F-104 Starfighter

Did a search on here and found this plane has not been posted in over two years. Since I posted these I reworked the raw files, got rid of the hot spots and the finished tiffs look pretty good.

From the recent air show at Kennedy. They were supposed to fly with what are 3 of the last remaining flight worthy aircraft but budget constraints limited it to 1 at the last moment.

Photographing planes are not my forte although I am a enthusiast. This one was a blast to witness in flight which is why I didn't take more frames. Some times you just have to sit back and enjoy the show itself.

Lovely images - saw one of the team's jets at Oceana in 2006.

cool set, i like 1 the best. I've always been intrigued by this Cold Warrior; tiny wings, long body, perma-wingtip tanks never really saw much combat (not for the USAF anyway) - and always a cool photo subject!

Very nice set. #2 is the money shot, imo.

Very sweet, hope they find some sponsorship for next year.

Andrushka wrote in post #6678007
cool set, i like 1 the best. I've always been intrigued by this Cold Warrior; tiny wings, long body, perma-wingtip tanks never really saw much combat (not for the USAF anyway) - and always a cool photo subject!

They were designed with really only one mission in mind:

Get as high as possible as fast as possible to counter the perceived Soviet long-range bomber threat.

It's been said the F-104 turned about as well as a .50 caliber bullet...

Nice trio of shot BD...

Nice shots of a remarkable airplane. Kelly Johnson sure could design airplanes.

adamsti wrote in post #6680129
Nice shots of a remarkable airplane. Kelly Johnson sure could design airplanes.

Word...

Nice set and good to see what I surmise is now a rarity.

On a sadder note is this the aircraft type that had such a bad reputation for crashing and killing its pilots? I am sure I recall some press reports many years ago about this possibly in the German airforce???

Box Brownie wrote in post #6681057
Nice set and good to see what I surmise is now a rarity.

On a sadder note is this the aircraft type that had such a bad reputation for crashing and killing its pilots? I am sure I recall some press reports many years ago about this possibly in the German airforce???

Early models suffered from some aerodynamic and thermodynamic growing pains while some later models had issues related to exhaust nozzle geometery as well as (IIRC) the occasional asymetrical flap deployment which, given the wing loading and its already "short flippers," couldn't possibly have been a good thing.

Not to mention the downward ejection system could not possibly be a good thing at low altitudes.

Awsome shots of a great airplane. My understanding is that this airframe fuselage is the basis for the start of the U-2 design

Yeah, i saw this last at the F-14 Decommissioning ceremony at NAS Oceana. I haven't seen it posted lately either. Cool stuff.

wicked shot of that in #2...airshows are awesome!

You don't see these everyday. Great shots.