Same here. When i was a kid they still used them in Germany. And we live "near" (for a starfighter) a training base. Every day there was thise noise. Today i got remembered cause some Italian (and other) forces do training on other planes (it doesn't happen so frequently anymore, its actually quite rare).
You've written right !...cause i was speaking about the sound and the designe of this plane ! Its "difficoult" to fly (i'll listen some F.104's pilot) and Its a war machine..but those are others argoument. Very IMPORTANT QUESTION BUT IN ANOTHER "SESSION", BYE.
Thank you. My husband flew the Starfighter as a CAF pilot... on 439 squadron, then 417, and as a fighter weapons exchange pilot at Luke. That sound is dear to both our hearts. He also wrote the book, Starfighter, a Loving Retrospective.
Very cool! I've been meaning to get that book. As a kid in Baden, Germany, I was treated to a daily airshow by that awesome airplane. It fueled a lifetime love of aviation and especially that jet!
Dear lady. The RCAF Starfighter planes your husband flew came to Turkey from Baden Baden for TAF in 1986. The planes contributed to our defense of the country's borders by being flown by Turkish pilots and the Aircraft Maintenance team (carefully, as if entrusted to a friend) for many years. I always carried this beautiful gesture of the Canadian state and people in my heart. I express my gratitude. As the RCAF team responsible for delivering the planes to us was leaving my country at the end of their mission, we experienced the emotions as if we were at the departure scene of two friends.
As a toddler, that sound would send me into the house crying with fear when they would scream low over the city. It was loud af also. Still gives me goosebumps.
Thank you! The sound bring me back to to when I served in the Norwegian Air Force 76-77. I was not a pilot, just a soldier, but it was wonderful to experience these planes up close. The sound of 104 is something you never forget :-D
I remember hearing these all the time as a kid in germany... still gives me chills.... so cool... back then they were doing low altitude high speed passes... you'd never hear em coming... if you got lucky you'd see them as a little spec and got to cover your ears in time... most of the time it was just loud as .... out of nowhere... so awesome...
Still remember the days as I was a teenager in Germany! I fall out of my bed at night because the Luftwaffe made low attitude flights in the night. Also at day. As some of these planes flew over our cities you got a cramp through your mark because you didn´t expect the noise
@Thorsten. What a coincidence. I was about to make a similar comment. When I was a teenager in the early '70s the Germans and the Dutch were still flying these. I built a plastic model of the F-104 in grade school, so seeing them up close and persnal was a real treat. :D
You're honestly lucky, with how often German F-104Gs crashed due to poor training with the airframe and the terrible handling characteristics at low speeds. It's a shame that Lockheed had to bribe the West German government into purchasing the F-104, otherwise you guys would have ended up with the Saunders Roe SR-177 mixed-power interceptor.
@@anxietydisorders5917 and the fact that company Lockheed was bribing governments with high sums to accept it before prototypes were worked out properly you do not care about?
A kid, I had lots of toy Jets. The star fighter was my favorite. I tried to mimic that howl as I carried it through the house, above my head as I maneuvered up, down and at attack angles. I lived across a field from an Airbase and watched them and different Models through the years, from Props to Jets. This video brings back So many memories. Thank you.
The Royal Norwegian Air Force had Starfighters stationed in north Norway as interceptors to Sovjet MIG trying to enter Norwegian air space. They were very effective and we lost few planes during their years in service. I was in the air force in the seventies and the sound of these engines makes my hair raise. Awesome planes!
They did call it the missile withe a man in it, yes, but Kelly Johnson (who designed it, amd the U2 and the SR71 and heaps of other very cool aircraft) was asked late in life what he thought of the latest gen of fighters, like the F16. He replied that a starfighter would flog them. Everyone turned and looked at him like he'd had a senior moment so he clarified. Put a new engine in, like an F404, and in a straight turning fight at 30,000 f, at 600knts an F104 would run rings around all of them.
Kelly should know what he's talking about, but I always thought the 104 was more an interceptor than a dog fighter, meant to get to point A fast and shoot down bombers.
@@antonioiavarone5928 interceptors aren't always meant to pop bombers. they're literally designed to "intercept" and delay the enemy for as long as possible and wait for the actual fighters to arrive at the scene since they're not meant to dogfight
The F-104 is not particularly maneuverable. It can change alpha very quickly which is good for a quick deflection shot, but it loses energy very rapidly in turns compared to many other fighters, and its horribly unstable at high alpha, with even a slight rudder kick being enough to make it spin. Its biggest strength has to be its rate of climb and excellent straight line speed and acceleration.
@@TheJacobshapiro ~ That's two, yeah. And it had a rate of roll, just plain aileron roll, that was (?) about 720 degrees / second or so... But like the F-16 was designed to hold height and speed at about 500 KIAS & 20k ft, in a turning fight, Kelly reckoned the F-104 had good thrust to weight and thrust to drag, and it could do a better job than most in the late '50s & early '60s in a turning fight at middling altitude and high subsonic speeds. Not everybody agreed with him, but he'd done some stuff on a slide-rule and he was pretty sure about it. It could turn pretty hard if it was at 500+ knots and it could roll the other way real fast.. Forgiving at the point of stall it was not, but Kelly sorta presumed his pilots knew how to use it...
