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The first futuristic-looking F-104 Starfighter flew in early 1956 and with its long circular fuselage, sharply pointed nose, and tiny, thin wings, it looked every inch the best fighter in the world.
- World War II-ace
Amputee to flies solo in a Spitfire. Sergeant Alan Robinson,...
- U-2
U-2 intelligence aircraft flying at 60. In 1955, Disneyland...
- SR-71
On Jul. 28, 1976, retired Maj. Gen. Eldon Joersz, the pilot,...
- Luke Air Force Base (Afb)
F-16 and F-35 fighter jets have started integrated training...
- F-15s and F-22s Team up and Achieve an Amazing 41-1 Kill Ratio During Recent Mock Combats in The Skies Over Tyndall AFB
F-15s and F-22s team up during mock combats over Tyndall...
- World War II-ace
The Germans lost 292 of 916 aircraft and 116 pilots from 1961 to 1989, its high accident rate earning it the nickname Witwenmacher ("widowmaker") from the German public. The final production version, the F-104S, was an all-weather interceptor built by Aeritalia for the Italian Air Force.
Jul 12, 2024 · The term is often used to describe a dangerous type of heart attack that claims the life of a spouse, rendering their partner a widow. But one particular plane also earned this dubious nickname.
- The F-104 Starfighter’s Design
- Testing The F-104 Starfighter
- American Usage
- German Safety Issues
- Use by NASA and in Other Space-Related Endeavors
The F-104 Starfighter went into development in 1951, after designer Kelly Johnson interviewed a number of Korean Warpilots. Taking their opinions to heart, Johnson felt it was important to develop a fighter plane that was lightweight, simple and very fast. This was a departure from the then-current trend of bulkier planes that could carry heavy pay...
As the J79 was not yet ready, early prototypes of the F-104 Starfighter were built with the Wright J65 engine, a version of the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire. The aircraft had its first flight in 1954. Problems were immediately detected and most were resolved. While the first two prototypes were destroyed in crashes, the tests went well enough that 1...
Not long after the testing phase, the F-104 Starfighter was pressed into service during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. Pilots weren’t thrilled with the results, as they preferred jets that could carry bigger payloads and had longer ranges. Still, the Starfighter was again used during the 1961 Berlin Crisis. While the F-104 did not engage with any...
West Germany was one of the countries bribed into buying F-104 Starfighters from Lockheed, purchasing 916 of the aircraft in the late 1960s. It went very badly for them. Over time, 292 of them crashed, resulting in the deaths of 115 pilots. The problem became so severe that German pilots began to refer to the F-104 as “The Widow Maker.” In 1975, Lo...
NASAused F-104 Starfighters from 1956 until 1994, performing high-speed and altitude flight research at Dryden Flight Research Center in California. They were also used for many safety chase missions and served as a launch platform for sounding rockets. Over the course of its use by NASA, the aircraft flew more than 18,000 flights. In 2011, Starfig...
Dec 12, 2023 · Now, the F-104 suddenly has the least amount of flight hours per fatality. With the initial data on “Destroyed Airframes versus Aircrew Deaths” were lower for the Starfighter, one can safely assume that they WILL have an incident in it much sooner than any other aircraft.
Mar 1, 2024 · Like many other countries that flew the Starfighter, Canada saw a very high accident rate—110 major accidents and 37 fatalities—which gained it the nickname “The Widow Maker.”
Sep 15, 2023 · The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, an iconic Cold War fighter, is infamous for having acquired the sinister nickname of “The Widowmaker”. The name evokes a dark era in military aviation history, when this aircraft was associated with a disproportionate number of fatal accidents.
