[mamelukesabre]

I’m no expert. But I know a smattering of aerodynamics. It seems to me that the wings on that plane are very short and cocked the wrong way...no dihedral. Sounds like a recipe for unstable flight.

Back in the days of primitive electronics, I would expect this to be trouble.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

I think you are confusing angle of incidence with dihedral. Dihedral is the angle of wing in relation to the vertical axis, not the longitudinal axis like you are referring to.

I also believe the F-104 design was modified with a reverse vertical stabilizer, using the forward slanted wings, they called it the X-27 Lancer. they also installed a larger and better engine. (General Electric J79) This was a much better design and stability problems inherent of the F-104 completely disappeared. They hoped this version would be ready for production by 1972. All in all it was a dream to fly from test pilot reviews.

[mowowie]

I’m wondering how much this plane would benefit with modern flight control computers.

Still obsolete but it would be an interesting and exciting experiment.

[valkyry1]

The wings had about 3 degree of anhederal iirc