Quote:
Originally Posted by Nippelspanner
What's wrong with the Starfighter?  |
Me and Schroeder have had this conversation before, to be honest it was actually a good kite, and the pilots did like it once they got the hang of its...interesting handling characteristics.
But, they say that the nickname of an aircraft tells a story, and the F-104 had a few, including the "Fliegender Sarg", "Witwenmacher" and (my favourite) "Erdnagel". Hartmann didn't think much of it, and Steinhoff grounded the lot until the safety record improved and the wings stopped falling off.
Still, can't really gloat, our Lightning wasn't much better for loss rates, in fact I think it was probably worse, and the Harrier on introduction killed quite a few RAF pilots trying to figure out the whole VTOL thing.