Hanno fatto il boom del muro del suono sopra casa mia, vicino all aeroporto 40 anni fa. Che botta ragazzi! Fantastici❤❤❤. E che sound quando passavano normalmente ❤❤❤
The F-104 was way ahead of its time. It's hard to believe early production models of this plane came out in the mid 50's. The lead engineer who designed the F-104, Kelly Johnson, went on to help develop the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird and lessons learned with the F-104 certainly helped play a role in the design of two craft.
If I was allowed to be up late as a kid I would always 'hand-fly' my model F-104 along with 'High Flight' when the TV station was signing off. As a youngster the Starfighter allowed me to 'Touch the Face of God'. It will always be my favorite.
Spectacular. Heard this sound for 10 years while my husband (Flash) flew this fantastic jet in Canada, Germany and Phoenix. Absolutely wonderful to see and hear this video. Thanks for the upload!!!
Great video.thanks for posting this video..reminds me of the good old days..1970's and 80's moose jaw sk air show..still like the way these jets sound..
I worked in the Combat Alert Center of a F-104 fighter squadron at Homestead AFB, right after the Cuban missile crisis. I could scramble two of these on five minute alert with the push of a button! What a trip! For a while we averaged 6 active-air scrambles a day. A busy place, with B-52's too. Wonderful sounds!
Back in 1970 I could hear them F-104's from my classroom, the sound of its engines revving for takeoff is unmistakable. I guess that was the year the USAF issued these birds to the Puerto Rico Air National Guard, and they stood for a few years. Later, came the A-7 Corsair aircraft. But the sound of the Starfighters is a distinctive sound. It was a great time for the aeronautical industry.
Thanks for posting this clip! I was at the Edwards AFB airshow early in the 80's almost dark walking back to my car and there was that sound.......I never saw it but, It had to be an F-104 entering the pattern with that Banshee howl! Never will forget. The starfighters team don't come out west very often.
@@ladygodiva9461 Hallo meine Gute. Ja, ich war neugierig nach unserem Gespräch über Starfighter. Herzliche Grüße von mir zu dir und lass es dir gut gehen ♥️😘
Great video! This is one of the few videos I've found that has clips of the J79 engines in the "howl zone" throttle range, for an extended amount of (mostly during the formation flyovers). Most of the time, the howl is just briefly released during quick throttle ups/downs while taxiing. This brings back wonderful memories of our local Air National Guard's F-4C and F-4D aircraft flying over, making that eerie, yet wonderful howl. Just for reference, there is actually a small gap between where the J79's adjustable nozzle attaches to the turbine housing. At certain throttle levels, the exhaust going out the back starts to pull air through that gap, creating the harmonic that generates that awesome, signature J79 howl.
I wondered for a long time as well. I learned about it from a neat video a guy posted here on RU-vid demonstrating it. Do a RU-vid search for "j79 howl explained". It's a video by a guy named "Tyler H".
As a young boy living in West Germany in the mid to late 1960s, the Luftwaffe F-104s constantly flew over the little german village that I lived in. Always exciting when they flew by. My favorite jet fighter.
Never would have guessed these many were flying as late as 2009... Figured just another obsolete relic. In USAF tech school the leading edges on a static display actually had *guards* to prevent from getting cut or hurt by the sharp edges!
I remember that sound well as a kid I grew up 5km west of Lagerlechfeld Luftwaffe base in Germany. The Luftwaffe at the time in the 60's and early 70's flew F 104s. The fighters did their right turn on take off right over our town. For some reason many people didn't like the noise of the planes, but I just loved watching those planes, and sometimes they broke the sound barrier and we could hear a nice boom.
I remember 4 x 104s at Greenham common RIAT in the 70s around 1976 - 77and they howled , was incredible especially being a kid . Dont care what people think these aircraft plus f4 , lightning, Buccaneer , Harrier and all cold war Jets were incredible.
May I point out that listening to an F104 taxi in a RU-vid video in no way approximates the sound when you hear it live. I spent 44 years in aviation maint/engineering (Navy & airlines) up close and personal to engines and never heard a sound like the howl they make. AWESOME!!
Amazing! Love that old fighter - still as fast as most other fighters today One of the gorgeous jets that inspired me to become a pilot. A Starfighter flew low over my house when I was kid -not far from the city airport. It was moving supersonic and the boom scarfed living shit out of the whole f**ing neighborhood! Man was I impressed! Thanks for posting
This is the most awesome sounding fighter ever! I get an adrenaline rush every time I watch this video! I want to see some of these babies at an airshow sometime. I will go completely nuts!
I've actually touched these planes. Owned by a United (Continental) pilot and they were kept at KPIE. The leading edge of the wing is *sharp*. Literally.
I was there!! Loved the One oh Four. I grew up near Twenthe AB in Holland where we had the 104. I grew up with the wine of the Starfighter. Great memories. Now I am an air liaison officer in the Netherlands AF. Al that's left is the F-16.....
Oh yes i remember this typical Starfighter sound.... matchless. And it was very noisy when they were flying a low altitude. I was a kid in earlie seventies. Also remember the Sikorsky CH-34 with his unique radial engine sound.
USAF's answer to a AA fuel dragster. Saw them up close but never worked on them. There were remove before flight guards on the leading edges of the wings.
This aircraft was developed in just two years. Germany at that time bought a barely tested aircraft. They had not enough groundpersonal and not enough hangars. Many F-104 had to stand outside. The F-104 at that time had some problems and wasn't easy to fly. These are some reasons for all these crashes. Only a few years later, these problems were resolved and the F-104 has been improved. then the star fighter flew much better and the number of accidents decreased.
