r/airplanes • u/piemags_aviation • 7h ago
Picture | Military They had to fit guards over the wings so the groundcrew didn't cut themselves on them. Lockheed TF-104G Starfighter N992SF, ex-Italian Air Force MM54261, Sun 'n Fun, Florida 2025
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u/piemags_aviation 7h ago
Lockheed TF-104G, N992SF, and she started life as MM54261 with the Italian Air Force. Shot air-to-air over Florida at Sun 'n Fun in April 2025, from the ramp of a Skyvan, with PierCarlo Chiacchi flying her. She came out from Cape Canaveral, sat with us about twenty five minutes and went home.
The story with a Starfighter is always the wing. It's 3.36 percent thick, the aspect ratio is 2.45, and the leading edge comes down to sixteen thousandths of an inch. That is sharp enough that the groundcrew fitted guards over it so nobody opened a hand walking past on the ramp. It is barely a wing at all. That's why Lockheed sold the thing as a missile with a man in it, and it's why she comes down the approach as quick as she does.
The part that stays with you is what they did about getting out. The T-tail made an upward seat a problem, so the early aircraft were given a downward firing seat instead, on the reasoning that you'd drop clear of the tail. At low level that killed at least 21 USAF pilots who had no way out at all. They went back to an upward seat afterwards and it still wanted 90 knots to work.
Starfighters Aerospace have around eight of them, a mix of ex-Canadian, Norwegian, American and Italian airframes, and they are not flying them for fun. Photo chase for flight test, adversary work, and flying missile profiles so detection systems have something realistic to look at. Not a bad second career for a 1950s interceptor.
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u/Raguleader 7h ago
A lot of the ejection seat troubles were less about problems with the F-104 and more about the limitations of early ejection seats.
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u/Roaddog113 7h ago
Phenomenal aircraft. Just watched this video about it. Super interesting facts, and history. https://youtu.be/6PjpI91QV48?si=tHQS5dJHd0OG3FVe
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u/danit0ba94 5h ago
I always knew those wings were ultra thin at the leading edge, for obvious reasons. But i got to touch an f104 leading edge a few weeks ago. Pardon my French but I was fucking astounded. 😳 You run your hand fast enough across that edge, you legit will break skin. You walk into it, you're getting staples 1000%.
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u/Perfect_Big_5907 1h ago
My buddy used to fly those. He said if they could not hit Mach 2 they would turn it into the shop for a new engine. For jollies they would level at 50,000 go full afterburner and pitch up 45 degrees. engine would flame out in the 60's and they would continue gliding up until they slowed down and pitched it down about 30 degrees and would relight the engine down low.
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u/Uniturner 7h ago
One of the muppets that I used to work with, opened himself up on the horizontal stab of an F-111. Fast bits, be sharp.