Zero air flow over the wings at take off! Zero controllability. It’s amazing the thing was stable enough to get up to sufficient speed to get air flow and control. It must have been like trying to balance a yardstick on the tip of your finger...except you had zero ability to move to hold balance.
Of course the jet engine was also screaming at takeoff. Launch angle helped get it far enough away from terra firma until those tiny wings bit into some air.
Still way cool.
Yes, but the whole thing had inertia. Pretty quickly it would get aerodynamic roll stability (as much as tiny wings could get), and no induced force to create a yaw tendency. Pitch probably was the tricky thing, especially with that big fireworks thing hanging off the lower aft section of the aircraft (especially right after it was jettisoned).
Did you used to watch F104s flying out of either Fairchild or Moses Lake like I did?