F-104

[Splitpin]

I love this scheme.

[Bugdani]

[Splitpin]

Thank you Sir ....good timing.
I made this a few days ago and thought of you.
Thank you for the other replies.

[Bugdani]

Yes, it is!
Yours pictures are always amazing !

Dani.

[simonh]

Awesome shot. The Missile with a Man in it... as the Americans used to say.
The 104 looks great in a natural metal finish but the F-104C looked cool in SEA cam.

[hasegawa]

Here in the Federal Republic the F-104 is quite controversial, although one has to know that the loss rate decreased with age, so the causes are more likely to be found in the level of training and the lax safety culture than in the aircraft. It will always be a controversial aircraft because it failed in Vietnam. No MiG was shot down with it. Why? Because the Vietnamese Air Force's tactics were to avoid encounters and rely on the fact that they did not have the range and flight time to engage in a dogfight. But it is a breathtaking aircraft in the eyes of the beholder.

[cowpatz]

Such an iconic aircraft. An impossibly small wing.
On one of my past LA trips, I ventured out to Apollo 11 field, in the Sepulveda bason, near Van Nuys airport. There is a wonderful Model flying field there.
Some of the models are very impressive.....and expensive. On this particular occasion one of the models, I watched fly, was a turbine powered F104. It was about 8ft long and painted in an impressive red livery. It wasn't very manoeuvrable (English spelling) and that small wing, along with the red livery, made it very difficult to determine its orientation in the overcast sky. If I took my eye off it for a moment, I'd have great difficulty in knowing whether it was turning towards or away from me. It had to basically be flown in a constant circle.
Still, it was an impressive model.