. It''s potential to go Mach 2.5+ was limited by good ol' heat build up.

[cyberarmy007]

The first Mach 2.5+ flight by a F-104 Starfighter was already in the spring of 1962. The US pilot Thomas "Sharkbait" Delashaw flew this mission at Hahn Air Base, Germany.

[1z1q]

Ahhh yes, this is the plane that started my life-long affliction with jet planes.. I absolutely love the century series and the 104 was too cool as a kid growing up and even to this day.. The F-106 has to be in a very close second in my book as a favorite plane.

[RancidElf32]

The F-104 is one of my most favorite military jet. It had alot of neat features like a downward firing ejection seat and leading edges so sharp that they'd cut you. The only real drawbacks were it's short wings. which gave it poor turning characteristics and it couldn't carry much. It was still a awesome plane. Nice video

[usm7j]

Later models of the 104 went to the conventional upward firing ejection seat. I was privileged to have grown up to the sounds of the J-79. Dad was a Zipper IP & he absolutely loved that plane. He began his AF career in the Lockheed F-80 and retired flying the F-104. Not a bad record.