Quote:
Originally Posted by Schroeder
There have been rumors of bribery here in Germany too but nothing could be proven beyond doubt.
Regarding the safety record here in Germany I have to say that a lot of the problems were domestic. Pilots were converted without enough training, there were not enough mechanics for the maintenance so corners were cut and there weren't enough hangars to store the planes in overnight so a lot were parked outside. Once general Steinhoff took over the Luftwaffe he completely reorganized everything regarding the F104 and accident rates dropped sharply but at that time it already had the reputation it still has today. 
BTW a former Luftwaffe member told me that the accident rate of the F104 as a fighter bomber was actually lower than that of the F84 which it replaced in that role. Strangely enough almost no one is still talking about the Thunderstreak while the Starfighter is infamous. |
I've heard about former Luftwaffe aces like Erich Hartman that deemed it unsafe because of poor handling characteristics for a combat aircraft and for navy service it lacked the safety margin of a twin engine design.
also a funny piece of Trivia while Germany lost about 30% of their starfighters in service and Canada almost half of the 235 they had in service the Spanish Airforce lost none
granted they didn't got many iirc about 21 and only used them in good weather conditions and only as a interceptor but still clocking over 17,000 hours of flying without an loss.