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

[Walter Salmaniw]

At 10:36 PM 6/25/2002 -0400, Albert Solway wrote:

>To All Interested,
>
>I was in the RCAF from 1955 to 1965 as an A/C Instrument Tech for the
>first 4 years and a Ground Radar Tech for the last 6 yrs. Never worked
>on a CF-104 but talked to many that did. They were at times referred to
>as widow makers by ground  crew. This site and many like it tell the
>CF-104 history in the RCAF.
>
>http://members.home.nl/noor.luijkx/history/f104_27.html
>
>An interesting statement mentions that " about 110 CF-104/CF-104Ds were
>lost in accidents, out of 239 delivered--loss rate of no less than 46
>percent. However it is only fair to point out that the Canadian CF-104s
>probably had the highest flying time of any country operating the
>Starfighter. At the time of retirement, average airframe times were of
>the order of 6000 hours as compared to 2000 hours for the Luftwaffe."


Al, and the gang, one has to look at the role the aircraft performed in the 
Canadian military.  Initially it was a low level penetration nuclear 
bomber, and when Canada gave up the nuclear weapon role, then it performed 
the same role in a conventional bombing role.  Imagine, flying at 50 meters 
at the speed of sound.  Single engine, with no lift.  Lose that engine (one 
of the commonest causes were bird strikes) and you became the proverbial 
flying brick.  Very little time but to zoom up and pull the handles.  Hence 
the overall attrition rate.  There's a fantastic history of the Canadian 
Starfighter by an ex fighter jock, Dave Bashow (ISBN 
0-919195-12-1).  Couldn't put the book down.  Here's what the jacket 
says:  "....Always controversial, the Starfighter gained notariety during 
its career and the author deals with these aspects objectively, helping to 
dispel the myth of the "widow-maker"."....................Walt 


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