The West German air force used Starfighters, and they had a bad reputation for crashing.
Huge engine and tiny, stubby wings. I'm sure they were a handful to fly.
While a friend and I were hitchhiking through the Saarland in the early 70s we heard a ssssssssssssSSSSSSS then 2 German 104s passed over going just below the sound barrier and skimming the trees. It was mighty impressive.
Usually traced to poor maintenance by their conscripts. Other NATO allies operated the F-104 with a far better record.
The Flying Coffin. Germans made a VTOL version, it’s at one of their military museums.
-The West German air force used Starfighters, and they had a bad reputation for crashing.-
The German air force bought over 900 Starfighters and crashed a third of them hence the nickname Witwenmacher (”widowmaker”).
When I was stationed at Luke AFB in the early 80’s the German’s had two squadrons of F-104s there and they crashed those things all the time on the range. The pilots always punched-out and never went down with the plane. I guess they would get out as soon as any problem came up because of the nickname.
The F-104 was used by all our NATO allies and I watched a Turkish pilot, in Incerlik, land one that have an in-flight emergency with the throttle stuck at ¾ on. The 104 was always fast on approach but that guy was screaming, near super-sonic, and broke through the incoming barrier on landing, but he did get it down. It seems the Turks like their planes better than their pilots.
Interesting the U2 spy-plane and the F-104 have a lot in common as they were designed at the same time (early 50s) by Kelly Johnson at Lockheed Skunk Works. They use the same fuselage and J-73 engine but they look so different with such different missions.