The National Interest on MSN6d
The F-104 Starfighter Was Called The “Widowmaker” For One Reason
The F-104 Starfighter was designed, in a time of increasing aircraft complexity and size, to be a straightforward, ...
The National Interest on MSN7d
Chuck Yeager Loved The F-104 Starfighter. Everyone Else Hated It.
The F-104 Starfighter was not built for dogfights. In fact, Lockheed’s designers purposely sacrificed maneuverability for ...
The Aviationist1y
Italian F-104 versions explained
Following the requests I received from aircraft enthusiasts and modelers, I’ve decided to prepare a specific article to describe differences and peculiarities of the various F-104 versions that ...
The National Interest7d
The F-104 Starfighter Was Called The “Widowmaker” For One Reason
The F-104’s wings are thin and stubby, and situated further back on the fuselage than one might expect to find. The wings are also derived from the X-3 and that program’s experimentation with ...
The National Interest8d
Chuck Yeager Loved The F-104 Starfighter. Everyone Else Hated It.
He delivered a sleek, pencil-thin fuselage with paper-thin, miniature wings (7.5 feet long each). The F-104 could climb 50,000 feet in under five minutes. Its original nickname among American ...