[R-390] G-8 Summit Security...

[Walter Salmaniw]

At 10:04 PM 6/24/2002 -0400, Albert Solway wrote:



> >
> >
> > I think those were the F-104F models, heavily modified by the Germans. That
> > is why they lost the lawsuit against Lockheed because so many of them
> > crashed.
> >
> > We flew our helicopters pretty low in Germany, but those Starfighter's flew
> > UNDER us all the time. There were too many near-misses to remember them 
> all.
> >
>
>The "C" in the the CF-104 is the Canadian designator for the F-104. Don't know
>which model we had. The CF-104 was known in the RCAF as the Widow-Maker.


I beg to differ, Al.  I was a flight surgeon during the latter Starfighter 
days, and they were actually very highly respected, and NEVER called widow 
maker by our pilots.  They in fact were a very stable platform, comfortable 
to fly, with a large uncluttered cockpit.  It was the Germans who suffered 
a very high crash rate in the early years, due to pilot error.  In fact, 
after the first years, their loss rate was as low as the Canadian 
rate.  God help you, though, if you lost the engine!  Dan, they were built 
under licence by Canadair in Montreal.  Many a time, I recall being in 
Kiowa helicopters and watching the Starfighters zooming past, seemingly 
oblivious to our presence!..........Walt.