Deadliest Aircraft to Fly during the Cold War, F-104G Starfighter, AKA German Widow Maker

Описание: In 1959, the German Ministry of Defense selected the F-104G as the standard fighter plane for the German Air Force. Its deployment as a fighter bomber, interceptor and reconnaissance plane in poor weather conditions and in ground-level flying necessitated extensive modification of the equipment and airframe structure. Of the 916 Starfighters flown by the German air force from 1960 until 1987 around one third was lost in accidents. A series of crashes cast a shadow over the introduction of the plane.

To avoid the European bad weather, the Germans sent their pilots to learn to fly the F-104 at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona. With almost 300 days of sunshine a year, it was an excellent place to train. But when the pilots returned to the harsh German weather, problems immediately arose.

The problems were in two areas. First, the speeds that the F-104 had to fly for approach and landing very high - much higher than the earlier jets - and went very fast, especially for an inexperienced pilot flying in seriously bad weather. 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. By mid-1966, 61 German F-104s had crashed, with a loss of 35 pilots. The Commander of the Luftwaffe, Gen. Wernher Panitzki, was forced to resign when he said that the Starfighter purchase was politically motivated. His successor was the Luftwaffe World War II-ace Lt. Gen. Johannes Steinhoff, who immediately grounded the F-104Gs, at least partially -- and wisely -- to install a new ejection seat.

To add to the Starfighters' problems, it was learned that, in fact, Lockheed had bribed officials in Germany and other countries in the process of selling the F-104, though the German Starfighter purchase documents had been destroyed in 1962 by the Ministry of Defense.

Despite a variety of fixes, the crashes continued. Between 15 and 20 German 104s crashed every year between 1968 and 1972 and continued at a rate of about 10 F-104s per year until it was replaced. The final tally was the loss of 292 of the 916 Starfighters and the death of 115 pilots.

The intent of this video is to provide insight into significant historical events.