It seems my earlier diary about the Lockheed F-104 caught the attention of a former USAF F-104 driver. He felt that I (and the USAF) didn't give the plane its due.
My first thought was "You mean somebody actually reads these things?"
In the interest of setting the record straight I'm posting his response. It's great reading and I think you'll find it interesting. I've left his name out but I have no doubt that he is who he says he is. His list of credentials is to put it mildly, impressive.
I've added a few notes in italics just to explain the USAF jargon and technical terms.
Expletive deleted. I logged 730 hours in the Zipper 64-67 at Homestead AFB in the 319th FIS. (FIS = Fighter Interceptor Squadron) You do not have any idea how that airplane flew nor what its tactical advantages were. Go look up name deleted in Google Archives for some no-shit info, like a cross- country at 2.0 and 70,000 feet.
Hey, I'll take all the help I can get here.
And landing - admittedly the ailerons are weak at low speed but I have touched down at 140 with zero cross winds.
Dogfight - since the only fighters it could out-turn subsonic were the 101 and 105 we did not fight that way. We used loose deuce, 600-plus knots, and the vertical. What resulted was the oppo trying to dodge us as we executed sequenced attacks.
Note: "Loose Deuce" is considered to be a better formation for jet combat than the "Fighting Wing" formation of earlier days. The two fighters normally cruise in a "Combat Spread" of about a mile abeam each other.
If either the flight lead or wingman is enganged, the second fighter will support the engaged fighter. This is more effective than the earlier philosophy of the flight lead always being the one to engage with the wingman serving only to cover him.
BTW the radar-ranging gunsight and 20mm gatling combination was extremely accurate with a gun dispersion of three mils. That's a 6 foot pattern at 2000 feet. (as weapons officer I personally harmonized our birds to within 1/2 mil). We could sustain 600 in a 6G spiral climb; the 106 could not follow us. We also had the takeoff flap setting with a limit of 550/1.8M that we used for maneuvering. Our corner velocity was 425 KIAS.
Note: Corner velocity is the speed at which an aircraft's minimum turn radius and maximum turn rate intersect. Fly slower and you turn a tighter circle but don't track your nose at fast. Fly faster and it's the opposite.
The radar was simple but very reliable. ECM didn't have much effect; mainly it led us to the jammer. We had an IR sight that put an orange X on the bogey; fly the pipper to the X and shoot. The radar scope showed a bogey dead ahead as a shrinking circle. If it was off the nose, an arc whose length and scope position showed range and which way to turn. As for weather intercepts, the radar was good enough to join up on a blacked-out bogey at night.
Flying it - the bird was heavy on the controls below 300 (our pattern entry speed). Above 450 she came to life. Every one of our Zippers easily exceeded the red lines of 710, 2.0 and 100C compressor intake temp. In June 1967 we got late model J79s (same engine as the F4J, but modified as dash19s) which gave almost 4000 pounds more thrust. I personally went brake release to 45,000 feet in 90 seconds. M 0.9 to M 2.0 in 1'45", 27 nautical miles using 1000# fuel. At 70,000 the bird was cruising at 2.0 burning 6000#/hour (by timing fuel quantity drop).
In military on the deck top speed I saw was .97M.
Nnote: "Military" power is maximum thrust without the use of afterburner.
BTW I had previously flown the F86F, F86D, F102 and after the Zipper logged over 2000 hours in the F4 with 150 missions at DaNang. FWIW I also flew an F4E against a Nellis Aggressor pilot in an F5E and beat him by flying the F4 to its limits. (One of my tenets - get the most out of your tools.)
Also BTW - I used to frequent Google's rec.av.mil before it got infested with idiots.
Note: I left Huffington Post for the same reason.
Name Deleted, Lt/Col, USAF (Ret), 5000 hours fighter time in the following: 25 FIS, 326 FIS, 332 FIS, 319 FIS, 307 FIS, 68 FIS, 4 FIS, 390 FIS, 307 FIS.
Note: 5000 hours is a LOT of fighter time. This indicates someone who had a long career and managed to stay in the cockpit for all or most of it. Difficult to do in an Air Force that expects pilots to serve staff tours in order to get promoted.
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This does make me wonder if the Starfighter could have been an effective aircraft had the USAF given it a chance. This does play into the multi-role vs specialized debate we're currently having with the F-35. I'm now curious as to why the Air Force ultimately chose the Navy's F-4 to replace all the Century Series fighters.
Clearly the only way for me to make a subjective judgement is to fly one myself. Fortunately there are a few companies selling rides in two-seat versions. I think I need to set up "Put Major Kong in an F-104" on Kickstarter.
For a mere $30,500 you can put me in the cockpit of a Starfighter so that I can evaluate it in the interests of, um, science. Yeah, science, that's the ticket.