"Missile ?" by ratfugel
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Description
Designed by Lockheed using their usual technique of "anything will fly if it goes fast enough" this good looking piece of kit was immediately flogged off to all sorts of little airforces all round the world. The largest buyer being Germany, who'd got a bit sick of looking at blunt-ended things like ME's, FW's Junkers and the like. Renowned for being able crash at very high speed, this meant there was an on-going requirement for new pilots due to the high wastage factor.
An interesting footnote is that a guy in the States has bought one of the wrecks, done it up, cut the wings off and fitted alloy wheels(no tyres). He thinks this will do about 800 mph across a waterless sandpit and also stop in one piece, thus recovering the damage done to the American psyche by our own Andy Green. However, he has so far been unable to find a driver for this projectile. Yet.
Comments (14)
nfrocer
I was wondering how you got up there to take this photo until I saw this was made in vue! Fantastic realism.
ragouc
Great realistic render. Very good work.
kjer_99
Yep, anything will fly if it goes fast enough. The problem is when the engine quits!!! Instant rock! Great render, my friend.
BigDen
Didn't Chuck Yeager take one of the first of these straight up until he could see the black, then it crashed......grin
Bill_Wa
A footnote. The original 104 had a downward firing ejection seat because at speed the pilot would hit the tail if he ejected. later models had an upward firing one when they redesigned the seat. So, one fine day two 104s were flying, an older and newer model. both flamed out and pilot one fired his ejection seat, SLAM, into the ground. Pilot two, in the newer model sees this and inverts his plane and ejects. He too sslammed into the ground. Moral. KNOW YOUR BIRD! Great render, it's aces.
lookoo
Great render! In Germany the Starfighter was soon relabelled "Sargfighter" (Sarg - Coffin) and "Witwenmacher" (widowmaker). The main reasons were that the Germans added their own avionics system, their own engine, reinforced the main fuselage, added a thousand different items - until nobody could handle all the compatibility problems any more. Especially when during the economic miracle in the 1960s mechanics could find countless better jobs than with the Luftwaffe. Allegedly the Luftwaffe was short of 10,000 mechanics then and it showed... Over time the problems were solved and pilots were mostly pretty enthusiastic about the bird.
clam73
great work here....well one!!
Osper
Nice Pic. There used to be a saying in Germany "If you want to own an F104 just buy a plot of land and sooner or later one will crash there for you." The USAF never had many squadrons of these. They took some to Vietnam but their use was limited as they couldn't carry many/any bombs. The Germans used these for all sorts of missions. The wings were so thin that there was a cover on the front of them to keep you from hurting your self.
liltawen
Great picture of the Starfighter. Long my favorite airplane. You had to be a good pilot to fly one of them.
tallpindo
As Tony LaVier said on seeing what he was going to test, "Where are the wings?" I have seen Darryl Greenamyers air show versions of these at Selfridge in 1998. It went to the edge of space before the X-15. The whole idea of intercepting a high flying bomber at transonic speed never really developed into real world situations. A shelf item now.
Mondschwinge
In northern Germany this bird was also called "Erdnagel" ( Earthnail). Great rendering on this, it looks real real :-)
proteus2
Nice render,of a garish(if I can use the term)aircraft. ..................................................... Its sound was hair rising, as most of us remember... As were the stories that accompany it. ---------------------------------- I think that the double seater's cockpit stretched a bit more to the back though... P
e-brink
Great render... very interesting write up. Sounds like a great weapon... all round... and dangerous to everyone.
philiplopezjr
There were a handful that were actually fitted with a rocket on the tail. Don t know why, other than to try for high altitude or maybe space reentry vehicle prototypes. This is a nice rendition of what a pilot friend of my who owns one said was nicknamed the "widow maker".