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Nice video! Just couple of tiny notes: BLC blew air to trailing edge flaps, not leading edge flaps. And only when flaps were set over TO position, that is LD position (full flap).
That big hole you showed was an F-104 impact crater near Luke AFB in AZ. My dad was a flight instructor and executive officer for the F-104 Deutsche Luftwaffe training squadron. They operated both single and tandem seat models. I was in elementary school on base, the 104 had a distinctive sound, so I knew that was what was flying low over us. A half minute later we heard a loud explosion. Might have been what caused the crater in the video. While dad was at Luke, his squadron lost 6 Germans to the Widowmaker, my dad had to eject from a single seater that lost it's engine. He flew a lot of aircraft while in the USAF, but he had a special love hate relationship with the Starfighter. Oh and, that aircraft was never intended to be a "fighter", it was a high speed/altitude bomber interceptor. One more thing dad knew and liked Yeager, served in the same F-86 squadron in Korea
It is also interesting to note the F-104's child - the U2. The fuselage for the F-104 was modified into the U2 airframe with extended wings. Look closely and you will see the family resemblence.
Very nice and informative video regarding the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. Thanks for sharing. The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was actually developed from the Douglas X-3 Stelleto research plane. Both aircraft feature the same wing profile and design and both have downward ejection seats at least until later models of F-104's were equipped with more conventional ejection seats. Thats how the F-104 was developed in under a year.
Kelly Johnson used data from the X-3, but it wasn’t developed from it. The differences were many. As far as being developed in under a year….this was a time of very rapid advancement in aviation and a year of development wasn’t unusual. All 104s were retrofitted with the new ejection seats, not just later models, as soon as they became available.
I have an unofficial mission to take a picture in front of as many F104's as I can find, and got to cross this one off my list about two years ago. What a cool place.
The Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter" was a very fantastic airplane. With the GE J-79 afterburner turbojet, you could just barely see a glimpse of this beauty pass by. You can hear the "howl" of that turbojet, when the pilot makes a quick pass like a missile. Back in the day, the Air Force used these airplanes for getting pilots familiar with something more capable of flying at very high altitudes at high speed. A true classic airplane this was.
One of the most iconic aircraft ever built with incredible performance even by todays standards. It really did look like a missile with a man in it and compared to your next subject, the F105, almost tiny in comparison. Great video, looking forward to the next.
In a German museum in Oberpfaffenhofen, close to Munich, there's a cut through a wing where you can see how it looks inside, all the hinges and especially how the BLC works. Really interesting to study the real thing.
Bummer! I seem to have skipped the F-102 video and started this one… I’ve been intrigued by this aircraft since I was a kid when it was still operated by the FRG(West Germany), Turkey(Türkiye)and Italy(Italy😉). I always found it difficult to believe it could fly with such a small, thin wing. It had a very high landing speed, and a small payload, so I always wondered what the thinking was turning it into a ground attack aircraft. Besides budget of course… I’ll have to go back and watch the Delta Dagger one now. 👍
I've once seen an F-104 at German museum in Munich. You really can't tell how tiny this is in real life without seeing it in person. Literally only a turbine and cockpit.
EXCELLENT VIDEO MY FRIEND TRULY EXCELLENT! 😯 🤩 LOVE THIS SERIES SO GOOD! 😊 The F-101 Voo Doo, F-102 Delta Dagger which looks a lot like the Convair CV-102 Delta Dart are they the same? Also the F-104 Starfighter also cool but theF-102is my favorite of these jets in the series! I have a new video coming out soon from The Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC (Well the Dulles Location) and I’ll be sure to give you and this EXCELLENT Series a shout out for sure! 😊 😁 Cheers mate 🥂 -Caleb’s Aviation. 😮
Hi Paul, I really enjoy your videos, I would mention that the F 104s in the RDAF service only used the drag suit at landings, not wheel breaks, it was cheaper to have staff to pickup the suits do maintenance and pack them after use than keeping maintenance on tires as breaks, and in winter time it was safer to use the drag suits do to the F104s high landing speed, why RNAF also only use drag suit at landings with their F 104 fleet and continues do so with the F 16s and now with the new F 35 fleet. I did my national service in the RDAF and got assigned to be a "F 104 drag suit pickup'er from the runways, so I clearly remember the high hauling the J-79 today made, a very disgust sound ❤
I've been told that a privately owned, de-militarized 2 seater f-104 owned by the owners of a company called "jet executive", was once observed by local air traffic control achieving mach 3 over the gulf of Mexico... maybe 18-15 years ago. It wasn't repeated and it was very brief or momentary, not sustained more than a few seconds. I wasn't there and have tried to find corroborating accounts and can't find any. I had a friend who worked there and the owners were proud of their private F104 and it was the company brag story.
Oh, this was out of the St.Petersburg/Clearwater Airport in Florida (Tampa Bay area), and Jet Executive used to fly Tom Cruise and John Travolta quite a bit back then because they're both into Scientology and the Meca of Scientology is Clearwater, Florida.
I briefly followed up with someone who books rentals for flystarfighters, and apparently the ones currently used by NASA at Kenedy space center are privately owned by the guys who used to own jet executive. They are indeed the same starfighters. They're loaned on a contractual basis to NASA to do various supersonic research tasks, in addition to renting training flights out to the public if you have a flying license and deep pockets. Unfortunately my buddy is foggy on the top speed anecdote. No wonder its uncoroborated. It must have been a fish story that evolved from their stories about how easily they break the sound barrier in the F104, such that they have to be careful to be over international waters when doing so.
Awesome video as usual Paul, as a result of your extensive videos shot at the Air Force Museum I decided to make a detour on my way back from the east coast to go see it in person. It was an incredible 6 hours! Could've easily come back the following day to do another 6. Keep up the quality content!
The F 104 is not a fighter as it was not at all maneuverable. It was designed to be an high speed interceptor. It’s mission was to intercept soviet bombers before they could strike their targets. Same with the F 102s and F 106s.
"It was designed to be an high speed interceptor." False. It was designed as a fighter but was subsequently assigned the interceptor roll because of F-102/F-106 issues. 26 January 1958 "The F-104A entered service 2 years late and not with TAC (as originally planned), but with ADC's 83rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Hamilton AFB. This April 1956 (11) shift rested on two factors: slippage of the F-104 operational due-date (causing TAC to make other arrangements) and ADC's urgent need of a fighter to fill the gap between the F-102 and F-106. The tiny F-104, (12) with its long nosed fuselage and razor-thin trapezoid wings, had *never been intended as an interceptor.* But ADC believed it could use it, due to its impressive performance." - Encyclopedia of U.S. Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems
Yeahhhh, fighter. Kelly Johnson asked the American fighter pilots who fought in the Korean War what they wanted in a FIGHTER plane, and they said SPEED. So Kelly gave them the fighter they asked for. An interceptor role just was not a design prerequisite of Johnson's. I'm sure it performed interceptions quite nicely, but even when the Air Force drafted the requirements, the Air Force still hadn't detailed an interceptor role. Sorry bud.
I'm sure everyone reading the comments on this video would be well aware of Chuck Yeager's exploits in the NF-104... but just in case you haven't already, go pick up a copy of "The Right Stuff" (the book...) and have a read 👍👍
