Was the F-104 used in Vietnam?

The aircraft was chosen to undertake a variety of sorties but was used primarily for air superiority roles and air support missions. From April 1965 to November 1965, the 476th Tactical Fighter Squadron (“TFS”) deployed to Vietnam lost one F-104 to enemy ground fire while providing close air support.

Why did the F-104 crash so much?

Second, the Luftwaffe Starfighters’ mission was low-level attack, and the aircraft was sensitive to control-input and extremely unforgiving to pilot error, especially at high speed at low level. The result was a horrific number of accidents.

Did the F-104 have guns?

The F-104S had a removable gun. When not fitted, extra avionics allowing the aircraft to fire the AIM-7 Sparrow were fitted. In addition to the gun, the F-104 Starfighter had hardpoints for external stores.

Is the F-104 Starfighter still in service?

It was retired from active service in 2004, though several F-104s remain in civilian operation with Florida-based Starfighters Inc….Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

Was the F-104 a failure?

Often called “the rocket with a man in it,” the F-104 was the first operational aircraft to sustain Mach 2 speed in flight. It suffered from short range, obsolete avionics, high landing speed and, until late 1967, an unreliable engine. Nonetheless, the Starfighter served the U.S. and several of its allies well.

What missiles did the F-104 use?

Designed as a supersonic superiority fighter, the F-104 was produced in two major versions. Armed with a six-barrel M-61 20mm Vulcan cannon it served as a tactical fighter and, equipped additionally with heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles, as a day-night interceptor.

When did Chuck Yeager crash the NF-104?

The third NF-104A (USAF 56-0762) was delivered to the USAF on 1 November 1963, and was destroyed in a crash while being piloted by Chuck Yeager on 10 December 1963. As excerpted from Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff:

What kind of plane did Chuck Yeager fly?

A NF-104 Starfighter lights off its rockets to zoom to altitudes of as much as 120,000 feet. Lockheed modified three F-104As taken from the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for the Aerospace Trainer program. Two of the three NF-104s crashed. Yeager’s was the first among them and perhaps the most dramatic.

Who was in the cockpit of the NF-104A?

This was Colonel Yeager’s fourth attempt at the record. Colonel Charles E. Yeager, U.S. Air Force, in the cockpit of a Lockheed NF-104A Aerospace Trainer, at Edwards Air Force Base, California, 1963.

Where was the F-104 Starfighter used in Vietnam?

F-104s operating in Vietnam were upgraded in service with APR-25/26 radar warning receiver equipment, and one example is on display in the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The USAF was less than satisfied with the Starfighter and procured only 296 examples in single- and two-seat versions.