AARON'S F-104 STARFIGHTER PAGE

The F-104 Starfighter, was perhaps the best interceptor of all time. Designed by Locheed in the early 1950's. The first proto-type flew in 1954, and the last plane was retired by the Italian air force in 1995. In between the 2 times 2439 F-104's were produced by eight countries, and flown by over 15 countries including USA, Canada, Japan, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Taiwan and Spain. The Starfighter set several world records. Those of which include an new record speed of over 1400 mph, and a new record altitude of 91 250 feet. The different rocket shape of the Starfighter gave it the nickname of "The Missile With a Man in it". Several other F-104's were produced under of the names of F-104C, and F-104D which carrier an aditional person in the plane.

This Canadian F-104, is shown flying over a patch of clouds. This particular plane-704 was used alot for testing, and did not log as many hours as the other Canadian Starfighters logged.

The F-104 Starfighter was powered primarily by a single 15 800 lb thrust General Electric J79-GE11A turbojet engine, equipped wit afterburner. This gave the Starfighter a maximum cruiseing speed of just under 1300 mph. The F-104 carried enough fuel in internal, underwing, and fin tanks to give it a combat radius of about 690 miles when flying at a normal cruising speed. The F-104 weighed 14 100 lbs when empty, and 28 700 when full.

This picture shows Japanese F-104's during a routine inspection

The Starfighter was a well equipped plane, with hardpoints capible of air to air interceotion, or air to ground light bombing. The Starfighter was armed with several different guns, depending on the nationality, but the most common one was the 6 barrel M61 Vulcan 20mm cannon. For misiles the F-104 could carry 2 wingtip AIM-9B Sidewinder short range missiles. These wingtip hardpoints could also carry fuel. The plane was also capible of carrying AIM-7 Sparrow medium range missiles, and or up to 4000lbs of ordnance on a total of 9 hardpoints, plane wide. The hardpoints were located on the wingtips, underwinf, and under the fuselage. The F-104 Starfighter was a deadly predator in the skies.

An American F-104 Flying over homeland farm fields during a training flight.

Another Japanese Starfighter preparing to land at one Japan's airbases.