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From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: US Fighter Designations
Keywords: F-104
Message-ID: <1990Aug7.040812.6711@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 7 Aug 90 04:08:12 GMT
References: <1990Jul31.223607.6367@cbnews.att.com>
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From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
>F104: Starfighter, Lockheed.  Thank You again, Kelly Johnson.  Known
>        as the "missile with the man in it"  While never achieving
>        great acceptance with the USAF, foreign countries gobbled them
>        up by the s***loads. I could be wrong, but I think this was
>        produced until the 1980's after having been built since the
>        early 60's.  Held several speed and altitude records until
>        the Blackbirds came around and blew everybody away.....
>
>***     Also had a 25 foot wingspan! "Rocket with a man in it" indeed...

The biggest customer was West Germany.  In the 60's and 70's there were
multiple scandals about its accident rate.

One problem was its ejection system.  Most modern fighters have "zero-
altitude" ejection seats -- the ejection cannon shoots the pilot high
enough that he can eject more or less safely while the plane is on
the ground.  This is handy for malfuntions on takeoff and approach.

The F-104 ejection seat fired _down_, making this difficult.  I've
heard undocumented stories of desperate pilots in damaged, low-flying
F-104's flipping inverted to eject upward, but not surviving. Yuck.
-- 
  |  phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG 		 | Phil Gustafson
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